MOUSE: P.I. For Hire

This game clearly has a lot of effort and talent put in behind it, so giving this game a negative review really feels unfair to me. The overall story is good and it has important themes and messages that are still relevant to this day. I CAN recommend this to a casual gamer who may have not played many shooters or who doesn't watch cartoons. But if you like Boomer Shooters or classic cartoons, I CANNOT recommend this game. Don't worry, I'm not gonna complain about narrative dissonance like that IGN review. This game however has flaws which combine hamper the overall experience. [hr][/hr] [h2] WEAPON IMBALANCE AND GAMEFEEL GOOFS: [/h2] - The “JAMES GUN” (AKA TOM GUN) IS WAY TOO OP, even un-upgraded. - Double Jumping and swinging cost stamina, meaning you have to awkwardly wait for a few seconds after any part of a platforming challenge. - Reward for the tedious and overly high requirements of the card game is a bad weapon that has barely any ammo and does little damage. - No Autoswitch when a weapon runs out. Some weapons don’t even have autoreload when a clip is empty. - No weapon quick scroll, you have to wait for the entire draw animation before you can swap to the next one. - Calls itself a boomer shooter, but it's more of an amalgamation of 2005 - 2015 shooter tropes. [hr][/hr] [h2] GAME DESIGN FRUSTRATIONS: [/h2] - The level design is linear in nature, but while not boomer-shooter esque, I actually much prefer it. I for one don't enjoy navigating confusing labyrinth, and the levels keep a nice forward momentum here (most of the time). - Annoying Compass and quest objective list which CANNOT be turned off and break immersion something fierce. - Game holds your hand harder than any "boomer shooter" out there. There is no need for the compass and objective list to be on screen at all times when you have a dedicated button which tell you where to go if you get lost. It's a great addition, but so many things telling you where to go in the middle of gameplay is redundant and super distracting. - Pitiful enemy variety, repeated over and over for how overly long the campaign is. I would chalk it up to animation budget, but they have enough money to make multiple skins for the same enemy type. Why not use that to make enemies that behave and shoot different? - You unlock shortcuts and movement powers, but when you revisit several levels, your powers are taken away and all the shortcuts are relocked. SO WHATS THE POINT? - Invisible walls go up and block backtracking WAY TOO MUCH for no real reason. - The game is also very poorly optimized for what it is. They could have done a much better job. [hr][/hr] [h2] LACK OF CREATIVITY & COMMITMENT TO AESTETICS: [/h2] - Lacks much of the creativity of old cartoons from the 1930's. Only 1 level with somewhat surreal imagery. There is an over abundance of mouse characters, almost no squash and stretch, some of the first person animations actually being TOO smooth, with lines being way too clean. - The weapon arsenal is painfully stock and done before hundreds of times. Give me a revolver that shoots piranhas. A nailgun that shoots homing bees. Give me a mine that is actually a portable hole that smaller enemies fall in to. Let my fully charged punch extend his arm out 6 feet. The most creative it gets is a gun that shoots acid and another gun that uses frozen milk. - Text is WAY to small to read in many cases. - Can turn the audio quality down to imitate older cartoons, but it only applies to some sound effects and not all of them, and it doesn't affect some voice lines. - Minor nitpick, currency scaling isn't even right for the time it’s set in. [hr][/hr] [h2] BAD DIALOGUE: [/h2] - Story is good, but the dialogue ranges from okay to cringeworthy. They feel the need to forcefully insert modern pop culture references and shove it in your face. They don't even put it in places where they belong. You could be going about your business then they will recite a 5 year old outdated meme with no rhyme or reason. It is immersion shattering and was almost enough to make be delete the game from my harddrive. References that aren’t even subtle "potions seller out of nowhere", Dark Souls 2 jokes, Funko Pop collectibles, modern slang, and reference modern devices not invented for dozens of years afterward. - The game treats a character that ACTIVLY FACILITATES A ETHNIC CLEANSING AS AN INNOCENT MISTAKE. LIKE "WHOOPSIE HE DIDNT REALIZE THE NAZIS WERE EVIL HAHA SHRUG". - And finally, game doesn't properly credit voice actors according to their role. Just dumps them in the credits without proper role credits. This practice needed to stop 30 years ago. [hr][/hr] [h2] GOOD: [/h2] - Good Soundtrack - Good animation, even if sorta inaccurate to the era. - Generally good level design when doors don’t close arbitrarily (I prefer linear level designs like this personally.) - The prop and mesh paintings are nicely drawn. - Great signposting 90% of the time, to the pint the compass and sweepers guide arent really needed. have to compliment the designers with tackling the challenge of making the levels clearly navigable even with the entirely greyscale design. Bravo! [hr][/hr] The game is well worth the money, but is seriously flawed in most aspects. It's not bad, and I know the devs worked hard, but it has snags which bring down the experience. If you are curious, give it a shot. It may be seriously flawed, but still worth the money, it's cheap for what it is.