Story-based adventure games have always been something that interests me. While I usually prefer to play more high octane shooters and others, there is always something very comforting about playing a game intended to be taken at a walking pace where you can truly soak in the story. Duck Detective is exactly this, and — as with — any adventure title that involves cute animals doing silly things, I’m on board.
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is actually the second in the Duck Detective series, something I didn’t know when I booted the game up to play. We’re very quickly introduced to our main character, Eugene McQuacklin a.k.a The Duck Detective, and his ‘assistant’ Freddy Frederson. It turns out Mr Duck Detective has lost his wife, is currently going through a pretty messy divorce and is depressed, so Freddy has booked a glamping trip for the two of them.
So, off we go to our campsite, and immediately we’re faced with problems that we need to solve. The game has introduced to us the mechanic of making DeDuckCtions by investigating an area, finding key words, and then putting the words in the right places inside our trusty notebook. In terms of difficulty, the game allows you as many tries as you like to put the right words in the right place, so don’t be afraid to experiment if you aren’t sure.
As I walked — sorry, waddled — around the campsite, I interacted with the colourful cast of characters and immediately fell in love with every single one of them. All the characters are lovingly voice acted in this game and their voices are fantastic. I especially loved Sean Chiplock’s performance as our Duck Detective, and Jack Millls as Tobi, a little capybara child. He truly sounds like a wide eyed little child and plays his role with gusto. Each character can be returned to as you uncover more clues to give you additional information.
It alternates between the cutesy environment of 2D characters and movement, much like Paper Mario, before pivoting to 3D cutscenes when explaining major plot points for maximum entertainment. I especially liked the story about the ghost — it genuinely sent shivers down my spine!
Our experience is quite short — a full completion only took me around three hours. This is without using any hints however, as I was determined to solve all the puzzles myself. There are hints you can use if you do get stuck, as well as a story mode for those who want the story and not the detective gameplay. Story mode simply highlights the wrong answers for you so you know which ones to ignore, but personally, I think you’d be doing Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping a great disservice by playing it this way.
One thing that I do want to draw particular attention to is the option for Dyslexic text in the options menu. While not dyslexic myself, I can appreciate these kinds of options in games such as this for those who do suffer from dyslexia. Bonus points for inclusion!
Having finished the game twice, I won’t spoil anything for you (as I’m coming away very firmly recommending this game) but I will say this; I feel like the ending was missing a little bit of potential. It was good, satisfying narratively, but there were some plot threads that could’ve been tied up a bit more effectively. Besides this, I highly recommend this to kill a few hours. It’s cutesy, fun, and very well written. Hopefully we see the Duck Detective back to complete the trilogy!
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is now available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and Steam.
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