Duck Detective: The Secret Salami Reviews

Well made and great voice acting, but shockingly little content; This was not a complex or satisfying mystery by any means. It was already over by the time I got invested into it (<2 hours). If this is emblematic of their business model going forward, maybe i'll consider it in 5 years when they bundle 5 of them together for much less than $50.

This was a fun story. Love the art and voice acting.

Short, simple, and silly. Duck Detective is a wonderful, incredibly linear mystery game that does not overstay it's welcome. I spent a Tuesday evening with this title. As a gamer that enjoys playing many titles at once, I appreciate shorter experiences that respect your time & money. At $10, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is low risk, high reward. I strongly recommend this game.

Excellent little mystery if you're looking for something short and easy to digest. Really enjoyed my playthrough! Recommend getting on sale since it is such a short game.

Play Golden Idol 1 or 2 instead. This game is cute with great voice acting and art, but the story is really shallow and the puzzles ever more so. There are also translation issues. The most egregious example being one of the last two deducktions is completely mistranslated and impossible to solve without looking it up or just randomly plugging in answers. I would like to see these developers give a game like this another chance. We need more Golden Idol style games. This one did not meet up to those expectations.

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami – A Stylish but Flawed Mystery Duck Detective: The Secret Salami presents itself as a charming, artistic take on the detective genre, but beneath its stylish visuals and strong voice acting lies a gameplay experience that struggles to deliver on its investigative premise. Presentation & Voice Acting One of the game's strongest aspects is its aesthetic appeal. The visuals are beautifully crafted, offering a distinct, artistic charm that makes every scene enjoyable to look at. Complementing this is the top-tier voice acting, which brings personality to the characters and enhances the game’s atmosphere. From a production standpoint, the game is polished and well-executed. Gameplay & Investigation Mechanics While the core gameplay feels fluid and responsive, the detective mechanics leave much to be desired. The process of gathering clues often feels pointless, as much of the information provided is unnecessary and cluttered. Rather than guiding players toward a logical deduction, the game relies on trial and error, forcing you to randomly experiment with different words until you reach the correct conclusion. Conversations with suspects are superficial and lack meaningful depth, making it difficult to truly engage in the investigative process. For a detective-driven game, this is a major flaw, as it removes the satisfaction of solving the mystery through genuine deduction. Value & Replayability At full price, the game’s value proposition is questionable. I purchased it at a discount for around $6, but at full price, it's difficult to justify paying for a two-hour experience with no replayability. In an industry where even shorter indie titles offer some degree of replay value or narrative branching, Duck Detective feels limited in what it provides beyond the first playthrough. Final Verdict Despite its overwhelmingly positive reviews, I believe this game needs a more critical perspective. While it excels in style and voice acting, its flawed detective mechanics and lack of replayability hold it back from being truly great. If you’re looking for a stylish, casual mystery game, it might be worth picking up on sale—but at full price, it doesn’t offer enough depth to justify the cost. Score: 6/10 – A visually appealing but ultimately shallow detective experience.

A short, but pretty fun and a silly detective game! Also, the artstyle and the energy this game is giving reminds me of something that I would watch on TV when I was still a young kid. I really dig the 2010's cartoon vibes.

It's a cool game. I enjoyed it more than I expected. Everything works really well together: the graphics, the gameplay, the story. It's a great complete package. I liked the visual style a lot. It's quite short for the price thought, so I would recommend getting it on sale. Otherwise, no complaints. Great game!

The game is really short (up to two hours), but the writing, voice acting and mystery (silly but clever) rewarded me enough to recommend it! Buy, play and enjoy! Looking forward to the sequel :)

Alright. [i]Duck Detective: The Secret Salami[/i] is done and dusted. I picked this up in the recent Fellow Traveller Megabundle, and it ended up being a completely charming and casual game that is actually also safe for kids to play but is engaging enough for adults. That's a rare combo. It took about two hours twenty minutes for me to complete, and I'd guess that is a safe average playtime to expect from this title. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3429667009 You play as the eponymous Duck Detective, a grizzled down on his luck detective hired to solve the case of the missing lunch at the local bus station. In order to do so, you spend most of your time getting to know the employees while also accumulating clues and facts. However, it turns out that the missing lunch is the least of this staff's issues, and you get caught up in mystery regarding the smuggling of salami (actual salami) and at least one other crime. Crime in this dog eat dog world, anyway. Speaking of dogs, there aren't any in this game, lol. But all the characters are anthropomorphic animals. Such as a giraffe receptionist, for example. And the fact that it's all animals doing human jobs, with all the same concerns we have, makes it pretty easy to identify with. But this game is all about keeping the mood light, fun, and casual. To that end, everything is presented with a mind towards comedy and all the characters have slightly exaggerated personalities. The giraffe, for example, has kind of a Valley Girl vibe. The young cat customer service agent is overworked and overstressed. The old penguin janitor is jaded and rude. the middle-aged sheep customer service lady is more interested in kind of a matronly Soutern Belle persona. You get the idea here. They're all likable regardless of their personality types. The dialogue is, as a result of the decision to make this a game good for all ages, mostly focused on funny stereotypes with a heavy dose of quirkiness. The Duck Detective, for example, is trying to break his addiction to toast and fresh bread. And there are funny moments where characters get sidetracked by tangential things. It's all pretty refreshing, especially if you're playing this on the heels of having played something serious. This is a good break from serious topics and intense games in general. Really fits nicely into the "cozy" territory of gaming. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3429667038 As far as gameplay goes, this is a detective game, so you will be speaking with everyone, analyzing clues and trying to puzzle out the sequences of events you're investigating. Speaking to everyone will also include interrogating them, but as with everything in this game, it's very non-confrontational overall. Even the actual confrontations are silly. It's all pretty intuitive and yet the puzzles are still clever despite being pretty chill. The presentation is isometric, similar to what you'd expect from CRPG's, but cartoonish combined with a splash of Noir, and of course, you're in a normal workplace setting, so you get that as well. The voice acting was fun. I think that's the best way to describe it. The actors really leaned into the exaggerated and yet approachable personalities of all the characters, and you can tell they enjoyed themselves while recording it. Very nicely done. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3429666967 I think all told, this game ended up costing $2.79 as part of that bundle. That feels like a stellar deal to me. But I would say the quality of the experience does validate the $9.99 retail price. I would not have been upset if I'd paid that much. But I didn't pay that much, and you could probably wait for another sale before grabbing it. It is definitely worth a look either way. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/]Robilar's Reviews[/url], it would be appreciated. Cheers.[/code] [code]Also follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/code]