Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a great package; between a solid core gameplay loop and excellent presentation, it’s a fantastic play that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
An Overview of Duck Detective
In Duck Detective, you play Eugene McQuacklin, a down-on-his-luck and bread-addicted sleuth who’s called to catch the Salami Bandit by an unknown client at the local bus station. Did I mention that every character in this mystery is anthropomorphic? For the game’s two to three-hour run time, you’ll seek out clues, talk to witnesses and build cases against the employees of the bus station. Each step that you take in your investigation will lead to more clues and more unanswered questions. It’s your job as the player to figure all of that out.
I’ll just come out and re-state my case: this game is great. It works so well for two main reasons. The core gameplay loop is mostly great and the game’s presentation is top-notch.
Duck Detective’s Gameplay Will Hook You
The genre is in the name of this one; it’s a detective game. If you’re familiar with Color Gray Games’ The Case of the Golden Idol, you will be right at home here. For those unfamiliar with the genre, you’re playing a cross between an adventure game and Mad Libs. You’ll examine and cross-examine characters as well as poke around the office to gain words to fill your case files. Once you have gathered all of the clues in a particular area, you can apply them to some mysteries held within your “Deducktions” glossary. Gather words, and solve mysteries and the story around you will advance giving you new key items, areas and characters to interact with. Rinse and repeat until you’re able to solve the ultimate mystery behind the Salami Bandit and his Secret Salami.
The world of Duck Detective is relatively small, but there’s a great amount of clue density and characters to explore within the game’s small footprint. Furthermore, adding rooms and moving characters around the play area ensures that you’re not bored while playing the game. My two biggest complaints with the game involve clue gathering and mystery solving. First, the process of gathering clues from characters is a little simplistic. You’ll be asked to move a magnifying glass around a character’s body and highlight areas of interest to get words. It just gets repetitive quickly. Second, some of the later puzzles aren’t as strong and require small leaps in the logic that the game doesn’t necessarily telegraph in the best way.
Duck Detective’s Presentation Will Wow You
Despite the game’s small scale and run time, three aspects of the game’s presentation wowed me: the art, the writing and the voice acting.
Character art in the game reminded me of early games in the Paper Mario series; characters had a flat, paper-like design and waddled around the world like papercraft puppets on a popsicle stick adding to the game’s charm. Full 3D worlds surround the 2D characters; the models are relatively basic and clean, likely by design and lead to a vibrant world to bop around within. There’s a lot of love in the environment too; you experience it through small easter eggs like knocking over trash and spinning office chairs for a laugh. There are also small vignettes at a few points in the game that help advance the store. These are top-notch.
Beyond that, the game’s writing is sharp. You will undoubtedly chuckle a few times an hour as you meet the eclectic mix of characters in this one. For a game of this size, I was surprised by the full voice acting within it – the performances help elevate the great writing. Sean Chiplock carries the game as the titular Duck Detective. His performance leaned into a mix of gruff P.I. and Inspector Gadget. It worked on so many levels for me. The secondary characters also help this one shine. Particularly, I found myself smiling more than once at characters like Brian David Gilbert’s Freddy Frederson.
A Rainy Day Salami
If you’re looking for a fun mystery adventure game to play with a friend or significant other, I highly recommend you check out Duck Detective: The Secret Salami. With its 2-3 hour runtime, it’s a perfect sit-down experience for a rainy summer day. I can’t wait for the next game from the Happy Broccoli Games.
Final Score: 8/10
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this feature. Reviewed on PC (Steam). Also available on Mac/Linux, Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series X|S.
Price: $9.99 USD/$12.99 CAD
If you’re looking for another great mystery to sink your teeth into, check out my review of Varney Lake!
Jacob is a creator marketing professional, and a fan of video games. He produces the Left Behind Game Club and Cutscenes podcasts as well as Video Game Trivia on YouTube.
