IGN's Insane Mouse PI For Hire Review - Luke Reacts

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]up to my limit with IGN's shenanigans because there's an old saying, never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

[00:00:11]And we've covered many stories of IGN's rank incompetence across the board with so many different things. There's of course the Ark Raiders preview which was unbelievably bad. Like it it was shocking where like he was playing on a potato. melee weapon is a pickaxe. The same weapon Fortnite metverse heroes dropping off of battle buses lug into combat. That's a cute enough homage, but it's only the tip of the iceberg for the ways arc raiders will be instantly comprehensible for those who play battle royale, tree punching survival games.

[00:00:44]>> He mentions multiple times like Fortnite specifically, >> ambushes against groups of foes. Whether calling out directions, overhearing sounds, or covering all windows in a room, your threeperson squad will find plenty of tension waiting in most buildings.

[00:01:00]Cleverly designed maps draw the characters in. The most lucrative resource hubs are clearly marked, and players flock to the richest areas looking for food or hover between the treasures in the extraction areas, waiting to dispossess the luckiest foragers of their well-worn games. Yeah, >> the environments are passable with the usual collection of rusty warehouses, abandoned apartment buildings, and overgrown vacant lots you'll find in a lot of post-apocalyptic shooters.

[00:01:23]Everything is serviceable, but it all kind of feels like they gave Fortnite a coat of Daisy Grime and moved on.

[00:01:31]What? It feels like they gave Fortnite a coat of like Daisy Grime, moved. What game are you playing? Like, what game are you even playing? Like, this was bad. And I was like, "Okay, well, maybe it's a contracted writer and like he just had a weird take." Um, and they let him go along with recording footage on a potato. Like there's this there's also the repeated instances of them capturing footage poorly and exporting it in like laughable quality. Um, like again, this video was exported at 1080p 50 frames per second. I didn't even know YouTube would let you do that. Okay. But they do apparently you can actually upload the these videos in 1080p 50. Like it's it's just unreal. Um other things they did with like Star Wars Outlaws, they did multiple capture sessions to show gameplay, but they compressed the video so much that people complained that the the game looked bad and blurry when the original raw footage did not look like that. But because they poorly encoded it and overcompressed everything just to put their logo over top, it made the game look bad. Same thing happened with uh Mafia the Old Country where they had trailers for that which were so compressed people thought that there was something wrong with the game when it was just their own incompetence. Okay.

[00:02:52]Um, and so previously where I've left it off is just saying there is some sort of quality control issue at IGN where they don't seemingly I think it's the editorial staff, the people in charge that give the thumbs up, thumbs down on whether something is allowed to be posted. Uh, there's some problem where they're either not checking or their standards are laughably low because I never would have let that video get uploaded on any of my channels. just ignoring like the bad take and bad takes, but just in terms of quality, I would never have let that go. And I'm not a 19 or 20 million sub channel with a massive online presence and website doing multi-million dollar deals with brands. I'm not doing that. And my standard is high enough that I wouldn't let that happen. And so there's a a quality standard. But at some point, you know, repeated instances of negligence or of incompetence, I think at some point I it's not acceptable anymore. Like at some point, I'm not going to just handwave it away and be like, "Oh, well, they just don't know better. They're just bad at their jobs." Like at some point if you know that there's a problem and you refuse to fix it after months or even years of that being brought to your attention then I think you are being consciously aware and consciously negligent which removes you from all all forgiveness consideration. Like if you know there's a problem and you refuse to fix it, you don't get to then play the victim or play stupid when you get called out for something happening again. What am I referring to? Well, there's been a couple more instances.

[00:04:26]For one, they're they're uh we could point to like the Crimson Desert review, um where they gave it a six out of 10, and they're allowed to not like games.

[00:04:35]That's fine. Uh but the blowback from the review was so strong that the individual who wrote the review has uh already been speaking of doing a re-review of it to give it a new score.

[00:04:47]and he's apparently already talked to his um editorial leadership about it. Um that was one of the first instances in uh the first like last month or two.

[00:04:58]High guard is another one where there were multiple instances of IGN playing defense for High Guard. Um calling out people who said this game doesn't make any sense. Why are we not seeing more gameplay footage? Why are we not seeing any of this stuff? What is going on with it? And uh they refused to like seriously engage with any of that discourse and instead chose to lecture gamers who found the game wanting and uninteresting or bland or poorly marketed and said that it was a problem with us. We weren't giving the game a chance. We were just hating on it. We wanted the game to fail and that means we're not real gamers. They were trying to call people tourists, gaming tourists if they thought that something was weird about this game. Like the gaslighting was off the charts. a lot of contempt for the average everyday gamer in that.

[00:05:46]Um, and then you see other things like this where like the mouse PI for higher review. I was like, okay, a 6 out of 10.

[00:05:52]I think the game's fantastic. I don't know how you get to a six out of 10, but okay, let's see. Dude, I thought this was a joke. Somebody clipped this and uh showed it to me. I thought it was like literally a meme, but no, this is actually what it says. Okay, one of my major problems. This is from the IGN review of Mouse PI for Hire. Bear in mind, this is a game where you play as uh a private investigator mouse where you're hunting down like a crime syndicate uh in a 1934 setting. It's filled with cheese puns and it's written to be irreverent and silly. It's rubber hose animation. Like, it is cheesy.

[00:06:35]Exactly. It's cheesy. This is what he unironically wrote. Okay, again, I cannot stress this enough. This is actually in their review. This is actually here. That brings me to one of my major problems with Mouse PI for Hire. Look, I hate to be the guy who brings up Ludo narrative dissonance in a video game review of in the year of our lore 2026. And if you're rolling your eyes right now, I can't blame you.

[00:06:56]Okay, I sense a butt. But but it's an actual issue here. Okay, ludon narrative dissonance. If you're not familiar with this term, that's fine. Basically, ludo narrative dissonance is this thing that happens in some games where like to use an example uh often Uncharted 4 is brought up as or just Uncharted in general where you're playing as a guy Nathan Drake who's supposed to be a good guy but as you go through levels he's killing dozens or hundreds of enemies, right? So, it's like he's a good guy but he's a mass murdering psychopath if you think about it that way. What most human beings do who play video games and like playing video games is they go a video game.

[00:07:44]It's a video game.

[00:07:47]Like it's I'm down to talk about it, but there are certain things in games you just kind of have to turn your brain off to. Like this is the same energy as being like uh well I can't take The Last of Us seriously. The player doesn't have to take a bathroom break ever. Like, it's ridiculous. Have you ever seen Arthur Morgan go and sit in a porta-potty? No. See, it's because the writing's bad.

[00:08:09]It's like, no, it's a video game. He says, "Jack Pepper is a PI who kills more people." He He kills other anthropomorphized small animals uh throughout the course of the game because it's a video game about mice and cheese puns. He kills more people in a single mission than Philip Marlo has in every book Raymond Chandler ever wrote combined. I don't care how corrupt the cops are. A private detective can't break into a police station and slaughter them on mass and then go about his day. I think this also shows potentially that there there's lines of dialogue in the game. No spoilers. Uh, but there's lines of dialogues uh dialogue in the game that refer to those police officers. I think the ones he's talking about um as being members of like this this sort of criminal organization that are disguised as cops, that are dressed up as cops. So, I'm not even sure if if they're actual cops in the mission he's talking about. I'd have to go back and double check. Also, it's a video game.

[00:09:08]In one particularly nonsensical scenario, again, this is a game about mice and cheese. I just want to keep stressing this. In one particularly nonsensical scenario, Jack inadvertently burns down an opera house to save a guy running for mayor and he ends up fighting an opera singer and shoots her.

[00:09:25]Is she dead? Did I just kill an actress for being angry I burned down her workplace? If I didn't, have I left her alive and unconscious inside a burning building? Mouse PF for hire doesn't tell me, and it doesn't seem to care either way.

[00:09:46]It's a video game about a freaking mouse detective in 1934 making cheese puns fighting anthropomorphized mice, crocodile, not crocodiles, alligators, uh, bugs while making fondue puns. Like whenever Jack Pepper gets back from a mission and he wants to take a load off, he drinks a shot of fondue, but they never explained why he fought the opera singer in the opera level.

[00:10:24]Like it's moments like these where like this pseudo intellectualism, it's kind of just frustrating. And I listen, I I've been guilty of this same kind of thing before. like when I was doing these um critiques where sometimes I was trying so hard to find something to critique, something to poke at, you know, excuse me, that sometimes I would end up poking holes in something that didn't have a hole in it before, like kind of making my own problems. And that's the problem with poking holes when you're reviewing something uh that you eventually learn to avoid doing and you kind of get the experience to not do it anymore is that you you'll end up poking holes in something that didn't have a hole because you just wanted something that to poke at. You wanted something to be able to talk about. And this is one of those instances where it's like he's upset that the game is not written like The Last of Us when it's a game about mice and cheese.

[00:11:23]Like I'm I just at some point I can't take this seriously, you know? Like it's actually ridiculous.

[00:11:32]It's actually ridiculous. Okay. Um and this is why it goes back again to the editorial staff. If I asked like let's say hypothetically I asked uh Jacob or something, hey Jay, we're going to try something. I'm going to be the editor.

[00:11:44]You're going to write a review for this game. If he brought this to my desk, I'd be like, I'm not sure I want this review representing my brand because I think we're just I think a lot of this is stretching. Like, it's it's a lot of stretching. Yeah, this one is good. Uh uh what is it?

[00:12:03]Tesarion, thank you for for the message.

[00:12:05]Why is Kratos so angry? Why is he killing people? Why doesn't he just talk to them? Yeah, dude. It's the same energy. It's the same energy. It's like um no one ever stopped to ask why Donkey Kong kidnapped Princess Peach and and why Mario felt the need to save her.

[00:12:24]Does Mario have a white saver complex?

[00:12:26]Maybe it's not his place to save the princess. Maybe the princess can save herself. Women can do everything a man can do. She doesn't need a plumber.

[00:12:34]You know, why is a plumber saving a princess? Shouldn't he be fixing pipes?

[00:12:38]I'm just asking questions. Like, it's so stupid. It's so stupid. But the kudigra of all of this. Okay, this is going to actually if it doesn't piss you off, I don't know what does. This is the moment where I get like actually what the hell are we doing? And I I cannot read this. And this is one of the mo those moments where I really really struggle to explain this away as anything other than like malicious or so grossly incompetent that it's effectively malicious. Okay, what am I referring to? Well, there's this game that just came out that's really good, by the way, that you should absolutely check out. Um, you've probably seen little snippets of it in trailers. It's called Replaced. It's this like 2.5D art style. I've talked about it before. or it was a highlight of Summer Games Fest last or two years ago. Um, finally released. It's out. You can play it now.

[00:13:34]It's on Game Pass if you want to try it.

[00:13:36]Really, really good. Okay. In the game, you play as your character is like an AI trapped in a human body exploring an alternative reality 1980s setting. It's very like cyberpunk and it's very cool.

[00:13:51]Very cool. What did IGN do? IGN wrote a review where they gave it a seven, lol.

[00:13:58]Um, same score as Concord and Highguard, but they posted this as the headline of their review. Replaced is a gripping and gorgeous 2.5D action platformer, even though this AI based adventure could do with a system update to completely iron out the bugs.

[00:14:18]AI based adventure.

[00:14:21]If you work in any tech sector or any online anything, you know, putting AI based in the title of the article makes it really sound like it's an AI game.

[00:14:34]Like they used AI generation to make the game. That's what it sounds like. It's an AI based game.

[00:14:42]What do you mean?

[00:14:44]So naturally, people start going in the comments like, I I was looking forward to this. I didn't realize it was AI based. I didn't realize that I guess I'm canceling my pre-order. I'm doing all people started reacting to it based on the headline which is very very misleading. And you can see immediately add readers added uh added context. The term AI based in IGN's review refers to the game story theme about artificial intelligence, not AI used in development. The developers confirmed it was 100% handcrafted with no generative AI. And they've actually had to go on and you can see they've had to start replying to people on this original post which has since been deleted. Uh IGN did delete it. I say the damage is already kind of done. And they're having to go uh through all of this and say just to clarify the game has not used any generative AI. What IGN is referring to is the story that's about an AI in an alternative in 1980s America. It's 100% handcrafted by humans. You can see uh like it's just insane. Like I I really struggled to read into this any other thing than either the editorial staff is so disconnected >> that they didn't even read through it >> super chat >> or they they don't care to the point when they should and it's unacceptable.

[00:15:59]>> Dad was killed by an anthropomorphic mouse detective. It's really traumatizing for me. I mean him. He still has nightmares and I wake up.

[00:16:08]>> I mean, he wakes up crying. Yeah, this Oh, this is this is Will's mom. He Yeah, he didn't get it. His dad was killed by an anthropomorphic mouse detective. That explains it. That explains it. It's trauma. It's generational trauma. Wow.

[00:16:26]Thank you for the 20 U. Yeah, it's it's just like I again and then people are like jumping on uh Lauram Ipsum if you don't know Lauram Ipsum this like the the Latin text that's often used as placeholders now people are trying to say like um it's definitely lazy shame so stupid telling devs of a video game while you're like sitting on your couch tweeting be like uh you should be ashamed of using placeholder text. Uh, not AI generated placeholder text, like normal Latin phrases that are used as placeholders across all of academia and everything. Like, it's just crazy. It's really funny. Um, but again, this is one where I cannot just explain this away as uh, oopsie oopsie. They even did it in the sub subtext of their review score.

[00:17:19]Sadcat Studios should be commended for crafting such a gripping and gorgeous 2.5D action platformer. Even though replaced is one AI based adventure that could do with a system update. This for the reviewer to not realize what this sounds like is unacceptable because I feel like anybody could could realize what that sounds like. But for the editorial staff to not notice it and not call it out and ask for it to be tweaked is even more egregious and more ridiculous and unacceptable. This is why like so many gamers don't just feel like IGN is incompetent, but feel like at times they are particularly malicious towards certain games. Like the fact that they are so disproportionately opposed to like Blackmth Wukong. They wrote all sorts of hit pieces against that studio. I showed you guys that one that was the most insane thing I've ever read where they put together this article in 2023 and their final piece of evidence like they were trying to say that the developers were were bigots and you shouldn't play the game and you should like basically trying to like get the game cancelled. And the final point or one of the final points that they bring up is um specifically when they bring up the logo of the game, let me just show you. Okay. The studio is called Game Science. They said the studio was sexist because the logo looked like a sperm. They said that logo looking like a sperm was therefore a justification for them saying like part of their their uh slate of evidence. And it was like their final nail in the coffin was why you shouldn't uh engage with them because they're sexist. Look, they they made a sperm logo, which is not what it is to be clear. It's a projectile from like a gun. Uh like a laser weapon thing. Um it was just like insane, but it was like their final piece of evidence to wrap up their whole article. And I was like, "Guys, I think we're actually getting insane." For one, even if it is a sperm, how is that sexist? Like, if it was a picture of two fallopian tubes, would that be sexist? Like, what are we doing, man? It's delusional. But that's my point is that the the editorial staff at IGN is so laughably not just bad, but like I don't know if it's if it's that they're just trying to farm outrage for clicks. That very well could be what it is is that they knew that this article would start spinning around calling it AI based and so they decided to run with it because they knew that it would get easy clicks. Maybe that's what they were doing. Same with the game science stuff. They knew that that was ridiculous. But like if somebody brought that across my desk and I was reading it, like you can't be serious. You actually want us to publish this even as an op-ed. Like really? You want us to put our title on? We're not doing that. Like if I were the editor, I'd be like, "What are we doing?" This is why no one takes companies like IGN seriously anymore. Why people see IGN and immediately start going, "Oh, well, you can't spell ignorant without IGN."

[00:20:12]You can see that they post that they put it gave it a 6 out of 10. That just tells me it's a great game. IGN stepping on a rake again. Nothing new. Like at some point IGN should wake up. And this is not just IGN. This is true of a lot of different companies, but these these companies like IGN, PC Gamer, whoever, uh, Hero Gamer, they should all wake up and realize like if they want to be taken seriously by their their own customers, effectively, their readers, they have to raise their standards. Like they cannot keep doing this. The fact that some dude sitting in a basement has higher video standards than they do is ridiculous. It is ridiculous. They should be going and investing heavily.

[00:20:52]It should be like a freaking NFL production whenever IGN does any coverage of anything. Instead, you're lucky if their video is over 50 frames a second. You're lucky if it's not compressed to high holy hell. You know, like it's just insane that they keep doing this and there is no desire seemingly from editorial staff to get any major improvements made. It's ridiculous. It's unacceptable. and they should be ashamed of themselves because even if even if you say that the author of the replaced review did not mean to say AI based in that way, even though a normal reading of it implies that the game is made by AI, even if you say it was some sort of oversight and they didn't catch it, again, the editorial staff still should have caught it. But even if you say somehow everybody was sick with the flu and was high on pot news when they were reviewing all of this, there should be some amends because like this that very likely cost replaced sales. Hopefully if you're watching this segment and you you hear all of this, it gets you interested enough to go check out the game on Steam, go check it out on Game Pass or whatever and maybe download it and play it yourself. Hopefully that's what happens and we can level the playing field a little bit and help them out.

[00:22:07]But no doubt that IGN article, the way they posted it caused people to cancel it from their wish list and to to walk away from it even though they were interested because they thought it was an AI generated game based on IGN's reporting. Like this is where it's whether like whatever the justification is for it happening, the fact that it happened harmed the studio, harmed this small team making a video game that is great. It harmed them because of their incompetence. That's why I don't feel bad about describing them as like a gang of buffoons. Occasionally you get a solid video from IGN and it's like what?

[00:22:45]This video is exported at 4K 60. This video has like proper voice over without typos and and weird grammar mistakes.

[00:22:54]What?

[00:22:56]What?

[00:22:57]Like that's why it's shocking when they do the bare minimum. It's considered an overwhelming success for them. But they still keep landing massive contracts with these companies to promote their games, do IGN first looks and all that.

[00:23:10]It's it's insane. It's unacceptable. And I I beg and plead studios, stop giving IGN your time and attention. Reach out to either smaller outlets, individual creators, whatever you need to do. Hell, reach out to New Game Plus. Reach out to us. We can help you, too, cuz at least we know what the hell we're doing. even if you don't give us, you know, the the opportunity, go to someone else because IGN sure as hell is not giving you the right treatment. They're they keep doing this kind of crap. And whether it's intentional or not, it's unacceptable either way. Tell you what, look here.

[00:23:45]Look, listen.

[00:23:49]He took my thing.

[00:23:55]Red flag.

[00:24:00]16 times detail.