Being a detective isn’t easy. Sometimes you have to look at the darkest crimes imaginable. Sometimes you have to observe humanity at its worst. Other times you have to enact vigilante justice upon the seedy underbelly of society. Then there are those rare times when you have to solve the most heinous enigmas of them all, like who stole an office employee‘s lunch? This is just one of the mysteries present in Duck Detective: The Secret Salami from Happy Broccoli Games. Sorry for the lame intro-duck-tion.

In Duck Detective: The Secret Salami, you play as Eugene McQuacklin, a down-on-his-luck detective unable to make his rent because of his lack of work and bread addiction. Just when he’s about to hit rock bottom, his phone rings, offering him a chance at salvation. Can he discover the truth behind who stole the lunch of an employee working at the BearBus depot, or is his goose about to be cooked?

In the beginning, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami seems to be little more than a cutesie and somewhat shallow detective adventure. You’re initially tasked with the seemingly simple objective of finding a lunch thief; something that’s more of a mere nuisance than an actual threat. However, after digging into the day-to-day office operations and getting to know the employees better, it soon becomes clear that something much larger and more scandalous is at play. In the words of Sherlock Holmes: “The game’s afoot”, albeit a webbed foot in this case.

The gameplay in Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is very simple. You’ll need to interview each employee at the BearBus depot and investigate them for clues. The clues can range from their names and occupations, to their physical traits and emotional status. I will say that is one area I wish had been expanded upon a little further because once you complete your initial investigation of each character, that’s all the information you’ll ever gain from this particular gameplay mechanic. I feel like it would have added more depth to be able to investigate them later on in the case to look for signs of distress or physical clues on their person.

Perhaps that’s asking a bit much from Duck Detective: The Secret Salami, as this game is very much a casual gameplay experience. Although, that’s not to say the entire game is a walk in the park. In addition to investigating each character for clues, you’ll also have to make de”duck”tions (points for the pun go to the developers, not me) based on what you find.

At first, the deducktions are extremely simple and obvious, but that’s not the case for too long. There’s a nice ramp-up in difficulty with the deducktions, with a few of the later segments requiring some careful observation and focus. Even though some of the answers are glaringly obvious, others will require you to go back through your collected evidence to make connections to things going on in the background. You’ll also have to reinterrogate each character after certain major bits of evidence come to light, which, surprisingly, only occasionally results in new information being gleaned. This is another bit of a missed opportunity, as the bulk of the clues seem to come from investigating the BearBus depot and not from the employees themselves.

That said, I will say that the amount of clues and connections that can be found from inspecting everything in the BearBus depot is pretty impressive. There were a few things I brushed off as character flavor that ended up playing an integral role in later developments.

I also have to praise Happy Broccoli Games for not making the hint system remove the challenge. If you find yourself stuck at any of the deducktions, you can use the hint system to ponder what information you’ve collected so far. However, that’s all it will do. The hint system is there strictly to help you rethink what you’ve already covered or what you might have missed, and nothing more. It’s not there to solve the puzzle for you, which I greatly appreciate. 

Visually, Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is quite appealing, with its crisp, clean art style. All of the characters have a thick white border around them, giving them a sticker-like appearance, similar to A Tiny Sticker Tale. It’s also impressive that even though the game takes place almost entirely in one location, it still manages to provide enough area changes to keep it visually interesting. The amount of detail and subtle changes to each room throughout the runtime is commendable as well.

The sound design is a bit hit-and-miss. What comes through the strongest are the vocal performances. Nearly every character was given a voice that matched their onscreen persona, with extra praise given to the voice of our duck protagonist. Where I found the sound design to be lacking was with the sound effects (of which there wasn’t a notable display at work) and with the soundtrack. Yes, the music does have the moody, bluesy, noir tone you’d expect in any detective game, but the issue is that it’s mainly just the same couple of songs playing throughout the entire game. After a while, it just becomes background noise because it’s the same thing on repeat.

I enjoyed my time with Duck Detective: The Secret Salami  a lot more than I was initially expecting. It proved to be a more engaging experience than what I first thought from the trailer. Sure, some of the gameplay and interrogation elements could have been fleshed out more, but at its core, it’s a game that has more intricacies than it lets on at first. Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a charming game of curiosities and deducktions, but it’s also a quacking good time that gives you a lot to ponder.

 

Graphics: 8.0 A crisp, clean art style with some nice details. The characters all have a sticker-like appearance to them, which makes things look even more adorable.	Gameplay: 7.0 Interview suspects, search for clues, and connect possible links to uncover the truth. The de”duck”tions can really make you consider every potential lead, but the solutions aren’t overly difficult to solve.
Sound: 6.0 The voice acting is pretty decent all around. The bluesy music fits the noir tone of the game, but there’s hardly any variety.	Fun Factor: 7.0 The narrative seems shallow and straightforward at first, but things get more complicated the further you go. I also appreciated the lack of hand-holding when it came to piecing together evidence.
Final Verdict: 7.0

Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is available now on Nintendo Switch, PC, and Xbox Series X|S.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Duck Detective: The Secret Salami was provided by the publisher.