What I'm Playing: Duck Detective and the Secret Salami
Duck Detective and the Secret Salami might be the perfect weekend gaming pick. It’s adorable, easy to pick up, and has some great voice acting. I don’t know what took me so long to get around to this, I remember hearing about it back when it came out, but like many smaller games and indie games that sound cool, when you have the time to play a new game you’ve already forgotten about it!
But being snowed in recently on the East coast gave me some time to try out some games that I had been wanting to play for a while now. First up on the list was Duck Detective, and character that looks and acts like a noir-style detective, but thrust into this ridiculous case of a stolen lunch at a bus service office (don’t worry, the crime gets worse after more investigation). In this game you play the Duck Detective, a down on his luck private eye (that’s also a duck) who gets called into an office to catch the dreaded Salami Bandit! Over the course of three or so hours you’ll interrogate the staff, who are all various animals, and investigate the crime scene to look for clues. You’ll eventually piece everything together in your notebook which will then give you new things to talk about with everyone, or move the next part of the story along.
The characters and their writing are a bit part of what makes this game so appealing. I really enjoyed talking to everyone, and the duck detective himself is very entertaining as he is always using that noir-style serious voice-over kind of tone in everything he does. I will say that the game did get pretty challenging near the end, as the deductions you’re putting together in the notebook get quite lengthy and complicated. The game gives you good notes in the notebook to reference, but I kind of wish there was some kind of relationship chart so I could keep track of who was whose ex or who liked who, it all got pretty tangled by the end and it made it harder to keep everything straight.
There’s already a sequel out, Duck Detective and the Ghost of Glamping, so I’m sure it won’t be long until I’m interviewing kooky animals and lamenting my wife leaving me due to my bread addiction once again. I would definitely recommend this game if you’re looking for a quick, cute and fun gaming fix!