MOUSE: P.I. For Hire Review (PS5)

Not enough cheese

We all have genres or subgenres that we just simply don’t like no matter how many games we try or how hard you try to like it. For me, boomer shooters are one of the subgenres that I found that I don’t like. Due to this, I actually almost didn’t pick up Mouse: P.I. For Hire due to this being a boomer shooter despite being interested in the game due to the story premise, voice acting, and visuals. Still, despite all the other aspects of this game that interested me, I wasn’t planning on playing this game. I am trying to be better in not picking up games mainly based on the visuals speaking to me after all. That is, until I heard more about Mouse P.I. and it sounded pretty fun. So, against my better judgement, I took a chance. So, did my gamble allow me to win the jackpot, or did I get bankrupt. Let’s find out as we dive into my review.

Also I didn’t realize there was a colon in the game’s title until I was inserting links for the game’s store pages haha.

Mouse: P.I. For Hire starts with a flash forward to get you all hyped up and wondering what possibly could have happened before this event, what happened after it cut to the title and credits, and who the heck you were chasing, but I won’t go into that like I usually would. Instead, we’ll go to when the story starts proper, a few weeks before the event that you see in the prologue (and will later see again at the very end of the game). We’re in the year 1934 in a city called Mouseburg. Now, that cute name isn’t just a cute name as the universe Mouse P.I. takes place in is actually inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. Mouseburg is mainly inhabited by mice, no surprise there, as well as shrews (which fun fact aren’t actually rodents). Rats are briefly mentioned, but I don’t believe you encounter any; granted, though I thought the shrew characters were just short haha. And, as you can also guess, this world also revolves around cheese. These guys just love their cheese and all the different kinds.

Anyway, we join Jack Pepper who is a hardboiled private investigator who either doesn’t get that many jobs or usually gets small jobs (and thus doesn’t get paid much) with the occasional big one. And oh boy, is the job he’s about to get going to be even bigger than all the others he previously did combined. We start right at the beginning after Jack gets a call from Wanda Fuller, an old reporter friend of Jack’s that writes for the Mouseburg Herald. Wanda is actually one of Jack’s connections as she can use her connections as a reporter to help point him in the right direction or even bring possible cases to him. Of course, Wanda isn’t doing this for free as in return Jack tells her what happened so she can write a report on it. Except, this case is different. It’s personal. Wanda called Jack to investigate a suspicious disappearance of a magician known as the Magnificent Bandel. This isn’t just any regular disappearance as it not only happened mid-trick in front of a whole audience, but he is also one of Jack’s old war buddies.

Getting in to investigate the scene turns out to be pretty easy, as well as finding his assistant to ask some questions, despite running into some mice that try to kill you. It’s just what you find out and start following the leads is the kicker. What seems to be a simple missing person case turns out to be much more complicated as you find out just who Jack’s old buddy was rubbing shoulders with, what he was doing, and why he disappeared. Not to mention that two other cases come to Jack’s desk as another one of Jack’s old war buddies, who is now a politician running for mayor, asks Jack to investigate why thousands of shrews are going missing and a famous actress asks Jack to investigate a suspicious death of her friend, who is also an actress, that she believes is a murder. Jack takes all three cases as, after all, when they come onto his plate he was at a dead end and if there’s anything Jack has learned over the years, it’s that a lead can come from anywhere and anyone.

As you progress through the game, you’ll be following leads and gathering clues on the three different cases and taking some names on those that dare to stand in your way. However, these seemingly unconnected cases may be more connected than you think as the string cheese tangles more and more into a mess the more you investigate. Who’s behind everything? How is it all connected? Where is Steve Bandel? Where did all the shrews go? Was Betty Lynch whacked and if so, who ordered it?

I enjoyed Mouse: P.I. For Hire’s story. It was a pretty interesting mystery and it was a pretty good choice to have three different cases going on at the same time. I wanted to find out what happened and it was interesting to find out the answer as well as how everything ended up connecting. The leads that Jack finds or are given to him by others felt pretty natural as well and I liked how everything progressed. I was pleasantly surprised with how well and nuanced the social commentary was here as well. The execution could have easily failed by it being hamfisted or condescending, especially since it doesn’t shy away from the parallels the game as drawing, but the themes are handled with care. And it’s all thanks to how the characters are written and how the game’s lore was approached. It manages to both be obvious and subtle at the same time. I also really liked the characters here. Jack was a great protagonist to be in the head of, is a good classic hardboiled nor detective, and it was interesting learning more about him. I loved Wanda Fuller and Tammy Tumbler (the latter which I really liked the dynamic she and Jack have due to their history), I surprisingly liked Cornelius more than I expected, and I really liked John and the food shenanigans he ropes Jack in. I also did like the various other small characters that you’ll talk to during the investigation. All the characters managed to stand out in their own way. Oh, and I did like learning about the game’s world and lore. Now, you are also jumping in not knowing the history that Jack has or how this game’s world differs, but I do think the game handles it well. It quite naturally does mention how Jack knows the side characters in the main cast, Jack’s backstory does get mentioned, and you can correctly imply a lot based on the information you’re given. Plus there are collectibles, notes, and optional conversations you can have that fleshes things out more. The game does straddle the line, but I didn’t feel like it belittles you for not knowing Jack’s backstory or history with these characters.

The only thing is that I’m a bit neutral on the game’s prologue and I was a bit meh on the ending. I’m not even really sure why the ending was a bit meh for me. The prologue, though, I’m a bit mixed on. It is a good way to start the game as the investigation proper is slow in the beginning, chill compared to how it’s going to be later on, is a really good show on just how far you’ve come, and it is such a surprise on what happened after we went back to the beginning of the story (I definitely reacted the way the developers wanted haha); but at the same time you know who’s in the middle of the tangled string cheese ball (and waiting until he finally comes into play) and a chunk of the last level is replaying the same section.

I also liked the writing style here and it does emulate how old noir shows were written pretty well. There is subtlety here that you can easily miss, especially since media isn’t written like this anymore, but you can follow along pretty easily and Jack does help. There are two leaps that I feel Jack makes that I don’t really see the connection point of and there is a line during a segway that is a bit weird, but that’s it. The mystery itself does get a bit messy as more clues and moving pieces get added, but it all does make sense. Anyway, I also really liked how the various characters talked and presented themselves. Everyone even has slightly different voices (in terms of the text, not voice acting) and you can actually tell if a character is from a totally different area than Jack. I couldn’t even pick my favorite character as everyone is written so well. This game also does have a lot of cheese puns and wordplay, with a touch of rodent wordplay, which I actually liked. There is also some fourth wall humor that pokes fun at things in games or referencing other things, but I didn’t mind them here as it does go by pretty quickly (well, except one). By the time you register it, Jack is already done. Anyway, point is, the humor was a hit for me and I really liked the one liners that Jack does throughout the whole game (and some of the jokes here really verge on being dad jokes which were pretty funny).

Now, onto the gameplay! I thought I’d jump right into the levels where the boomer shooter gameplay comes in. Each lead you get in the cases will point you to the various locations within Mouseburg and each location is of course a level. Each level varies in its design, not only in how it looks but also its level design, but no matter if it’s a more linear level or more open you’ll know what you’ll be facing. First up, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to explore the level. This is where you can take in all the little details, look in all the nooks and crannies or go off the main path to see if you find anything, grab any money laying around, there are moments where you have to look for a key item, and then anything that’s unique to that level (like there’s one level that has an optional puzzle that you can do or another that has you collecting three idols). You’ll also unlock traversal abilities as you progress through the game to help explore around or help you in combat, like a double jump and a hook. Just keep an eye on your stamina as it can catch up to you when you forget about it.

I go into the collectibles later on, but you’ll also come across locked doors and safes. There are doors that require a key, but for the locks that don’t you can actually do a lockpicking minigame, or tailpicking as it’s known here. Using your tail to pick a lock, it’s actually pretty simple to tailpick locks as all you have to do is guide Jack’s tail through the tight space, set all the tumblers, and reach the exit. Though, you do need to think a bit ahead as the path you take is taken up by your tail and you do need to make sure you’re giving yourself enough space to still make it to the next tumbler or exit. Not to mention there are spikes which will automatically fail you if you hit it. Each lock you’ll come across is different and even varies in difficulty. The number of tumblers change, the play area, if there’s spikes or not, if there’s a timer, and if there’s a limited number of moves you can do are elements that change and determine how hard the lock is. There are some safes that you only have one try at, which I believe are the ones with limited moves, so it’s best to save just in case you overlook a tumbler or unknowingly go into a spike. Saves will either have money or schematics.

Talking about saves, the game does auto save often, but there are typewriters placed around so you can manually save. These are placed in great spots, both physically and progression wise.

You do have to be careful though, as progressing to the next area of the level will close off the way that you came from (and I’m not just talking about just during combat). Some levels do utilize shortcuts or have you circle back, but most of the time you won’t be able to go back if you accidentally go on the main path rather than off of it. There is a button that will spawn in a brush that will show you the way you need to go to progress through the level, though, which can be helpful in this regard. Plus, it is helpful in the few levels where you can get a bit lost or confused.

Of course, there will be a lot of combat encounters here. You actually have a lot of options here to combat the various different enemy types. First up, your weapons. Your arsenal starts out pretty simple, just your fists and a Micer (aka pistol), but as you progress through the game you’ll unlock more guns. You have your classic guns like Boomstick (shotgun) and a James Gun (tommy gun); as well as unique guns or weapons like D-namite (dynamite) or one that spits corrosive acid (Devarnisher). You have a weapon wheel you can go into anytime, and it does pause combat, but you can switch between your two recent weapons quickly. You can also use things in the environment like the barrels that will either be regular explosions or cause a status effect like freezing your enemy so you can just shoot them into ice shards. It is pretty satisfying successfully hitting enemies with the barrels (which you can either shoot at, throw, or kick) but you have to be careful as it has friendly fire. There are also objects, like planks or the classic anvils, hanging up that you can shoot down on enemies. Lastly, there are power ups. Granted, most only come in when the game calls for it (like the Popeye spinach power up), but there is a flaming pepper that will give your bullets the fire effect for a limited time.

Of course, you can pick up ammo for your various weapons, health items to heal yourself, and even armor. For health items, there are three different kinds. Two of them are basically the same and are used right as you click to use it, but the bottles laying around heal less than the ones in the first aid cabinets. Then there are cheese wedges, called Cheese-D, which are the health items you can choose when to use. You can pick up the health bottles during combat, but during the more hectic battles or when there’s none around, Cheese-D can come in handy in a pinch.

In between levels, you’ll be going to the hub area, which the map marks as Jack’s office but really is the block that his office is located at. Here, you’ll be able to talk to the side characters that are part of the main cast, buy ammo and other items from the shop (which the shop owner surprisingly isn’t a character here), buy upgrades for your guns, play a minigame, pin the clues on your board, and get your next Main Job (aka main quest). Upgrading weapons is definitely worth it as it not only does the usual upgrades (reduced coil, increased damage, increased clip size and max ammo, etc), but will also add in an alternate attack. Giving you even more options during combat. Characters do have a symbol above them to tell you when they have something new to say, with one exception right at the beginning with an easily missed first conversation with Tammy. I do recommend going around to see if someone has something new to say before and after pinning clues; as well as going back after each level once you get to the point where you have multiple Main Jobs to pick which one you want to do first. This will help you not miss Side Jobs and optional conversations (which I do recommend initiating, especially the latter as there are at least two instances where a required conversation references an optional conversation).

Once you’re ready to head out, you’ll be on the road and you get to travel to where the level is on the map. At first it doesn’t make too much sense why you travel on the map to the levels, but it does help show how big the area is, where every location is in relation to other locations (which is important to the story), does help link Main Jobs together based on the case, and it lets you choose which level you want to do first.

There are a lot of collectibles and optional things you can collect and do here. Starting out with the optional stuff, there are actually optional notes, that surprisingly didn’t count as evidence, that you can pick up and read to give you more insight on the key players in this whole mystery. There are optional clues that you can actually miss. There are also Side Jobs, which are you guessed it side quests, which are optional and pretty easy to miss. After you get your next Main Job, but before you leave, one of the side characters may want to talk to you and give you a Side Job where they ask you to get or do something at the location you’re about to go to. There are a couple Side Jobs that you get during the level as well. Of course, what you need to do or find will be hidden in the levels so you’ll have to go off the main path, explore, and hopefully don’t overlook anything. If you happen to miss what you need, the character that gave it to you won’t try to shame you, but if you do finish it you get some dialogue which I found to be pretty worth it. It’s not simply a “hey, thanks” but it does give you some more characterization for the characters. That and you get a reward, which is usually money but occasionally is a baseball card.

Onto the collectibles, there are a lot of them here. Some of them do have a use and while they are all missable, most are also technically unmissable. As you’re going through levels, there are a handful of different collectibles that you can find and pick up. First up are schematics. These take the form of a blueprint (greyprint?) that are pretty easy to spot, are automatically picked up when you’re close enough, and are used to upgrade your guns. There are a lot of schematics here and there is some leeway built in so you only have to find most schematics to fully upgrade all your weapons. There are secret figurines, which are Funko Pop-esque figures of Jack Pepper that are really hidden. Finding these will have Jack tickle figurine him, give a one-liner (like seriously I only found three of them and it was painful to realize I was close to the spots they were in when looking at a guide), and will be displayed at his office. You can find newspapers laying around that you can pick up and read what the headline was for that day. You can also find comic strips, which aren’t the three or four panel comics but literal strips of a comic issue that is actually Jack Pepper’s prequel comic once you put them all together. This is pretty cool and I especially love how the comic strips are placed in order (so you won’t go from finding number 10 to 22 to 7 for example). Lastly, you’ll also be finding baseball cards. These are immediately put away, rather than letting you read what’s on it like comic strips and newspapers, but going into your collectibles sub menu will let you read what’s on the baseball player’s cards.

This last thing is technically optional content, but I chose to put it here as it does involve one of the collectibles. The baseball cards you’ll be collecting are actually used in a card game that’s in the game. There’s a baseball card game that you can play in the hubs and it’s actually simpler than you’d expect. It’s just that games do feel long. There are two rounds, with five turns, in a baseball card game where you’ll be the batter and then the pitcher. Playing against the opponent AI, you basically have to play a player card that has a higher hit/pitch number than your opponent’s card (or hope you win the coin toss if it’s a tie). If the batter has the bigger stat by a little bit it’ll be a regular hit while a big gap is a homerun. Player cards also have speed/fielding stat which basically determines how many bases it can run on a regular hit as a batter or how much it cuts down the batter’s speed if its played as a pitcher. You can only play one Player Card, but you can pair it with a Tactics Card which adds a stat or two to either hit/pitch stat or the speed/fielding stat. Whoever has the most point wins the game. Each game does cost you money, but winning will grant you a token and getting enough tokens will let you unlock a little special something.

Oh yeah, I didn’t mention why these collectibles are missable but technically are unmissable. You can’t play levels again, but you can use the money you gathered in levels to go to the shop and buy ammo or all the collectibles you missed in the levels you already did aside from secret figurines, schematics, and optional clues. You can also buy more Tactics Cards, but they are way more expensive than the collectibles.

Talking about that, sadly this game does not allow you to replay levels nor is there a New Game+. This honestly seems like a bit of an oversight considering the collectables are all missable (even though some collectibles are also technically unmissable as long as you grab enough money). I think I know the thought process behind it, but it still is disappointing that you can’t replay levels once you finish the game to look for collectibles and that there’s no NG+ that carries over collectibles so you don’t have to either go through the game again hoping you picked up all the collectibles or be glued to a guide.

I honestly really enjoyed the gameplay here. I wasn’t really expecting to, as like I mentioned before I have tried other boomer shooters and discovered I don’t really like this subgenre, but this one. This one became the exception as I found this to be really fun. It did take me a bit to get used to how the game controlled, but man it didn’t take long until I was shootin’ goons like a pro. All the guns and melee weapons felt great to handle and the movement felt great as well. I also liked how unique all the weapons were and the upgrades that Tammy does to them, even though there are three weapons that are clearly the best weapons in the game and it is very easy to just gravitate to them only. I loved the alternate attacks the guns have too. I also in general really like how many options you have during combat and it is pretty fun and satisfying. Talking about combat, I think the game has pretty good enemy variety, I liked how most of the battles were designed (the only thing is that I found the last phase of the final boss to be too hectic), and I especially love how the game was designed in a way that you can see bullets coming at you and have enough time to dodge out of the way. And man, is it so satisfying weaving around bullets that the enemies are trying to shoot at you.

The levels themselves are so great. Every level has something unique about them and the developers were so creative in designing the levels. Even levels that are in the same area, like Tinsel Avenue, are all different from one another with just a connecting theme of it being a filming studio. I never knew what to expect when going into a new level (well, aside from the part of the final level that we see in the prologue) and it was so fun exploring the levels, noticing all the small details, and seeing what was in store for me as I progressed through the level. It is a shame that most power ups and traversal abilities are situational, but that’s okay. The bosses, which I didn’t mention yet, also all managed to be unique from one another. There are a few that I didn’t care for, but most of them are great boss battles and the developers did a great job in designing them, setting them all apart, and even having them fit the boss’ personality (or, well, programming in the case of one level).

I played the whole game on normal difficulty and I found the game to be easy for the most part, with the exceptions being the few hectic regular battles and the bosses. The game also gives you enough health, armor, and ammo pick ups. You especially get more than enough ammo and there were only three times I found myself running out of ammo for guns and one of those instances was when I didn’t realize I was in a boss fight with infinite spawning mobs. You can tell when a big fight is coming up when the game gives you a bunch of ammo and health and it does make sure to replenish what you used afterwards. I was a bit worried about difficulty considering I don’t play boomer shooters, but I was pleasantly surprised. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t die though, as I did die in the more hectic normal battles, at some of the bosses, and at that darn traversal section during the end of the game.

One aspect that I was ready to not like was the detective aspect as I did hear that the game does it for you. Once I got into the game, though, I didn’t really mind. To me, the game was more about the mystery unraveling rather than doing the detective work yourself. While I did really like the gameplay and the gameplay loop here, I can’t lie that it was starting to get a bit old towards the end of my playthrough. Though, I don’t really think this is necessarily bad as it does mean that Mouse P.I. doesn’t overstay its welcome. Well, at least for me.

So, yeah, all in all as someone that doesn’t play boomer shooters, Mouse: P.I. For Hire was really fun and satisfying to play.

As for negatives, most of them are going to come down to personal preference. I’m fine with most of these, but I do know that some won’t. Like I mentioned before, I personally found the ending a bit meh and it does seem like a bit of an oversight that the game doesn’t have a NG+ or lets you replay levels. Some may also not like the cheese and mouse puns/wordplay or the almost tongue in cheek references towards other games or aspects that are usually in games. Don’t come into the game expecting this to be a serious, realistic noir detective game as this is obviously going to be a cartoony noir mystery game. Some items are also harder to see due to the visual style of the game. It is pretty annoying trying to select the clue you want to look at on the evidence board once you have a lot on the board, but that’s par for the course. Lastly, there are dog enemies here and I know there are some that don’t like seeing dogs die let alone have to kill them. Even I felt a bit queasy, but that could have been due to me not feeling well during the weekend I was playing Mouse P.I. For Hire.

The visuals and sound here are definitely the stand outs here, though. The art style was what caught my eye and was the main reason why I was interested in Mouse P.I., and I’m sure I’m not the only one. This game utilizes not only the rubberhose animation style, but the overall style of the game is how old cartoons used to look like. Not to mention that the game is in monochrome, which both helps bring to mind old 1930s cartoons that the game takes its inspiration for its visual design and helps it stand out. This art style and visual design works amazingly here as you can tell how much work was put in. Everything is wonderfully animated, everything is clear despite everything being in shades of black and white, and there are so many little details that you can notice while playing. Like the heart that’s right beside your health that has different states based on how much health you have left. Or how the different bullet types have their own cute icon that laughs when you shoot. Every time you upgrade a gun it gets a little added something to its design and man the unique reloading animations for most of the weapons. Enemies even have different alternate designs so you can tell which faction they’re from or in moments where they wouldn’t fit. While you may not realize that the shrews aren’t just short mice until they become relevant in the story, the characters all do have unique aspects to them so you can tell them apart. Characters also even have animations for when they’re alone and when you get close enough they notice you and transition into their default pose where they can then transition into their conversation pose when you talk to them (whether you’ll get a proper text box conversation or overworld lines). It was also a good choice to have important items bounce as it does help you notice them. And, oh man, one specific level towards the end of the game was so pretty and made me go “woah”. I won’t spoil it for you, don’t worry. There are also a lot of references here and while I certainly did not recognize them all, I did recognize some and I like learning about the ones that I missed. There is a lot of love that went into the game’s visuals and animation and I can still go on and on gushing about it.

The soundtrack and sound design here is also amazing. I loved all of the tracks here and you best believe I picked up on the inspirations that some of them had. The songs here were perfectly placed to fit what was happening and combining that with its jazzy style really pulls you into its noir setting. I also really liked the sound design of everything here, especially for the guns, as it made the game even more satisfying than it normally would have been. This probably fit more with the visuals, but there are some pretty gruesome death animations, but the sound design really helps sell it. The voice acting though? Absolutely fantastic. Everyone did a fantastic job here not only bringing their character to life, but also keeping with that noir vibe that the game was going for. I did want to specifically mention Cornelius’ voice acting as he could have easily been annoying and overdone, but his voice actor did a great job at making his stutter feel natural. There were some characters where I didn’t care for their voices, but they were only around for one scene.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that this game has different audio and visual quality settings so you can choose whether you want look and sound the best, or if you want it to have some film grain or make it sound like it’s coming out of older audio storage mediums like cylinders.

Mouse P.I.’s performance is for the most part pretty good. Although, once I got to what I’d say is the middle of the game I did experience quite a bit of frame drops no matter if the screen was busy or I was just looking at a rock cliff. I’m not too sure why as most of the game is fine and I don’t believe it was due to me playing for too long as I did stop playing for a bit when it first was happening thinking that was the reason. I will say, though, that I don’t think it affected my playthrough. I did have frame drops during combat a couple times, but I don’t believe it caused me to get hit or miss shots. I did have an enemy spawn behind a wall once, but luckily I was able to still kill it using the Devarnisher’s alt attack and didn’t have to reload to a previous save (especially since that battle was a bit crazy).

Verdict

I am so happy to say that my gamble worked in my favor. I ended up really enjoying Mouse: P.I. For Hire and I’m glad that I decided to pick this game up despite not liking other games in the same subgenre. There are some downsides that mostly come down to personal preference, but I found that the gameplay was really fun and satisfying, the mystery was interesting, the level and boss design were so creative, the writing style was great, I personally liked the jokes, and the visuals and sound were fantastically done. Not to mention all the small details and references that are great whether you get it or not. I may have gone into this game mostly for its visuals, but I came out loving mostly everything that this game had to offer. I can’t speak for how this game will be for those that play a lot of boomer shooters, but at least for someone like me who doesn’t really like this subgenre, Mouse P.I. may turn out to be your exception. Let’s just hope this doesn’t cause me to chase the same game feel like what I usually do when I find an exception.