Mouse: P.I. For Hire Preview - Gritty crime noir has never looked so cheery

It really feels as though Fumi Games' Mouse: P.I. For Hire has come a long way. What originally started and seemed like a highly stylish shooter has now evolved into a complex and intricate crime-detective thriller supported by instantly memorable visuals and animations and intense action sequences. This indie gem has become one of the top titles to watch in 2025, and the latest batch of gameplay that I've been able to witness only affirms why this has become the case.

For starters, Mouse: P.I. For Hire seems to be a much deeper game than many may expect. This is a linear crime-action game that revolves around a rodent private detective called Jack Pepper, voiced by Troy Baker, who after taking on what seems to be a routine case, finds himself diving headfirst into the corrupt underbelly of the city of Mouseberg. While the extent of this corruption currently eludes me, the snippet of gameplay I have been able to witness shows that this corruption extends to plotting assassination attempts on government officials in broad daylight, in a way that makes John Wilkes Booth look second rate.

Essentially, this snippet of gameplay sees detective Pepper heading into a local theatre while on the trail of a missing mouse. What begins as a simple missing person lead spirals out into an assassination attempt, as Pepper discovers that the stage hands have been replaced by gangsters, crooks who have rigged a cannon on stage to become a lethal tool, one aimed at a mayoral candidate in the crowd. Pepper takes it upon himself to shut down this attack, leaving a trail of gangster bodies in his wake, all while picking up leads and clues about his misplaced mammal.

Again, Mouse: P.I. For Hire is actually quite linear, meaning you work your way through levels one room at a time in the manner that the story expects. This leads you to specific encounters with enemies when the game wants it to happen, all while matching this up with environmental puzzles, platforming challenges, minigames to master (for example, busting open locks and safes), and even secrets to find. These levels are also littered with NPCs that you can speak with, many of which will help add colour to the wider plot, or will enable you to advance to places you otherwise couldn't... but at a cost. The example used in the gameplay included one mouse asking Pepper for 30 coins to open a locked door, a decision Pepper declined in favour of crawling through a nearby vent to circumvent the cheeky rodent. While the nature of how many options like this will be offered up in the full game remains unclear, it does show that there's more to this game than simple Doom-like arena shooting.

Speaking about how the game circumvents expectations, as you explore, you will sometimes need to whip out a camera to snap clues that can be used in your investigations. This can be to prove that something unusual is happening or to aid in cracking the overall mystery. Either way, whenever you do snap a picture or find some evidence, Baker's Pepper will rip off a witty one-liner that feels as though it belongs in a The Naked Gun film. This style of humour is also not unique, as many of the characters also speak with light and smart humorous dialogue, with many key characters even named after various cheeses too (Jack Pepper/Pepper Jack). The voice acting seems to be top of the line, and while Baker doesn't need to be as eccentric or committed as he does as Higgs in Death Stranding or as Indy in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, he is, as always, effective and a quality performer.

Anyway, the action. When things break out - and this seems to happen quite frequently - you'll be treated to combat where gangster rodents swarm you with baseball bats or shoot from a distance with machine guns. Pepper can respond using an array of traditional and quirky weapons of his own, be it a Tommy Gun or a pump-action Remington or an acid-spraying Turpentine Gun. This is now where the gameplay starts to combine more Doom-like action with BioShock stylings, as you can waddle around with unimpaired movement in the horizontal plane, ripping off shots while you tank whatever comes your way with armour that can be picked up and health that can easily be refilled by grabbing potions found around the level. To separate it from Doom you have odd abilities pulled right out of cartoons, such as brewing a quick tea that can be consumed to make Pepper's hand into a working and highly lethal finger gun. There's a massive wheel of weapons to unlock throughout the story, and it seems as though Fumi Games doesn't hold back on providing new tools (and even abilities like double-jumping in this case) to tackle the missions at hand, which is particularly impressive as the combat also includes being able to blow up explosive barrels and to interact with the environment in a few other limited ways to further enable you to chew through the many different enemies.

But what about the real star of the show in this game? The art direction. To no one's surprise the rubber hose animation usage is absolutely incredible. It's stylish and memorable, well and intuitively implemented, it complements the gameplay and theme, and it matches up with the more realistic backdrops and environments making for a complete and striking visual aesthetic. And it's not even just the level, character, and weapon designs that reflect this; the HUD is also a creative use of rubber hose that is very minimalist without lacking any of the helpful information one could require in an action shooter. The animations of nearly everything moving in this game is top-notch, but perhaps the cream of the crop is the death animations of enemies. As Mouse: P.I. For Hire is actually quite violent and graphic, enemy demise animations reflect the death at hand, including being melted into a pile of bones when sprayed with acid, disintegrated when near an explosive barrel, even having their heads blown off when hit by a shotgun round at point blank. It might shock you, but seeing little tombstones in their wake will then leave you with a little grin, reminding you this is effectively a cartoon.

So even though this game lacks colour and may seem like a Doom-styled shooter on the outside, it's clear that Mouse: P.I. For Hire is much more. There are plenty of levels to this lovingly crafted indie that seems to present thrilling action, a twisting story, and all while using visuals and an art direction that will make it stand out in the same way that Cuphead did years ago. Fumi Games sure does look like it's priming to hit a home run here.