With fantastic and deep titles like Hades, Hollow Knight, and now Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, We’re starting to get used to living in a world where indie games are more than just palette cleansers that essentially fill the void left by the lack of “B-grade” games.
That being said, I don’t mind a good palette cleansing B-grade game, and the latest Duck Detective adventure definitely fills that void with the sharp-witted hilarity the series is becoming known for.
The Duck Detective first debuted last year with The Secret Salami, which achieved overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. The game was praised for both its charm and humor that left players hoping there was more than one case to solve. Enter The Ghost of Glamping. This was my first experience with Duck Detective, and I waddled away entertained but just a little dismayed for both expected and curious reasons.
As the title suggests, Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping puts players back in control of the down-on-his-luck divorced duck, this time with a case involving a haunted campsite. In this 2-hour cozy mystery, you’ll examine supposed crime scenes, interview suspects, and use the knowledge you’ve gained to piece together the mystery.
As you uncover more clues taking the form of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, you’ll be able to plug them into your book of Deducktions and try to crack the case from there.
The game essentially plays like a much more simplistic Return of the Obra Dinn or Case of the Golden Idol. You’ll use the clues and information you’ve uncovered to fill out blanks to piece facts together, and it’s a lather, rinse, repeat approach until the case is solved. Later acts in the game start to become more involved, and you’ll also be using your own observations to help make your “deducktions.”
One of the more interesting aspects of the game’s investigations is the fact that you’ll also have to use your reasoning to figure out names and identities of pretty much every character you come across. From there, you can ask other characters what they think about the characters you just met, which leads to more information that could be helpful with the case, or just plain funny because that’s what the writing is. One example of some trouble I had was with this beaver who I was sure was a male, but she was female, and it took a lot of trial and error to finally figure it out.
As you meet characters, not only is it up to you to figure out their identities, but you can also investigate their look to understand their general vibe, and use it as evidence for your deducktions.
This is where the coziness comes in; there’s no fail state in the game. You can make as many mistakes as you want, and there’s no penalty. To put things into easier perspective, the game also tells you whether you’ve found all the nouns and adjectives you’ll need to fill in the blanks, which makes it more ideal to attempt to solve the case after you know you’ve found everything there is.
That aside, playing this on a handheld platform like the Switch seems ideal. I’d stop shy of saying the game is for everyone, though, as there are conversations about possible adultery that probably aren’t appropriate for kids, especially with these characters being animals.
The flat, hand-drawn Paper Mario look works really well for the game, especially on both the Switch and Steam Deck.
Alongside the well thought out story is a presentation that fits its charm. The game very much has the look and feel of Paper Mario, just without the combat or platforming. It’s an art style that’s timeless, and the voice acting and music to go along with the presentation does nothing to hinder the experience.
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is a very enjoyable little game that’s easy to recommend for anybody looking for a quick and fun experience. Still, it suffers from the same issues the last game had — it could be considered too short due to the fact that there’s only one case to solve. Maybe Happy Broccoli is working on a package that’ll have more than three chapters? Five perhaps? Still, it’s been almost a year since the last game, and you don’t want to keep people waiting.
Editor’s Note: One criticism made when playing the game prior to release was that there was no Platinum Trophy for the PlayStation version of the game. This was inaccurate, and we’ve updated the review to reflect that inaccuracy.
With fantastic and deep titles like Hades, Hollow Knight, and now Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, We’re starting to get used to living in a world where indie games are more than just palette cleansers that essentially fill the void left…
With fantastic and deep titles like Hades, Hollow Knight, and now Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, We’re starting to get used to living in a world where indie games are more than just palette cleansers that essentially fill the void left by the lack of “B-grade” games.
That being said, I don’t mind a good palette cleansing B-grade game, and the latest Duck Detective adventure definitely fills that void with the sharp-witted hilarity the series is becoming known for.
The Duck Detective first debuted last year with The Secret Salami, which achieved overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. The game was praised for both its charm and humor that left players hoping there was more than one case to solve. Enter The Ghost of Glamping. This was my first experience with Duck Detective, and I waddled away entertained but just a little dismayed for both expected and curious reasons.
As the title suggests, Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping puts players back in control of the down-on-his-luck divorced duck, this time with a case involving a haunted campsite. In this 2-hour cozy mystery, you’ll examine supposed crime scenes, interview suspects, and use the knowledge you’ve gained to piece together the mystery.
As you uncover more clues taking the form of nouns, verbs, and adjectives, you’ll be able to plug them into your book of Deducktions and try to crack the case from there.
The game essentially plays like a much more simplistic Return of the Obra Dinn or Case of the Golden Idol. You’ll use the clues and information you’ve uncovered to fill out blanks to piece facts together, and it’s a lather, rinse, repeat approach until the case is solved. Later acts in the game start to become more involved, and you’ll also be using your own observations to help make your “deducktions.”
One of the more interesting aspects of the game’s investigations is the fact that you’ll also have to use your reasoning to figure out names and identities of pretty much every character you come across. From there, you can ask other characters what they think about the characters you just met, which leads to more information that could be helpful with the case, or just plain funny because that’s what the writing is. One example of some trouble I had was with this beaver who I was sure was a male, but she was female, and it took a lot of trial and error to finally figure it out.
As you meet characters, not only is it up to you to figure out their identities, but you can also investigate their look to understand their general vibe, and use it as evidence for your deducktions.
This is where the coziness comes in; there’s no fail state in the game. You can make as many mistakes as you want, and there’s no penalty. To put things into easier perspective, the game also tells you whether you’ve found all the nouns and adjectives you’ll need to fill in the blanks, which makes it more ideal to attempt to solve the case after you know you’ve found everything there is.
That aside, playing this on a handheld platform like the Switch seems ideal. I’d stop shy of saying the game is for everyone, though, as there are conversations about possible adultery that probably aren’t appropriate for kids, especially with these characters being animals.
The flat, hand-drawn Paper Mario look works really well for the game, especially on both the Switch and Steam Deck.
Alongside the well thought out story is a presentation that fits its charm. The game very much has the look and feel of Paper Mario, just without the combat or platforming. It’s an art style that’s timeless, and the voice acting and music to go along with the presentation does nothing to hinder the experience.
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is a very enjoyable little game that’s easy to recommend for anybody looking for a quick and fun experience. Still, it suffers from the same issues the last game had — it could be considered too short due to the fact that there’s only one case to solve. Maybe Happy Broccoli is working on a package that’ll have more than three chapters? Five perhaps? Still, it’s been almost a year since the last game, and you don’t want to keep people waiting.
Editor’s Note: One criticism made when playing the game prior to release was that there was no Platinum Trophy for the PlayStation version of the game. This was inaccurate, and we’ve updated the review to reflect that inaccuracy.
by Danreb Victorio
