MindsEye isn’t actor Alex Hernandez’ first poorly-received release, but it is, by far, the most notable. Hernandez, who previously played Mafia 3’s Lincoln Clay, was hurt when that open-world action game launched with a host of technical issues back in 2016, but nothing really prepares you for sheer state of MindsEye’s launch.
As the face of the game—literally, Hernandez’ face is plastered all over the place for MindsEye’s promotion—the actor’s reputation is somewhat tied to the reception of the game. Don’t get me wrong: MindsEye is bad and it’s broken, although the still-ongoing patches for the game are nice to see, but Hernandez’ (or anyone’s, really) performance isn’t the issue.
Speaking on the latest episode of the FRVR Podcast, available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more, Hernandez explained that seeing the reception to MindsEye was “hard”. “I’m not gonna lie about that. It’s a difficult thing to spend two-and-a-half years on a project that you’re really proud of and you’re proud of your contribution to it. And I only had positive experiences working on it. The people I was working with, I was proud for them, of them, I wanted it to be a success for them just as much for myself.”
Hernandex explains that, as an actor, he tries not to read reviews, but both Mafia 3 and MindsEye were different. Not only was the actor the lead, he was the face on the box, he wasn’t voicing a pre-existing character with a pre-existing look, he largely was the look.
“No one would ever say that to your face. And, I think, at the same time, you’re entitled to that.”
Alex Hernandez on the backlash received due during MindsEye’s launch
MindsEye’s launch was quickly labelled a disgrace by gamers across the world and, judging from the game’s sales, largely by those who didn’t play the game. As the face of the game, Hernandez received a sizeable amount of hate for playing the role of the game’s protagonist in an unescapable wave of criticism.
Hernandez explained gamers who paid a good amount of money for a product as broken as MindsEye are entitled to their opinion and, while the amount of vitriol is often too much, it’s hard to not see where they’re coming from.
“Gamers are a unique species, and I am one of them, where the attachment to the experience and the product is so strong, the feelings are so strong, and the internet is an anonymous place where people will share things they would never share to your face, ever, even if they actually hated it… they just wouldn’t look you in the face and say, ‘everyone who worked on this game deserved to die. This is f**king awful, these guys are idiots.’ No one would ever say that to your face. And, I think, at the same time, you’re entitled to that.”
The actor himself was devastated by the launch. Just days before release, Hernandez was over-the-moon, watching the “fly as f**k” launch trailer and hyping themselves up for what seemed like a great game. Then the reception hit, the issues went viral, and the game became the laughing stock of the internet for its five-minutes of fame.
For Hernandez, it was really hard. “Just the response… I was like, ‘I might never work in a game again.’ Because one of the caveats of being the face on the box is that people, rightly or wrongly, will associate all of their opinions and, more importantly their emotions, about this game with my face,” he said. “After about two days of allowing myself to wallow, and my wife being very supportive… you move on. Because for me to sit in that wallowing, it doesn’t allow me to learn.”
It didn’t help that MindsEye was, technically, his second big hit to launch with a negative reception. While beloved now, Mafia 3 did not launch in a great state, and while Hernandez’ performance of Lincoln Clay was praised, the game was heavily criticised for technical issues and severe open world padding to the point where many decried the game a failure.
“I’m not a superstitious man, but I can’t help but have some kind of Spidey Sense, like, ‘Is it just me?’ Do I have like the opposite of the golden touch, like the sh*t-brown touch, everything I touch turns to poop?” he joked.
“It’s the flip side of the blessing that it is to be the guy on the box, and I say this with no ego attached, I have two boxes in my house that have my f**king face on it. I got to work in video games. I was a 13-year-old kid playing games being like ‘I wanna do that one day’, and then I f**king did it twice… I am blessed to work in a job that I love with people that are incredibly talented, and even when things go off the rails, there’s some incredible work.”
Hernandez explained that every “bad” project has good elements, and he’s not wrong. “Felipe [Busquets], our cinematographer, f**king brilliant”, he said. While the project didn’t come together in the way that everyone hoped, there are good—if not great—elements hidden beneath the parts that don’t. While players, rightfully, focus on the negatives, there’s usually always something good hidden underneath the dirt.