Donald, Daffy, Darkwing and Daryl – everyone’s favourite ducks, but your next favourite begins with an ‘E’, unlike the aforementioned, and stars in Duck Detective: The Secret Salami. Also, you’ll be their favourite human, as long as you bring the bread.
While playing this exclusive demo for exclusive people (though the review is now up), with exclusive words for their exclusive write-up, I kept resorting to duck puns, but the promotional material already fit the bill. I’d rather focus on the imaginatively titled developer, Happy Broccoli, who should be delighted with their latest creation.
In the demo, you play Eugene McQuacklin (another Eugene detective)- a hard-boiled duck… hold on – we could have said ‘dick’ – as in ‘detective’, but duck works on so many levels: Eugene is one. Your first objective is to get out of your office and onto your first assignment using some de-ducktion – and no, that’s not a play on words, ’tis true, Your Honour.
Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a sleuth-based game where you navigate the gaming arena like a point-and-click adventure. Hotspots indicate points of interest, and by interacting with these using your magnifying glass (not too different than Frog Detective), you’ll collate evidence that unlocks the next steps.
Selecting from a drop-down menu, you piece together the clues to progress. Don’t have much of a selection? You need to do more sleuthing! What’s good about this is that if it remains in the full game due later this year, you aren’t penalised for guesses, and Eugene will provide hints.
It’s very intuitive, and in the short time I spent playing the demo, it was enjoyable and equally cute. From the screenshots, it looks that way, but first impressions of the actual characters didn’t blow me away as it’s like Paper Mario, only the characters flip left and right without much animation. How cheap! I kid, but I wasn’t expecting it at first.
That’s all trivial, as I was… quackers about it approximately two minutes later. I will not apologise. With a fair amount of puns, lovely visuals, and a decent voice actor who plays the part of Eugene (unless Eugene is an actual duck), I have to say that this is a must-play when Duck Detective: The Secret Salami comes to the Steam Next Fest [it’s actually live now – Ed, a.k.a. me].
There are only so many words you can write about a 10-15 minute demo without bulking it up like an essay due in for school tomorrow, so let me leave you with this: download Duck Detective: The Secret Salami demo, but first: waddle over to the store page and wishlist it.
