Done With #19: Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping

This is the return of the ever grumpy, newly divorced Duck Detective and his dumber than a rock, alligator side-kick. Oh yes, they’re back to DE-DUCK the mysteries of the haunted camp. Just don’t get me wrong, there’s no such thing as horror with this title, only pure comedy.

Happy Broccoli Game's new Franchise, Duck Detective, was quite a hit last year with The Secret Salami being a surprise summer hit. It’s been a year since then, and the team seems to be committed on releasing a new short story yearly. They certainly do have the right idea too, as it’s not the hardest to make a good point & click adventure experience and they certainly have a witty writing team to back it up.

While Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping doesn’t do anything new aside from a whole new campaign, it makes up for that with a tighter story, a funnier cast, and an even more broke Duck Detective. Who doesn’t like an underdog down on his luck? Exactly.

The Detective Returns

Of course, we play as Eugene, the duck detective (also nine months divorced and nine months of not taking a shower), who was roped into a glamping trip with his dummy alligator friend, Freddy. It just so happens that Eugene will be a third wheel, though, as Freddy is just bringing the guy along as an excuse to hangout with his girlfriend who happens to be there for her job. You might be wondering “welp Tasha where the heck are they camping at?”. Well, friend, if your answer isn’t “beside a haunted sanatorium” then you are dead wrong.

Since the Duck Detective is literally Egodawa Conan reincarnate, of course things go wrong the minute they step foot there. From the ghost stealing away all the chairs at the camp, to an international situation between two nations, you got it all in this game.

The insane narrative wouldn’t work without a witty writing team and an incredibly strong voice cast. Be it the main duo (are they actually besties or are they on the verge of fighting 1v1 in Roblox every other minute) or the suspects, there’s no weak character here. The designs of these characters are also simple yet memorable and insanely cute, solidifying how charming this game is.

Solving The Case

The game itself isn’t hard at all. Being a point & click adventure, everything is straightforward as the gameplay is really not the focus.

The game itself encourages us to exhaust all the dialogues and interact with every object to gain “keywords” for Eugene to make a detection. It’s a very clever way to make the gameplay loop push the story forward and make the players care about the world the team is building and the cast that they’re selling to us. By the end of this experience, it’s hard to not give a crap about these guys.

Once we obtain these keywords then we can form a “deductions” which is a fill in the blank minigames. These deductions are usually hilarious and don’t take themselves seriously, but it fits the insanity of the plot really well. It’s seriously a turn your brain off sort of game.

Short But Rewarding

While it’s incredibly short and really easy to obtain all the achievements, it’s quite a rewarding two hours. The price point isn’t too bad as it tries to present itself as a movie, so you’re paying for a ticket to the theater so to speak.

Really hope it is successful enough to really become a yearly title. I’d definitely get it day one next year.