There’s absolutely a classic philosophy that says you should always leave your audience wanting more, but especially when it comes to video games that can be a double-edged sword. Sure, you don’t want the experience to overstay its welcome and start to feel stale after peaking earlier on, but you can also leave people feeling like the fun stopped just as it was really hitting its stride. In particular, even at a budget price, indie games that offer less than a handful of hours to enjoy can have a tough time, and that’s unfortunately the trap Duck Detective falls into.

Absolutely constructed in the more classic LucasArts tradition, with a premise that is decidedly low-stakes and quite silly, Duck Detective hits the ground pretty quickly running and establishes quite easily how its mechanics work. When you go into an area you’ll have to move around, looking at things and talking to people, and that will give you a series of word clues you’ll then be able to use. In general your goal will be to use these words, names, etc to fill in the blanks in some statements that represent the core facts in the case. Once you’re able to deduce what works you’ll have solved the puzzle, and that will contribute to the overall attempt to resolve the mystery. The problem is, there’s only one case to solve here so it’s all over pretty quickly.

What still works nicely regardless is pretty well everything you’d want or expect in a tight adventure game. The dialogue and characters are generally clever and humorous, for the most part the clues you’ll discover aren’t hard to find, and overall the solutions you’ll work out to each aspect of the mystery are sensible. That’s what makes it a shame that it is all over so quickly. By the time you really feel like you’ve got a sense of the rhythm of things, and are ready to rock, it’s pretty well time to close the door on the mystery and that’s all there is. If you don’t mind your well-executed adventures more bite-sized, it’s a joy, but if you’re looking for something more than an appetizer it won’t be as good a fit.