Cuphead with a Shotgun: MOUSE: P.I. For Hire Noir Shooter Review

The Great Mouse Detective

The world of MOUSE: P.I. For Hire adheres to cartoon logic. Many elements and characters sway as if to music, and actions are accompanied by amusing sounds. Locations are populated by drawn mice, shrews, alligators, while flowers, mushrooms, and frogs move in the background.

Animation is combined with harsh reality. In the city of Mouseburg, where the game's events unfold, power has been seized by the Big Mouse Party — an allusion to the Nazis. Corrupt politicians provoked a crisis and blamed it on shrews — distant relatives of mice. The rich prosper, while ordinary workers struggle to make ends meet.

Cheese acts as a link between reality and cartoonishness. The delicacy and its various types can imply anything: food, tobacco products, alcohol, mind-altering drugs — a kind of ironic censorship. Characters often appear "smoking" a piece of cheese. But this does not negate the brutality and the characters' love for strong language at the right moment.

The game is made in the noir style — a genre of crime dramas from the 1940s–1950s. As befits the genre, the main character is a detective named Jack Pepper — voiced by Troy Baker. With his delivery, Jack behaves like a funny cartoon character and a war-torn veteran — seemingly two incompatible roles united by the voice actor's efforts.

The global commotion begins with a simple case of a missing magician — Jack's former comrade-in-arms. During the investigation, the detective learns that his friend got involved with bad company. Following the trail, he encounters gangsters, cultists, corrupt police, and mad scientists. The encounters are not accidental, and all clues point to one big secret.

During the investigation, you will have to travel all over the city, which resembles a map from Cuphead. You will visit a film studio, an opera house, a creepy mansion, and the sewers. Jack attaches the collected evidence to a crime board. The evidence is automatically compiled, after which access to a new level opens. Periodically, new faces enter the game: a mayoral candidate and Jack's colleague, or an actress and a femme fatale. They provide leads for new cases.

You will often have to interrogate various characters. The artists and voice actors gave each a memorable character and appearance. The Russian translation conveys the nuances well during conversations. But for some reason, the translator doubled the number of cheese jokes.

A World Saturated with Ink

Each level is full of details. The design makes you believe that every nook and cranny is suitable for work, rest, or entertainment. Everywhere you can find tools, food, household items, references in the form of books and posters. There are plenty of funny elements like a warning sign behind which are two outhouses, and a chair with binoculars in front of them. Unique sounds and music complement the atmosphere.

Each level has dozens of secrets:

The game encourages creativity. Many levels can be completed in different ways: by blowing up walls, climbing through ventilation, or getting to high places. Moreover, looking around is simply enjoyable. As you progress, Jack will learn to run on walls, glide in the air, and double jump. Performing tricks will be rarely needed, but they help in finding secrets.

You will have to come to terms with the game's logic. The hero's agility allows him to climb anywhere, but invisible walls hinder him. You constantly have to hit the air before you stumble upon the passage intended by the developers. The tendency of important elements to blend into the background also complicates the search.

The level exploration is hampered by the mechanic of closing the door behind the hero. If you want to explore every corner, you will have to make several saves. You can lose access to side quests if you follow the main story. While jumping around the film studio, I broke the game and lost access to half of the content. You cannot return to a completed level to find missed secrets.

After completing the game, you won't be able to view the collected newspapers, comics, and baseball cards in the menu — you need to load the last save.

Steel Mouse

During the game, you have to fight bandits, cultists, robots, and corrupt police. Essentially, these are the same enemies with different appearances. They are all divided into dogs, alligators, mice with clubs, mice with shotguns, machine gunners, brutes, flying shrews, and snipers. The variety of ways to fight enemies and the high difficulty make the encounters interesting. On high difficulty, they will make you sweat!

But the bosses boast variety. During each battle, you need to fulfill unique conditions: dodge lasers, destroy the environment, or attack from behind. Only the final boss is bad, and that's due to an inadequate amount of health.

To eradicate crime, Jack uses an arsenal of weapons. Initially, you have to put up with the low accuracy and weak damage of the pistol, shotgun, and assault rifle. But found blueprints will help turn them into tools for destroying all living things. With an upgraded assault rifle and shotgun, you can easily complete the game even on high difficulty.

Dynamite and the cannon deal decent damage, but ammo is scarce and it's easy to blow yourself up.

The hero also gets unusual guns:

The double-barreled shotgun and chainsaw look very cool, but you don't use them often. It's a shame that the double-barreled shotgun has little ammo, and using the chainsaw is dangerous — you'll quickly be shot down on approach.

You can quickly collect tokens in a raw card game to buy a secret gun with them. Its damage is negligible, and it has even less ammo. And it cannot be upgraded.

If you use the weapon wheel during a shootout, you might pull out the wrong weapon. It's especially frustrating if it's explosives, which you accidentally blow yourself up with.

Barrels are placed in the arenas, which, when detonated, can set fire to, freeze, or melt the enemy. You can drop an anvil or a piano with a shot — just like in classic cartoons. In rare cases, you can use a superpower:

Verdict

In terms of mechanics, the game is good, but too restrictive. It gives the hero a rich arsenal of movements, but forces him into narrow corridors. Levels can be explored in different ways, but the way back is closed. Weapons are fun to use, but not all of them.

And yet, MOUSE: P.I. For Hire makes you want to play. It's a unique blend of incompatible genres that works. It took me 25 hours to complete, not because of the high difficulty, but because I examined every interesting detail along the way. And I don't regret the time spent at all.