Review: Mouse: P.I. For Hire - Who Moved My Cheese?

Review copy provided by PlaySide Studios

Mouse: P.I. For Hire (from this point forward referred to as "Mouse") is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most interesting games of the year, and of course the first thing that can be credited to it is its very unique visual presentation. But is that enough? Is there a quality game hiding beneath the graphical wrapper? Or are we dealing with blue cheese that's been left out of the fridge too long? Get your detective hat ready, let's begin!

Pepper, Private Eye

Mouse puts us in the shoes of Jack Pepper, a cool and exceptionally clever detective who sets out to investigate a series of different disappearances all taking place across the city of Mouseburg. As part of Pepper's investigation, we'll explore a multitude of different locations scattered across the game map, each functioning as a dedicated stage in the game, with each stage divided into two main parts - finding new clues that will help us progress toward solving the mysteries, and shooting everything that moves and gets in our way. The choice to combine these two gameplay styles provides us with a very interesting experience if you ask me, where on one hand we can enjoy a deep story with quite interesting twists, and on the other hand engage in relentless and particularly enjoyable shooting that includes, among other things, a simply stunning arsenal of weapons, a nice variety of enemies, and perhaps most importantly - special boss battles that will keep your senses sharp. It's important to note in the same breath that ultimately this is more of a first-person shooter than an investigation and mystery game (and that's also how the game's developer describes it), and therefore the depth of investigation is pleasant but doesn't reach the level of detail and development possible when we deal with everything directly related to the combat system, but in my opinion the percentage given here to each of these gameplay styles is incredibly precise. We'll talk more extensively about Mouse's gameplay later in the review, but for now, let's talk about the elephant in the room: the game's artistic style.

Mouse is a game that pays true honor and homage to the animation style of the 1930s (to the point where all the 2D animations in this game were hand-drawn, just as they would have been done in that era), when the last time we saw a quality execution of this artistic style in games was of course with Cuphead from 2017, which was a simply excellent game, bordering on perfect (at least in my opinion). Mouse, unlike Cuphead, takes things quite differently, emphasizing a black-and-white film noir style (a very obvious choice in itself since we're ultimately dealing with a game whose main character is a detective in the 1930s) that accompanies the game throughout its entirety.

I'll start by saying that this choice to "force" the player to play all of Mouse in black-and-white is a very bold choice on the developer's part, especially since the game industry in recent years has usually gotten black-and-white in games as a sort of accompanying feature or "bonus" that can be activated in various games, not as a mandatory element that can't be turned off. So does it work here? Was the choice of black-and-white wise? Unequivocally and unambiguously, yes. The game world of Mouse is nothing less than perfect when it comes to its artistic design and overall look, to the point where I see no reason to allow us as players to experience this game in color, at any stage, even though it would indeed be quite interesting to see how this game looks and feels if it were colorful. All this black-and-white is accompanied by a fascinating game world packed with details that give it a very precise level of authenticity in relation to the period on which this game is based, which increases the desire to explore the world and discover all its secrets.

The dark and black-and-white style of Mouse blends simply excellently with the exploration experience and solving of different cases, when everything together feels like a sort of quality animated film unfolding an interesting story of a tough detective who won't stop until he completes his mission. The exploration experience has considerable weight in everything related to conveying this feeling to the player, but the real star of this matter is undoubtedly all this black-and-white pleasure. And if that wasn't enough for you, by the way, it's important to know that the game allows you to choose, among other things, the processing style of the sound in the game (you can choose whether the game will sound as if the sounds are coming from a gramophone, for example), alongside the option to choose the level of "blur" and "dirt" on the screen in a way that will allow you to play the game while it looks as if it's being projected from old film stock - I spent at least half an hour on this settings screen alone, mainly because all the options here provide a quality product in a simply unreasonable way, which made my choice very difficult (which of course I discovered later that I can change at any given moment during the game).

This wonderful pleasure continues of course to exist throughout the entire game, as the design of the various models and characters we'll meet also receives perfect execution when it comes to appearance, animations, and artistic style. The real virtue of Mouse is its ability to blend amazingly between 3D game environments and 2D character and weapon models. Here too, we're dealing with a quality product, mainly thanks to the fact that all the 2D models in this game are slightly brighter than the 3D environments we'll move around in, which allows them to stand out from the screen and provide us simply real pleasure for the eyes, and that's even before we add to the equation all the animations of the various weapons and elements we'll interact with throughout the game, which beyond the fact that they simply look great also add a lot to the overall feeling and combat and shooting experience.

To all these is added, as mentioned, the game's plot, which I can define as "great overall." Here there's an important point worth emphasizing, and it is, of course, Troy Baker, who lends his voice to detective Pepper. I have no other way to say this, so I'll just say it: Jack Pepper was created for Troy Baker exactly as Troy Baker was meant to portray the character of Jack Pepper (a bit like how Ryan Reynolds was meant to portray Deadpool and how Robert Downey Jr. was meant to portray Iron Man) - we have here chemistry that is nothing less than perfect between Baker's voice and the character of detective Pepper, and this is expressed in his speaking style, in the various actions he performs, and in the way he reacts to everyone who crosses his path, whether friend or foe. The rest of the voice acting of the various characters and in general the sound design (and soundtrack) of this game is also quality at the highest levels, and really here too, similar to the graphics, we're dealing with real pleasure. The game manages to skip lightly between deep and dark storylines and hilariously funny punch lines, and this too is a quality not to be taken for granted considering that we're dealing with the first game from an unknown Polish studio.

The really only complaint I have here regarding the plot is the fact that Mouse allows us on a technical level to experience each of the different investigation cases in parallel, and even though it's nice that we have the option to choose each time a specific stage and thus a particular case we'll investigate, in practice the result I experienced was that the various dialogues and story progression feel quite messy - there were quite a few sections where I simply couldn't remember which case I was investigating at that moment, and even though in principle the game connects all the plot lines at a fairly early stage of the story, the result here as mentioned feels quite cumbersome. And still - we're dealing with an excellent plot line, interesting, with great twists and a no less than spectacular ending, which is totally worth giving your time to. Regarding the game's length, it personally took me close to 13 hours to complete it, which is a great length for a game of this style if you ask me, especially considering the fact that it costs only 30 dollars. Another complaint I have here is the fact that the game doesn't warn us before we start the final stage in the game and it also doesn't allow us to return to locations we've visited in the past after we've left them - even after you've finished the game and its main story. I want to believe this is something that will be updated soon and thus allow players to return and complete various secrets and side quests they may have missed on the way to finishing the game, but of course there's the chance here that the game's developer didn't plan to provide us with such a feature, which means anyone who missed something will necessarily have to start a new full run of the game in the hope of completing all its content, and that's quite disappointing in my eyes.

The Holy Combination

As I mentioned earlier, regarding exploration and solving the various mysteries, the game doesn't dive too deep on a technical level and in the investigation systems themselves - during the various stages you'll be able to find a multitude of clues that will advance the investigation file, with each such clue ultimately being attached to the clue board located in detective Pepper's office, from which you can connect the various dots based on the clues you've collected and thereby essentially ultimately solve the various investigation cases that the game presents to us.

The exploration of the game's various environments does receive quite impressive honor and volume both on a technical level and on a gameplay level: there's a quite impressive amount of main quests to complete, alongside quite a few "side jobs" that Pepper can take on, when completing those side jobs usually includes the need to search for a hidden object or complete a specific mission within a regular stage of the game that we'll need to complete at that moment anyway, which greatly streamlines the experience since we don't need to go each time to a dedicated location in order to complete only some side quest. I also really loved the fact that we're dealing here with completely linear stages with a fairly clear progression path - this focuses the player on completing objectives and progressing to the next stage and prevents unnecessary and aimless wandering, and considering that almost every game released to the industry today tries to be as open and as large as possible, Mouse enters the equation perfectly and provides a refined and specific experience.

The rewards you'll receive from completing various objectives and missions are relatively varied, when you can receive, among other things, money that will serve you for purchasing ammunition and various items such as comic book pages and newspapers for collection, alongside baseball cards that actually belong to an entire mini-game that Mouse includes (a great execution and break from the action). Additionally, in each stage hides a simply insane amount of secrets (which include among other things references to modern pop culture up to mentions of iconic Memes and obvious homages to films, cultural events, and other games), hidden passages and safes we can open (by picking the safe's lock with Pepper's tail) and more. Each of these will grant us some bonus. All these upgrades and improvements you can utilize and spend freely between stages, so you'll also be exposed to the impressive game map that will allow you to travel via Pepper's car from place to place, alongside a central Hub where you can find Pepper's office, a shop, a bar, and a few more surprises. All these elements connect together to a very good experience regarding exploration and completion of various objectives during the game, and I personally really enjoyed completing the various stages, discovering their secrets, and then also improving and expanding Pepper's abilities and functioning in the field between stages.

Regarding the combat system, Mouse feels and functions no less than wonderfully, when the inspiration here was apparently taken straight from the Doom game series we all love (with a clear emphasis on the rebooted trilogy of the brand's games that began its way in 2016), and this similarity can be seen already in the first moments of the game and in everything related to the simply insane weapon arsenal it includes. The weapons we'll encounter during the game are many and varied - starting from a simple pistol through a powerful shotgun to a bazooka and a few more surprises, Mouse keeps us on the edge of our seats throughout its entirety when it comes to variety and options it provides us regarding weapons and the abilities they grant us during the game, and here too exactly like in Doom, it was very fun to discover new weapons along the way. The game also includes an entire system of weapon upgrades (which also very much resembles Doom) that will allow you to improve the overall functioning of each weapon (the amount of ammunition you can hold for it, the damage it deals, etc.), alongside the ability to unlock for each weapon a secondary firing mode that will enhance the experience of using it. The game additionally includes three different difficulty levels, so if you're one of those who prefer to focus on exploration and less on battles you have the option to make it easier on yourself exactly as you have the ability to make it harder on yourself if masochism and challenge are your cup of tea.

The similarity to Doom doesn't stop here, and also regarding movement and maneuvering, Mouse copies blatantly but qualitatively from Doom - you'll be able to perform a quick Dash in order to reposition yourself quickly, alongside the ability to make use of several movement abilities you'll unlock along the way that will enrich even more your abilities on the battlefield and the overall feeling during exploration of the various environments. Similar to the pace of weapon unlocking, here too I really loved the pace and way in which each such movement upgrade opens - each of these upgrades came exactly at the right moment and after a period of time when I had already exhausted the current set of abilities available to me until that moment, which turned every such moment of unlocking a new ability into particularly exciting and satisfying. The shooting experience itself is also quality - the feedback you'll get from each of the different weapons feels unique and dedicated to each weapon, as well as the pros and cons that come from using each of them, which will require you to specialize in each weapon and understand when it will be most appropriate to use it so you can survive, especially when we add to the equation the quite wide variety of enemies we'll encounter. Don't let this 2D style fool you, the weapons in Mouse feel heavy and powerful, and if you add to all this the fact that the game doesn't spare blood, explosions, and Gore (to the point where you can shoot off enemies' heads if you aim your shots and turn them into dust if you blow them up), you've got here another element that raises the similarity to Doom by several levels.

The healing and arming mechanics also scream Doom, when here too each weapon has its dedicated ammunition, alongside healing done by using bottles that will raise your health bar and pieces of armor you can find that will grant you additional protection. The boss battles too, similar to upgrades, come at exactly the right moment and provide a refreshing change to the combat experience, to the point where there are a few boss battles here that will stay with me for years to come because of how fun and surprising they were in their creativity. All combat environments are additionally full of a multitude of elements we can use during the fight - we can for example drop a heavy object on an enemy or throw a barrel at them that will freeze/burn/poison them, and we can do all this whether we choose to shoot at that barrel for example directly or by kicking/throwing it toward the enemy - the freedom of action we have here is very wide, it blends simply wonderfully with the shooting experience and managing our resources during and outside of combat, and the final result here simply screams quality, and good thing too.

Cottage Cheese with Lumps

I usually don't dedicate a whole part in a review to performance since I usually combine it together with the detailing about the graphics and my opinion on it, but here because we have an essential emphasis on the graphics to the point that it justified an entire part in the review where we talked only about it, I do want to also talk a bit about the game's performance and say that most of the time, my experience with Mouse was smooth. I played the game on PC at 4K resolution and on the highest graphical settings (my specs matched the game's system requirements at 4K Ultra and even exceeded them in some components) and the result was simply great 99.9% of the time, but there were a few things that happened along the way, including momentary frame drops at times when there was a relatively large load of things on screen. Additionally, I "got" to experience a fairly small but annoying amount of strange bugs whose solution was mainly to reload my last save in the best case and the entire stage from the beginning in the worst case - we're dealing here with small but annoying bugs such as a door that doesn't open after a battle or my character getting stuck in some non-optimal spot and therefore it's important for me to mention them (especially when they happened more than once), even when I'm sure the solution to those problems will come together with the game's launch update.

The Bottom Line

The world of cheeses is quite wide and therefore I'll compare Mouse: P.I. For Hire to the cheese I specifically love most and say that we're dealing with a game that feels like aged Manchego cheese, which makes it at least for me an amazing experience that as of this moment is going into first place on the list of games I most enjoyed playing during 2026. This game overflows with quality, drips with style and sharp humor and screams one giant "fun" at almost every given moment, and even though it's not necessarily innovative regarding the systems from which it's built, the execution of each of the elements that make up this wonderful game is exceptionally impressive in its quality, which makes this game a hot recommendation for genre fans, and not only.