Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping is exactly the followup The Secret Salami deserves. After the success of this game in 2024, it appeared a lot like a new star was on the rise – and in yet another bright, bite-sized mystery adventure, the Duck Detective has cemented his icon status. If Happy Broccoli Games were to release one of these quirky, moreish adventures per year, the world would definitively be a better place.
As with its predecessor, Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping begins with Eugene McQuacklin in depressing circumstances. He’s still pining the loss of his wife, with the company of his new assistant Freddy Frederson not quite making up the difference. Recognising his friend’s need for a break, Frederson organises for McQuacklin to join him on a camping trip with his new girlfriend – but of course, nothing is really as it seems.
The campsite, for one thing, is populated by an eclectic cast of characters, each hiding their own secrets. Analysing the camp manager, you’ll find an anxious mess who loves crystals and healing. There’s a mysterious capybara in flannel with a backstory that goes much deeper than he admits.
To figure out who these people are, and what exactly their role in a swiftly-unfolding plot is, you must turn to your detective senses.
As with The Secret Salami, you must uncover clues by interrogating and observing. What appears to be a normal campsite quickly becomes more intriguing, as the first threads of multiple mysteries present themselves. The VIP tent suffers a break-in, and the Duck Detective finds hints that a ritual of sorts might be taking place. Could it be tied to the mysterious light flickering in the nearby sanatorium window, and the ghost stories that plague the area?
While this is a darker sort of investigation, compared to that of the original game, it’s still paired with the same whacky, sharp humour as the original, adding light to that darkness. This is a game about a duck detective, after all. It might be filled with supernatural hints and wild conspiracies, but you’ve still got a button dedicated to honking.
Read: Duck Detective: The Secret Salami – Review
Like the original game, the mysteries presented here are also nicely layered, with a logic flow between each new discovery. There are puzzles on the easier side – and I would recommend sticking to the game’s regular mode, rather than its story mode, for that reason – but as you barrel towards the central mystery, there’s genuine head-scratching moments where you’ll need to revisit your found clues and make leaps between each assumption.
I will say there was one or two puzzles in The Secret Salami that stumped me, and I found no such challenges in The Ghost of Glamping. But I put that down to better-designed solutions, where clues can be tracked as long as you apply your mental muscles.
Much like the titular Duck Detective, the mystery that plays out in this adventure is relatively short – but with punchy puzzles and a delightful new array of characters to befriend and/or interrogate, it makes an impression far beyond its stature.
That’s the real joy of the Duck Detective adventures, to date. Both games in this expanding franchise are bright, short, and impactful, with novel little mysteries to solve. Neither game outstays its welcome, and a tight scope makes them feel like lovely, cinematic treats.
Long may the Duck Detective franchise continue. If this game is anything to go by, it has a bright, compelling future ahead.
Four stars: ★★★★
Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping
Platform(s): Happy Broccoli Games
Developer: Happy Broccoli Games
Publisher: PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One
Release Date: 22 May 2025
A PC copy of Duck Detective: The Ghost of Glamping was provided by the publisher and played on a Steam Deck for the purposes of this review. GamesHub reviews are rated on a five-point scale.
