PI for Rent than cartoon violence

Mouse: PI for Rent is rather a lot deeper than I initially assumed. When the sport first caught buzz in Might 2023 with an early teaser populated by placeholder belongings, I didn’t perceive the hype. The artwork fashion was undoubtedly cool — Mouse is a black-and-white first-person shooter impressed by Thirties rubber hose cartoons, that includes bipedal rodents dressed like mobsters — however with none details about the gameplay loop, mechanics or narrative path, I remained unmoved.

After seeing Mouse in motion at Summer Game Fest 2025, contemplate me movin’. Mouse is mechanically nuanced and totally voice-acted, starring Troy Baker as the protagonist, and it has extra to supply than shock-value cartoon violence. This can be a clue-gathering, photo-snapping, girlfriend-avenging, noir detective simulator that occurs to star a bunch of slick-talking mice and rats, and I’m totally into it.

In a personal session at SGF, Fumi Video games CEO Mateusz Michalak and lead producer Maciek Krzemien performed by means of the sport’s third degree, Gumshoe within the Opera, and mentioned their intentions with the sport. Krzemien stated the staff didn’t wish to merely lean on the artwork fashion on the expense of gameplay, and so they targeted on constructing a wealthy world with layered mechanics. Since that preliminary teaser got here out, they’ve been fleshing out characters, drawing belongings by hand, implementing puzzles and secrets and techniques, and tweaking particular person weapons in order that they really feel good.

In Gumshoe within the Opera, the protagonist Jack Pepper is investigating his girlfriend’s homicide and he’s backstage on the theater, on the lookout for a good friend who is likely to be concerned. Baker makes for a positive Thirties non-public eye, with a deep voice and a Boardwalk Empire twang. The supporting characters are voiced, too, and so they are inclined to have a higher-pitched, henchman fashion of gangster converse. Mousey, you might say.

Pepper fills up a 16-slot weapon wheel as he finds new weapons and instruments, together with a flashlight, dynamite, Tommy gun, hookshot, pistol, shotgun and a turpentine blaster. The turpentine gun is ridiculous in one of the simplest ways — for the reason that characters on this world are cartoons, it melts their pores and skin away prefer it’s paint after which dissolves their skeletons. Killing enemies with a standard gun leaves them mendacity in swimming pools of black blood, generally with lacking heads, and the sport’s environments have destructible components. The combination of mature violence and traditional cartoon artwork is surprisingly joyful, and it appears Fumi bought the steadiness good.

Most enemies in Mouse take a number of hits earlier than happening, however headshots are a factor and a well-aimed blast can undoubtedly flatten a mobster (mouse-ster?) in a single blow. I didn’t get an opportunity to play the sport myself, however now that I’m totally seated on the Mouse hype prepare, I’m curious to really feel the gunplay firsthand. I’ve a way it’s going to be harder than Krzemien made it appear.

The preview was roughly half capturing motion, half investigation and exploring. When he’s not in a firefight, Pepper climbs by means of vents and sneaks round backstage, amassing corked well being pots, a espresso cup and weapons alongside the way in which. The espresso cup turns Pepper’s hand right into a finger gun, which he makes use of to quickly pew pew pew his means by means of enemies. He learns methods to double-jump and is ready to backtrack by means of the extent with this new capability, choosing up further provides and a hidden buying and selling card — for the card-based minigame, after all. A lockpick mechanic has gamers snake their well past spikes to finish a small maze contained in the lock. In a single second, Pepper takes a photograph of somebody by means of a small window and it’s saved for later, hinting at a bigger clue-organizing mechanic. Krzemien stated that after this part, Pepper will return to his workplace to piece collectively the proof.

There are a whole lot of layers to Mouse: PI for Rent. Perhaps it’s my fault for being stunned by the depth on this sport or the care being proven by builders at Fumi, however at the very least now, I lastly get it. Mouse is because of hit Steam, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Collection X/S and Swap this 12 months, printed by PlaySide.