Review | Duck Detective: The Secret Salami - Quacking The Case

I’ve been an avid fan of the mystery genre from a young age, having devoured The Complete Sherlock Holmes Collection and the various iterations of The Kindaichi Case Files, and even enjoyed the (surprisingly faithful) anime adaptation of Agatha Christie's Great Detectives Poirot and Marple. Naturally, this love of mystery extended to video games, and one of my greatest gaming highlights remains the triumph felt from putting the pieces together and unravelling the bigger picture in Her Story. When it came to diving into Duck Detective: The Secret Salami, there was a similar feeling of being thrust into an investigation and having to rely on wit and intuition to puzzle out the truth.

Stepping into the shoes of the Duck Detective involves waddling through scenes, sniffing out clues, and questioning a cast of colourful characters. Imagine a wacky animal noir mixed with a sprinkle of Return of the Obra Dinn and The Case of the Golden Idol; the more you uncover, the more keywords you'll collect. These keywords fill in the blanks of your case files, like a mad-libs template for mysteries. It takes some serious deduc(k)tive reasoning to put these clues together, figure out who's who, and crack the case wide open.

One of the most satisfying moments in Duck Detective: The Secret Salami came when I was sifting through a jumble of notes in a suggestion box to identify a moody giraffe receptionist. Assembling these scattered clues not only explained her prickly demeanour but also won her over to my side. It’s this sort of casual sleuthing and social engineering that I’ve always dreamt of pulling off but never dared to do in real life.

When the puzzles get tough, the game throws out a lifeline—a hint system that nudges Duck Detective in the right direction. Most of the time, these gentle hints were all I needed. Though, there were a couple of times when I was already close, just missing a tiny detail. Admittedly, these moments had me wishing that the hints were a bit sharper and more direct.

What sets Duck Detective: The Secret Salami apart from its puzzle-adventure influences is its modern setting. It all feels charming and familiar (think bad breakups, workplace parties, and an understaffed business). That sense of familiarity is magnified by characters that slot into recognisable archetypes like the workaholic, the office gossip, and that one weird co-worker. Berlin-based indie developer Happy Broccoli Games cites workplace comedy anime Aggretsuko as one of the game’s inspirations, and the comparison is pretty apt. At the same time, it also reminds me a bit of the Ace Attorney series, where the larger-than-life characters and their struggles feel both real and relatable, all while leaving plenty of room for the absurd.

Thanks to fully voice-acted dialogue, these characters come alive with distinct personalities and accents that make each interaction memorable. Watching anthropomorphic characters wrestle with brusque detective work and everyday office tasks is amusing on its own, but Duck Detective: The Secret Salami goes a step further with genuinely funny writing, right down to one-liners in the fleeting loading screens.

Moving through the environments is equally fun. Bump into an office chair and it swivels convincingly. Waddle over a trash can and it tumbles to the ground, spewing its contents on the floor. With the characters presented as 2D cut-outs against adorable, clean-cut 3D backgrounds, the game achieves a delightful diorama-like effect that beautifully matches the playful tone of the game.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami might only be a couple of hours long, but it's a delightful romp. The characters are charming, the puzzles are clever, and the humour is spot-on. It's perfect for any aspiring detective, human or fowl. Here's hoping we see more adventures from our feathered gumshoe!

Review Roundup

Pros:

● Charming characters

● Witty writing

● Incredible voice acting

● Solving mysteries feels satisfying

Cons:

● Sometimes the hint system isn’t the most intuitive

● Wish the game was longer