Mouse P.I. For Hire Preview – Bringing a gun to a mice fight

I mean, just look at it? If setting out your visual store like this doesn’t result in a cavalcade of players, I don’t know what will. Mouse P.I. For Hire takes 1920’s black and white animation, ties it to a classic, hard-boiled detective tale, and turns it into one of the most visually striking FPS titles we’ve seen in any era. Through our early hands-on though, it’s proved that there’s far more going on beneath that beautiful façade.

You’re Jack Pepper, the titular Mouse P.I., and as a private investigator, you’ve been drawn into a whole world of shenanigans. Dropping into an early section of the game, we find ourselves looking into the whereabouts of Dr Bandel, an unknown scientist whose laboratory contains a whole load of badniks, an octopus, and a ray gun called the Devarnisher, which, as you might expect, does nothing for an animated character’s health.

Jack mutters away to himself as you play, building the narrative via gritty asides, written clues, and a whole lot of visual storytelling, all the way blasting your way through wave after wave of black and white badguys. It would be all well and good if Mouse P.I. just looked as good as it does in the pictures, but the animation, and the gameplay, make this feel unlike any other FPS you’ve played.

Firstly, the enemies, and Jack himself, are in constant motion. Jack’s gun wobbles back and forth, just as it would have done in the animation of the day, you can see the bullets flying relatively slowly towards you, and scorching an enemy with an exploding barrel, sees them disintegrate into a little pile of ash with eyes on top. The tone it sets is perfect, and it feels like you’re truly inhabiting the world of a cartoon mouse, albeit one with an FPS at its heart. It’s Cuphead by way of Doom, if you can imagine such a thing.

It’s easier to feel that sensation than it is to describe it. The demo eased me into things, with some light exploration and gunplay, before truly showing its monochromatic colours with a horde of badguys in one section, and a robotic boss in the next. These show that the gunplay is fast, furious and rewards constant motion, which wasn’t remotely what I was expecting. It all feels so smooth and instantaneous, and there’s a real dissonance between the setting, the visuals, and this style of gunplay. Somehow, though, it works.

There’s some delightful gameplay touches too, especially using your mouse’s tail to pick locks, navigating your way through a simple puzzle, and ensuring that you push in each of the mechanisms on your way to the other side.

I found myself utterly enthralled by the world-building here, with the gruff Jack playing the perfect pulp protagonist. Through this early section, you hear about or meet an intriguing cast of characters, from the deluded Steve Bandel and the concerned Cornelius Stilton, through to your spunky gear gal Tammy. The mystery that’s already being unravelled feels suitably weighted for both the 1920s genre vibes and the animated schtick that accompanies them, and while it does seem as though this is going to be a largely linear tale, it’s going to be a heck of a lot of fun getting to the bottom of it all.

It’s clear that aesthetics is crucial to Mouse P.I. For Hire, but you have control over just how hard you lean into the setting, with different levels of era-precise visual filters, from the clean, crisp look of the Studio Cut, through the Director’s Cut, which brings both Film Grain and UI Diffusion to the fore, while degrading the audio to vinyl-like quality. At the furthest end, you can opt for Vintage Cut, which takes audio cues from a cellulose disc while amping the film grain and diffusion to maximum, with even more degraded and distorted audio options available if you want to push things further.

It feels less like the developers committing to ‘the bit’, though, and more like they’re ensuring this is as authentic, meaningful and accurate to the time as possible. The only mild negative is that the wider levels that you work your way through are flatter, and more static, with the added animated items sat upon them, rather than more closely entwined. It’s something that is easy to look past, though, especially when you’re in the midst of a shootout.

Fumi Games clearly knew where they were going with Mouse P.I. For Hire. The visuals make for an instant talking point, but they’ve ensured that there’s the gameplay and storytelling chops to back them up. I can’t wait to see more of the game, and delve deeper into Jack Peppers’ hard-boiled, black-and-white world.