Duck Detective was a game my sister recommended since we are both fans of mystery games. It was on sale for $5 during the Summer Sale, so I decided to give it a go.

When I saw the art style, I thought perhaps this game was by the same animation duo that made Later Gator. I looked it up, it’s not, but Duck Detective shares that sort of fun, cutesy art style. The simplified art style and bright colors makes the world pop and everything that needs to stand out does. You can tell a character’s personality by their design, such as the wired customer support rep or the gruff mechanic. The music fits the detective vibe with lots of jazzy, easy listening tunes.

The gameplay mostly involves walking around, examining witnesses, finding clues, and asking questions. Every time Ducktective finds a new clue it’s tied to a word. These are used for word puzzles in your journal that are laid out like structured mad libs. So, the puzzle may be “(Blank) is using the (blank) to frame (blank) at the (blank)”, and you use the word clues you’ve learned to fill in those blanks. I found most of the puzzles were easy enough to puzzle out after some time as long as you were paying attention. It was only towards the end of the game that one of the puzzles felt a bit trial and error. The interaction with the world is handled by a few button presses and all the interactable are marked so you aren’t pixel hunting.

The story is where the real charm of this game lies. You play as the Duck Detective, who is cast in the mold of the classic noir detective stereotypes. He’s broke, down on his luck, divorced, and instead of being an alcoholic, he’s a breadaholic, because he’s a duck. It’s all played for fun. Duck Detective is trying to be brooding and serious in this Animal Crossing-esque world. He’s hired by a bus depot employee to find out who stole their lunch in the breakroom. I wouldn’t call this a kid’s game, but maybe a low-stakes cozy game? There’s no murder in this mystery game.

As you investigate the stolen salami lunch, it turns out there’s a lot more going on at this bus depot. There’s some world building in the background, with the country being split into East & West, like the Cold War era. Now spoilers for this short game. Turns out the awkward employee is being framed and some of the employees are running a salami smuggling ring, bringing in Western salami to sell in the East. Another set of employees are selling bus vouchers online on the downlow. You only arrest the smugglers, not the scalpers. Still the case starts with a missing lunch and ends with half the depot getting arrested.

All in all, this game is a fun bite-sized game. I knocked it out in about 3 hours. The writing was fun and the story progressed at a good pace, I wouldn’t’ve mind the game to be a few hours longer. If you enjoy a snappy story, decent mystery, and fun puzzles, I’d recommend Duck Detective. It won’t set you back too much, so there’s little risk if you don’t like it.