After a year of waiting, Duck Detective is back to throw bread at the beak of fine lady justice. Are you interested in trying to quack another case and use your Deducktion skills to the fullest? Or are you sick of my bird puns already? Let me at least first tell you what this game is all about.
The right duck for the job
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is the sequel to Duck Detective: The Secret Salami. It has been developed and published by the Berlin-based indie studio Happy Broccoli Games. Once again, you take on the role of Eugene McQuacklin, a hard-boiled detective haunted by a failed marriage and a bread addiction. This time, McQuacklin’s roommate and crime-solving partner, Freddy Fredderson, invites him on a camping trip with his mysterious girlfriend. When things take a dramatic turn at the campsite, the Duck Detective must don his trench coat once more. Luckily for him, he never takes it off in the first place.
The main gameplay mechanic in the Duck Detective series is the ‘Deducktion’ system. You are presented with a question in the Duck Detective notebook related to the case. You talk to non-player characters (NPCs) and rummage through their stuff in search of clues. You are rewarded with words that you can use to fill in the blanks. If I were to compare it to a more mainstream indie game, I would say it’s similar to how you solve cases in the Golden Idol games. However, unlike in those games, you aren’t just observing the scene; you can go and talk to everyone and ask them questions. Solving a prompt enables Duck Detective to think further, revealing more and more pieces of the truth, which can sometimes result in a cutscene.
Ducks, Alligators and Capibaras
Happy Broccoli Games describe themselves as follows: We make character-focused games that let players escape into our magical worlds! You can clearly see the fruits of their efforts because the characters are the star of the show. The cast is small, starring about ten different animals. A Capibara, a pigeon, a deer? Everybody is different. The cast may be small but they all have a lot of character to bring to the story, and everyone (except from the buss driver who is only brings you to the campsite) has a part to play in solving this case. If you take a liking to someone in this game, you will be sure to meet them again along the way. The two main characters however, steal the show for me. Freddy was my favourite in the last game, and I was happy to see him in a bigger roll this time around. His happy, energetic attitude pairs well with McQuacklin, who (tries to be) more serious and brooding. They are written in such a believable way, that I often found myself laughing out loud at silly situations.
Adding to the finished product is the art style. The animals look and behave like paper figures walking around the pages of a pop-up artbook. And when you decide to take a closer look at them with your looking glass you get an overly detailed version of the character. Alltogether, I sometimes forgot I was playing an indie game made by a small team because it felt like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Keep it short and simple
Duck detective isn’t hard. It took me about two hours to complete the game and collect all the trophies. I had a fun time all the way trough, but I kept asking myself: Did I get my monies worth? Does a game need to be longer to be more enjoyable?
I can see how some people would feel bad, paying nine euros for a game that you can finish in the same time that you would could watch a movie. Game prices is a topic that keeps gamers in discussion. Tripple A games promise massive worlds for seventy dollars, and there are rumours that the prices will even go up in the future. Nintendo’s Mario kart at the helm of this movement. It is hard to say who is wrong or right about this question, and I doubt we will see the big corporations go back on this decision. All I can say is that I hope to see indie developers continue to pour their heart out in tittles like this one. Even of their games are sometimes shorter, I rather pay eighty euros for four great games that stay with me in the following years, then on one big game where I may put a hundred hours in and may not even finish.
Conclusion
Duck Detective: The Ghost Of Glamping is a short and cosy game. The character driven story lets you encounter a small but fleshed out cast while unravelling the secrets at the camping site. The game may not be difficult but the ride was fun all the way trough. It left me wanting more once again. I hope to see Eugene McQuacklin return in the future (and I have a feeling he will)…
