I’m still on an indie dev kick, and I decided to play Duck Detective: The Secret Salami (Happy Broccoli Games). It’s about a duck who is, yes, a detective, and it’s very Sam Spade about the whole thing. Except with animals as the characters, and a very cute pop-up book, cut-out characters visual style. The whole thing is very snappy, and I loved the vibe.
The basic premise is that you play as Eugene, the duck detective. In this game, he gets a call from a mysterious person in the bus company complaining about their lunch being stolen. Eugene goes over and starts interrogating everyone. You get clues from your talks, and the I really like how simple the mechanics are. You hover over an object, and it has three exclamation points you have to find. Each one has a relevant word/phrase for your case files. Or, you could ask suspects questions/observe them, and you would get clues in that way as well.
I will say that some of the ‘deducktions’ (yes, that’s what they were called, and yes, it’s pretty cringeworthy every time I saw/heard it) I had to make weren’t intuitive/did not seem to be what the clues was telling me, but I don’t know how much of that was my fault and how much was the game.
In general, I was able to mash it out because the way to solve each issue was Mad Lib style. There were sentences with blanks, and every time I clicked on one of the blanks, a list of words would pop up. It would tell you helpfully if you had ‘2 or less’ words wrong or ‘3 or more’. There’s a story mode, too, in which it will tell you which answers you got wrong, but I did not turn taht on.
I will admit I had to look up one answer online because I just could not get it. When I looked it up, it turned out that I was looking at the puzzlse (figuring out a safe combination) in the completely wrong way. That’s just because my brain is weird, though, so I’m not mad about that.
I loved the characters, even the most annoying one. Who, I found out later, was voiced by Brian David Gilbert. He used to work for Polygon and now does really crreative and weird vidieos about once a month. He’s also in the second game, and he’s just as annoying in that game! And yet, somehow, he became endearing by the end of the second game. Not because he’s voiced by BDG, but just because of how well-written the games are.
Each game took me about three hours, and I easily platted both of them. I really appreciated that you could get the ten or so achievements in each game mostly just by playing the games. I loved the atmosphere and how the games were just oozing with charm. And the fifties feel to the dialogue with the effortless nods to modern time.
I really appreciate that each game is three hours and not stretched out into twice that much. I didn’t really know what I was going to get when I played the first game because I hadn’t watched anything about it except the reveal trailer back whenever it was announced. I just knew it was about a duck who solved mysteries.
For some reason, I thought it was Eugene solving a half-dozen mysteries or so. Nope. It’s one mystery (though there are a few other mysteries wrapped into that mystery), the titular mystery, in fact. I got way hung up in the first game into thinking the main mystery was the only mystery. It hindered me from figuring out what I needed to do for quite some time.
I really appreciated how briskly the game moved along and how self-assured it was in tone. It never let up with the hammy, over-the-top feel, and I loved it for being that committed. I also really dug how Eugene was a walking trope (heartbroken over his divorce, broke, and addicted to bread), but somehow managed to be 2.5D, anyway (the game is 2D. That’s a joke on my part).
I liked how BDG’s character in the first game was brought over to the second–at the end of the first game, Eugene is too broke to take the bus home, so BDG’s character offers him a ride. At the beginning of the second game, Eugene was thrown out of his apartment beacuse he could not pay rent–so he moved in with BDG’s character. I’m not naming the character, by the way, because part of the joy in the games is figuring out who is who.
What I liked most about these two games is that they had a vision, knew what they wanted to do, and they accomplished all that with flair. The scope was reasonable, and they did everything with a firm, confident hand. There was a beginning, a middle, and an end. There was no padding, and there was no trying to stretch it out. Three hours was exactly right, and I walked away from each game satisfied.
I think there’s going to be a third one given the (not-so) shocking ending of the second game, and I will be more than happy to play that one, too.
The second game, Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping, was very similar to the first game in terms of gameplay. There are a few tweaks that have made the experience better, but it’s pretty much the same as far as what you do to figure out what happened. And it had the same, oh, I thought it was about this, but it’s actually about this feeling that the first game had, too.
I’m fine with that. There was nothing broken in the first game, so there was no reason to fix it. The second game was an improved experience with mostly the same gameplay. It’s very much comfort food at its very best, and I, for one, would like another helping of it.
I wasn’t expecting much from these games when I chose to play them. I was very pleasantly surprised, and maybe that’s something I should keep in mind. I am not one to go for hype, usually, but I have to admit I’ve been let down recently by the indie games I really thought I’d dig. It was refreshirng to play two games that were fun to play, tickled my little gray cells, and came to a satisfiying conclusion. I await with bated breath for Happy Broccoli Games’ next Duck Detective game because I will be happy to step into Eugene’s web feet once again, even if it’s in a — (spoiler).