Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping Review - An Utterly Hilarious Mystery

I've always enjoyed a good mystery game. Whether that's uncovering the truth as the world's luckiest lawyer in Ace Attorney to more recent indie hits like Paradise Killer, there's something deeply satisfying about putting the work in and eventually cracking the case. While Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping doesn't scratch that itch in quite the same way, that's easily compensated for by strong humour.

Following a similar format to its equally ridiculous predecessor, The Secret Salami, this latest adventure sees us playing once as the titular down-on-his-luck detective, Eugene “Duck Detective” McQuacklin, across a 2-3 hour adventure. Having cracked the secret meat smuggling operation, this time around we're joined by our new assistant Freddy Frederson, finding ourselves roped into another hilarious investigation involving a chess influencer, military secrets, supernatural nonsense, and more.

It's an incredible escalation for what should've been a straightforward glamping holiday, delivering a story that's sometimes predictable but never boring. That's helped by another fine cast of characters. I never thought I could dislike a rabbit until meeting the chess influencer, Freddy provides an excellent foil to McQuacklin's more serious side, while Amelia is the all too relatable manager run ragged over campsite management.

Solving this mystery is rather straightforward, but it does what's necessary. You'll gather clues by speaking to the campsite visitors, investigating different items, and asking others about found evidence, which must then be assembled into 'Deducktions'. Your journal's map helpfully points out where evidence can still be gathered, and you don't always need to find every clue to solve a Deducktion.

This isn't the most in-depth experience, and the gameplay sometimes feels a bit light. You can explore a few areas across the campsite to seek clues, though you won't exactly be dusting directly for fingerprints or cross-examining suspects. A hint system is also available, though most puzzles are usually rather easy to solve. That's honestly fine.

What's here is a short but ultimately satisfying experience you could reasonably complete in an evening, and the game excels in other ways. A strong noir-inspired jazz soundtrack sets the scene well, it's visually gorgeous with some charming paper cutout style character designs, and that's further boosted by strong voice acting. Brian David Gilbert is a particular highlight as the overly excitable Freddy.

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is a strong follow-up to The Secret Salami, delivering a captivating mystery that held my attention throughout. It's not the most complex adventure, yet the excellent humour elevates this into another memorable adventure. McQuacklin's overly dramatic deducktions never failed to make me smile, and I'm hopeful that Happy Broccoli Games will continue this story in a third game.

7/10

Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping was reviewed on PC, and a review code was provided by the publisher. It's also available on PS5, Switch, and Xbox.

Rewinder uses a 10-point scoring scale in our reviews, and we've detailed our review scoring policy here for more information.