Duck Detective: The Secret Salami is a cozy mystery adventure in which Eugene McQuacklin solves the theft of a high-grade salami at the BearBus branch office. The case runs a couple of hours and was played on Detective mode, the harder setting that withholds information on wrong answers.
The deducktion mechanic gathers clue words from suspects and surroundings and slots them into phrasal deductions in the notebook. The magnifying-glass inspection highlights hidden traits on characters and objects, letting everything be examined.
The opening puzzle is working out each employee’s full name and job, from the giraffe receptionist to the penguin janitor, before the case opens up. A stolen lunch becomes a smuggling conspiracy, with the culprit revealed as the branch manager running a salami ring on the company’s own buses.
A mid-case twist sees the client’s target abducted and hidden away when she wants to confess, with an in-progress phone dial pointing the way. Secondary scandals pile up, from the janitor embezzling vouchers to the password puzzle taken from a romance novel and the safe hidden behind a family portrait.
The voice acting comes as a pleasant surprise and is really well done, and the deadpan humour lands throughout, from the waddle walk cycles to the bread-addiction framing. The playthrough compares the game favourably to Ace Attorney, Chicken Police and Frog Detective.
The runtime is short, which is called a shame for such a good game, and evidence cannot be re-examined once inspected. The tiny credits and a small game-logic nit about a forgotten payment are the only other niggles.
Overall, this delightful deduction adventure earns a strong recommendation, with its clever clue-word loop, layered conspiracy and voice acting as the highlights. The short runtime and the non-reexaminable evidence are the caveats.