I’ve been watching the development of MOUSE: P.I. For Hire for some time now. It’s one of those games where its unique visuals and premise just jump out of the screen at you, begging to be played. I’ve landed into this trap before, falling for a game because of its unique looks, only to find out that’s all it’s got to offer, with shallow or no gameplay. This was playing on my mind when looking at MOUSE: P.I. Is this all glamour and no depth? Has all the attention fallen on the ‘look’ of the game, with everything else falling by the wayside? Thankfully for us, this isn’t the case, as the development team at Poland-based Fumi Games has done an incredible job, not only in the visuals but also in the gameplay and level design.
Playing as Jack Pepper, a war veteran turned private investigator, you’re gifted a case to find a missing magician by the local journalist. Surprisingly, this weaves into other cases that Jack picks up during the game to deliver strong individual plots that mesh together in a satisfying way.
I was also taken aback by the topics that hit the narrative throughout the cases. I waltzed into the game with the stereotypical thoughts of a noir detective-based game that it would just be based on a murder for Jack to get to the bottom of. And although some of those stereotypical thoughts were founded, the game also touches on political power, trafficking, and dirty cops out for themselves. With some other surprises thrown in for good measure, it carried me through the game with its many twists and turns and its satisfying end.
The main gameplay hooks come from its first-person shooter basis, with Doom seemingly being its biggest source of inspiration. You’ll find the usual tropes of the genre throughout the game, with ammo scattered all over the place along with armour and health packs (that come in the shape of a cheese drink). Locked doors that you will need keys to find to unlock and many secret areas to find, and there are also a few surprising power-ups along the way that really mixed up the action in fun, imaginative ways.
Jack’s arsenal starts out pretty tame with the usual starter weapon of a pistol, but it’s not long before you’ll gain a shotgun, a Tommy gun (named a ‘James Gun’) and a few other standard weapons before the game starts to lean into its cartoon heritage by going wild with the latter game weapons. Though I felt that some of these didn’t actually add much to my attack, and I always found myself magnetising back towards the more standard weapons in Jack’s arsenal.
Throughout the game you’ll stumble across blueprints of what can be used to upgrade your weapons to be able to hold more ammo, reload faster and add other new abilities. Some of these blueprints can be found scattered around the maps, but some are gained by picking the locks of safes with your tail, which are hidden throughout the game. Usually with a time limit, you have to zigzag your way to each lock while avoiding little spikes to gain your reward. There are also other standard safes to find that are much easier to pick that usually hold a cash reward.
Money is everywhere, found randomly in the corners of the maps, behind crates, under tables and dropped by defeated enemies. This cash can be used to purchase ammo, newspapers, comic strips and baseball cards – which you can also find all of these out in the wild – for a mini baseball game you can play at the local bar. It would have been nice to have some other incentives to spend my cash here, as I didn’t feel I needed all the baseball cards on offer and mostly having enough ammo, I spent my cash on the newspapers and the comic strips, meaning I had quite the stash of money by the time I got to the endgame and nothing to spend it on.
What MOUSE: P.I. did do on a regular basis was surprise me. Not only through what I’ve already mentioned, but also in many other areas too. Although mostly linear paths, level design and locations were pure delight, feeding into its 1930’s cartoon aesthetic perfectly. The abilities that Jack could gain were standard affairs (wall jump, grapple hook, for example), but the way in which they were carried out and implemented into the level design was extremely fun and presented some interesting and sometimes tricky platforming sections, even if some were a little rough around the edges.
With the game leaning more into its shooter mechanics, the actual detective work does kind of get pushed a little to the side. This is no bad thing; I think if it had a more detailed, involved system of looking at clues and deducting, it would ruin the pace of the game and ultimately rub up against the fun, cartoonish gameplay. There are some instances, though, of the detective side, with gathering clearly marked clues, talking with characters to gain information and pinning these clues on your notice board back at Jack’s office. So go in making sure your expectations are based on this being a first-person shooter first and foremost, and you won’t be disappointed.
But the star of the show is the visuals of the game. They are outstanding from every aspect. It shows in the trailers, but the breath of them in the full game left me just gaping at them many times. Based on the ‘rubber hose’ comic strips, Fumi Games has not only captured the look of these but also their essence. It really feels like you are in the comic, with the level of detail never disappointing. Guns bounce about, with reloading weapons being exceptionally wonderful, with Jack just shoving a handful of bullets into the shotgun, for example.
Defeated enemies by fire sit in a pile of ash with two eyes staring at you, and I once found a hat-wearing spider who was holding a knife and fork, ready to tuck into their caught dinner. Examples like these are everywhere, and it’s breathtaking, and the game’s black-and-white colour scheme only enhances this. Character animations also share this attention with their detailed cartoon designs and swagger that all fit into the detective noir aesthetic, though I always felt a little bad when I would blow the head off a cartoon mouse.
Music and sound design are also on point. With jazzy, piano-filled music that elevates everything on screen, it never felt out of place. You’ll not catch yourself tapping your foot along with it, but it hits the vibes perfectly. The sound design was incredible, with cartoon whistles in the right places, a spring sound effect on the double jumps and many more examples to make you feel you are in a cartoon. The top-level voice acting was the cherry on top and completed the perfect accompaniment to the visuals.
The mouse theme of the game really wraps everything up, which, yet again, the developers have gone to town with, though it’s not ‘cheesy’ in the way they have carried this through. Jack finds wedges of cheese, which is another method to top up your health, and the residents like to cap the day off with a good glass of cheese fondue. It’s these little things that flow through the entire game, that don’t feel out of place but just bizarrely feel natural in a believable world, which is quite the achievement when you consider everything else happening around it.
