MindsEye Dev Gives Deep Dive on Protagonist Jacob Diaz

MindsEye introduces players to the near-future fictional city of Redrock and the game’s lead character, Jacob Diaz. He served in the military and, as a reward for his excellence, was given an implant known as the MindsEye. However, it seems to bring on some form of memory loss which leads Diaz to Redrock City.

Game Rant recently spoke with MindsEye developer Build a Rocket Boy about its protagonist Jacob Diaz and how he fits into the world. Even on a surface level, he’s clearly a complex individual with plenty of emotional baggage to unpack. His military experience ensures he is proficient with most firearms, which is fortunate considering the amount of combat he will be engaging in throughout the game.

MindsEye’s Jacob Diaz is Piecing Together His Memories

As a narrative-driven action-adventure game, MindsEye certainly isn’t the first to toy with the idea of an amnesiac protagonist. Diaz’s memory loss and subsequent attempts to piece together these memories as the narrative progresses is an idea that has been used to good effect with plenty of protagonists. Build a Rocket Boy is clearly aiming for something a little different with Diaz though. As the team explained,

”When we first meet Jacob at the start of the MindsEye story, he’s a person who is haunted by his past and doesn’t fully recollect what has happened to him. Throughout the course of his journey, he pieces his fractured memories together as the player learns about these past events and their consequences. This initially makes him feel like he doesn’t have agency over his life, and as we progress through the narrative, he gains insight into not just what happened in his past, but also that his future mission is critical for humanity.”

Jacob Will Also Have an Implant Which Supplements His Abilities

Diaz’s neural implant being the source of these memory loss issues presents players with an interesting puzzle and possible consequences. At the same time, it’s not all bad news. The MindsEye will also allow him to use his very own drone companion, adding multiple layers to the gameplay dynamics, and that’s just one of its tricks. Build a Rocket Boy continued,

“Jacob’s implant allows him to control his paired drone companion, which can go places he cannot and therefore access places he wouldn’t be able to get to and fly into danger, protecting his physical body. It has a number of functions that will help Jacob as he fights off the enemy and also adds an extra layer of strategy to missions.”

Diaz will have plenty of tricks up his sleeve when facing off against both humans and rogue AI. Build a Rocket Boy clearly intends to give players as much freedom as possible in MindsEye‘s combat encounters because, according to the developer, everything has to be fun to shoot and interact with. That’s just the fundamentals of video games, but fundamentals in everything is important to understand. Ultimately, it seems that Diaz will have his hands full when MindsEye‘s campaign begins.