Mouse: P.I. For Hire PS5 Review. Merging monochrome Disney inspiration with a noir-inspired hard-boiled detective drama underpinned by the FPS genre, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is certainly looking to turn heads in a classic style befitting its range of influences. From L.A Noire to Cuphead, there are plenty of nods to notorious videogames injected into Mouse: P.I. For Hire’s DNA, but can this gumshoe rodent get to the bottom of this case, or is it going round and round in circles as though its running on an exercise wheel?
Mouse: P.I. For Hire Review (PS5)- Have A Mice Day
Jack Pepper is a decorated private detective mouse and a war veteran, who swaps out his military uniform for a waistcoat and Humphrey Bogart-like investigative chops. Pepper’s operations take place inside a moused-up version of New York City called Mouseberg, where cheese is an addictive vice like a bottle of hooch. As such, the consequence of cheese’s intoxicating qualities, a prohibition locking down creamy deliciousness has dragged Mouseberg into a dangerous dystopia, one our main man Pepper will need to navigate with both his brawn as well as his brain matter.
Pepper is on the hunt solving missing persons cases, which invariably leads him towards questioning a myriad of witnesses. Such witnesses include corrupt politicians, socially well-adjusted folk, and a litany of bigwigs and bozos, who’ll provide clues for Pepper to track and give him new environments to snoop around in. These locations include opera houses, laboratories, warehouses, seedy streets and film studios, so there are no shortage of places for Pepper to piece together his findings and dispense hard boiled justice.
Adding to the New York-like world of Mouseberg are the collectible newspapers, baseball cards, posters and secrets scattered through each level. These nuggets of intrigue do a splendid job of expanding the intrigue of the world and you’ll encouraged to collect everything, and you really should because of how gleefully unorthodox the world of Mouseberg is.
A Cheesed-Up Mouse Noir
A large part of Mouse: P.I. For Hire’s vision is taking inspiration from multiple sources to give it a thorough presence. For example, our main mouse Pepper takes us through his runaway thoughts throughout the adventure, speaking to himself with in a wry and dry way mirroring the gnarled sentiments of Max Payne. The insights of Pepper murmuring to himself gives us more characterisation detail, which is important in further immersing us into the mouse gun-wielder we control throughout.
When traveling around in Pepper’s vintage vehicle, you’ll be thrown to a Cuphead-aping overview map, where building pop out of the screen and you can easily find the next objective location to embark on. No, you cannot actively drive cars in Mouse P.I. For Hire, yet the map is so smooth to navigate that you won’t feel dismayed about it. Transitioning between one area to another basically feels quirky and loyal to its black and white cartoon motif, which is a hint at the game’s coherent design and vision.
Film and video game noir is an obvious inspiration as well. The cover art is very Humphrey Bogart-like, and although deep interrogations aren’t prevalent, there’s a good whiff of L.A Noire in there, even if comparisons to Rockstar’s noir crime drama are largely superficial. Pepper isn’t inspecting bodies at crime scenes and examining evidence, but he is capable finding ways forward through environmental puzzles such as turning electricity panels off, throwing dynamite to blow holes in walls to uncover new areas, and jumping between objects floating in toxic liquid.
On the subject of movement, the feeling of jumping into the air and crawling under obstructions is effortless and bouncy, adding to the floaty arcade essence permeating the experience as fervently as how the game decorates itself with inspiration. Yes, it feels very DOOM-like, but the way it molds into every aesthetic is very well done.
Small Mouse, Big Boomer Shooter
While Pepper is a detective, his priorities lie in mowing down the bad guys with an assortment of firearms, leaning the gameplay more towards a Boomer Shooter-style FPS than a detective puzzle and investigative experience. Don’t be mistaken, there are typical detective necessities such as interrogating witnesses for information and leads, as well as piecing together clues to solve cases back in Pepper’s office; however, Mouse: P.I. For Hire likes to resolve cases with bullets and fists more often than not.
Pepper is open to an assortment of cheeky but deadly firearms with unique names such as the James Gun (a Tommy Gun with a different name); the Devarniser which pours out liquid instead of emptying out bullets and melts foes into bone meal putty; the bony chainsaw Hellrazar; Kiss Kiss, a fancy and smoochy name for a shotgun, and the trusty Micer, which looks like a Chinese pistol design-wise. These weapons pack a mean mousey punch and they’re delightful to use thanks to the twists and empowerments they offer.
The enemies for which these wacky weapons are utilized against are fine. They do tend to bum-rush you either with melee weapons or they’ll pew off in the distance in an attempt to take you out. It can be a crowded scene dealing with rodent hostiles because they come out of open doors in closed spaces and you need to actively move around the area picking up ammo boxes, medicinal boxes with therapeutic hooch inside, and the vitality-restoring food of choice for mousekind-cheese. Their reactions to gun shots is slow and lacking oomph, but the way they comically drop to the ground makes up for the mildly unsatisfying feedback.
Wiping out a parade of resilient rodents is cool generally, but unfortunately the action can devolve into a mindless shooting gallery, and the repetition of this can undermine much of the brilliance surrounding the presentation. The weapon variety can only do so much, but when you are spending much of the time eradicating besuited mice, it plays its greatest hand too soon and doesn’t evolve beyond this, especially in later-levels when you’ll realize the well is running dry.
There are a handful of boss encounters that can come out of nowhere and they do put your skills to the test, though they perpetuate the same tactics-shoot the hell out of them until their health bars drain completely. Examples include the crazy and screaming Robo Betty, an explosive-throwing cultist, the tenacious Judge Fatale and the tricky Reginald Shingler. The tactics for taking these bosses out might be the same, but they are varied in terms of the situations and scenarios presented to you.
Cheesy Sound Design
The noir visuals and aura are fantastic and undeniable in Mouse P.I. For Hire, but the soundtrack and the voice acting are very impressive and accelerate the allure of a mouse-turned version of The Big Apple. The jazz and the musical panache in general grooves in a way which is very authentic and coherent with the game’s themes. Sometimes the dramatic music can enter the fray at inappropriate times, such as near the start when Pepper is moving through the environment with no enemies around, but nonetheless the moods are set effectively every time music chimes in.
As for the voice acting, it treads a careful line between cartoon and realism. Accents adhere to a blatant New York cadence and are laced to the exaggerating characters in unique ways. When you encounter Igor for instance, he likes his name to be pronounced in a very specific way, and this belies the irritant he is regarding his personality. The unique tapestry of Mouse: P.I. For Hire is greatly enhanced through the voice acting, highlighting the ebullience of this black and white animated world.
If you are willing to don your detective hat, and are ready to submerge yourself in a mouse-filled dystopia for the sake of hosing down the bad guys while trying to restore order, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is a very satisfying case to crack. The presentation is remarkable, both for its aura and the way it weaves together inspirations from film and videogame noir. As a boomer shooter, it offers a dose of fast-paced action with unorthodox weaponry and bosses. The moment-to-moment FPS gameplay is flawed courtesy of its boxy repetition and lack of kablam in places, but even though it isn’t fully accomplished, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is nonetheless an outstanding curiosity that doffs its sleek fedora to Disney and the noir genre.
Mouse: P.I. For Hire is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.
The review copy was generously provided by the publisher.