It’s efforts like Cuphead, and now MOUSE: P.I. for Hire, that provide the video game indie scene an everlasting attraction and curiosity: you’d never see a big-budget game dare go near such a striking art style.
Polish studio Fumi Games has taken the rubber hose animation style of the 1930s and made a shooter out of it, placing art and gameplay on a level playing field. It casts a mouse in the role of a private detective, but the clues and interviews take a backseat: MOUSE: P.I. for Hire is all about shootouts and looking good during them.
You take on a missing persons case in the city of Mouseburg, soon unravelling a considerably deeper plot. Waves upon waves of gangsters and corrupt cops stand in your way, and clearing rooms and arenas of them with your pistol, tommy gun, and shotgun is how the job gets done.
Like a classic DOOM experience, combat plays out at a fast pace, as you dart around the battlefield looking to make use of environmental opportunities (explosive barrels and hanging objects) to clear waves faster. You kill all the goons, take some health and ammo that they drop, then do it all again in the next area. And then again. And then again.
There is a small hub area for weapon upgrades, conversations, and a detective board where all your clues go, and there is a top-down map you drive around to reach the next mission. Besides them, though, the game pushes its strong FPS action to the forefront, with only very short breaks of breezy platforming breaking it up.
With such a focused gameplay loop, it eventually runs out of steam well before the credits roll. The title gives way to repetition, souring the charm somewhat. It’s just a bit too long.
The stunning art style and animations attached to it never let up, however. The black and white visuals combined with stylised, 2D characters gives the game an incredible look that works very well with the noir theming. It looks amazing, and it sounds amazing; the experience oozes style and charisma at every turn.
MOUSE: P.I. for Hire offers incredible art and animation, as well as enjoyable first-person shootouts. For that, it certainly succeeds — just don’t expect it to do much of anything else.
