Duck Detective: The Secret Salami

[b]Duck Detective always finds the quackin’ perp![/b] In Duck Detective: The Secret Salami, we play as, you guessed it, a duck who is also a detective. However, he’s a “down on his luck” duck as he’s freshly divorced, still in the addicting arms of bread, and struggling for money. After gathering himself after a particularly hard night, his phone rings. Our little Duck Detective, or Eugene McQuacklin, may have embarrassed himself when he picked up the phone, but he has a client and a new case to solve! The case? The mystery of who’s stealing your client’s lunch. Overall, I did enjoy the story and was engaged throughout. I quite liked talking to all the different characters here and trying to figure things out with a cast that were really mainly focused on what they were doing rather than helping you investigate the case. You also do get a peak into the people’s lives, as you get to learn a bit about them and the day still continues despite you being there. I did also like how someone stealing a lunch was what uncovered everything else that was going on here. I honestly was not expecting the game to go into serious crimes with how lighthearted the game looks and is. Not to mention…

The game itself is well put together. I didn’t encounter any bugs, the mechanics make sense, and the art style is cute. My two main qualms: 1. It’s too short. 2. There is no real satisfaction to be had in figuring something out. I honestly thought the first case would be the first of like, three or something. Nope. It wasn’t, but I could at least live with that if I was emotionally invested in the story and/or the characters, but… Nope. There really wasn’t enough time to get to know any of them, and while some of the surface level details are cute, I wouldn’t be able to say I had a favourite, or that I ultimately cared what happened to anybody. The case was pretty straightforward, and if I ever got stuck, I found I could just jam random words into the blanks until something fit, more often than not. And like I mentioned prior, there was no real satisfaction in figuring out anything - no major plot twists, no big new location that opens up for exploration… nothing. It could be that I was looking for something a little more meaty and harrowing, like Obra Dinn or Roottrees, and what I ended up with was the cosy version of that, which was a little too cosy for my tastes. I guess…

It's simple. It's cute. It's silly. A funny short little game where you get hired to find out who is stealing lunches from the local bus station office, and it quickly spirals into a grand conspiracy. It's a low-stakes whodunnit with a small but interesting cast of characters, simple but engaging fill-in-the-blank puzzles, and fully voice acted dialogue. It runs great on Steam Deck, and the controls are very simple and intuitive. Great if you're looking for something lighthearted and funny to pass the time.

This game was super fun! I initially worried about the mystery being too easy and was pleasantly surprised with the way it actually unfolded. It was short, sweet, and fun. I'd definitely recommend it.

I love making deducktions

The story was very interesting and the humour in it is very clever.