Duck Detective: The Secret Salami
Developer: Happy Broccoli Games
Publisher: Happy Broccoli Games
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Verified
Rrp: £8.50 (Gog and Steam)
Released: 24th May 2024
Available on: Gog and Steam
Played Using: Mouse
First I played Frog Detective, then Chicken Police and now Duck Detective… I’m beginning to see a pattern. Self-deprecating jokes aside, this game is actually pretty damned good and, despite the very silly premise, needed some real deduction to solve. Well, unless you choose to brute force it, but even then you have to do a certain amount of leg work to find the words to brute force it with.
But before we get into the gameplay itself lets introduce the character you play as.
Eugene McQuaklin is the Duck Detective, he’s also a recent divorcee and a bread addict, because every detective needs some kind of vice (apart from Frog Detective who just loves doing the job). Duck Detective is down on his luck and struggling to make ends meet and at this point is willing to take on any job.
So, back to the gameplay. As you explore the surroundings and speak to the various suspects you’ll be given words. These words allow you to fill in a madlibs style ‘deducktion’ to make sense of what is going on. However, just getting the words isn’t enough, to really solve the mystery you need to pay attention to how and where those words came from along with little details in the environment. Perhaps someone made an offhand comment about someone else or a note mentioning an important detail that you would need to find elsewhere. The context matters just as much as the word and the deduction itself.
It’s a short game, I finished it in just a bit under three hours, but I fully intend on getting the sequel as I enjoyed every moment. Not every game needs to be an epic after all.
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
Developer: Happy Broccoli Games
Publisher: Happy Broccoli Games
Steam Deck Compatibility?: Verified
Rrp: £8.50 (Gog and Steam)
Released: 22nd May 2025
Available on: Gog and Steam
Played Using: Mouse
I have to say it’s quite impressive how quickly the developers have managed to create this game, just shy of a year by two days.
The game itself takes place a few months after the events of the first game. The Duck Detective finds himself in a new living situation having been evicted from his apartment. He’s still down on his luck but fortune smiles upon him and hands him another case to distract him from his worries, at least temporarily.
This might seem like a bit of a cop-out but there is very little to mention here that I didn’t already speak of in the last game, it maintains the same style, the humour and general vibe is the same too. Hell it’s even a similar length to the first game. Perhaps that’s why the turn around in development was so quick, and I don’t say that as a criticism I think the art style they have is perfect for what they’re going for so there’s no need to change it and nothing needs to change with the gameplay as the control scheme works perfectly.
That being said, there are two small changes that I think make the game better. The first being the inclusion of a map within your notebook which shows you where characters are and also if there are still clues in the area. The second being the ability to look back at previous pieces of evidence within your notebook, this can be very handy with later parts of the case as there are hidden clues that don’t just immediately pop out.
Just like with the first game it’s a fairly short affair, taking about two to three hours. If they make a third I’ll certainly be getting it.
