Duck Game Review

For those not acquainted with Duck Game, the title and the screenshots make it look more of a joke than a game to be taken seriously. That is definitely what I thought. I expected a simplistic and unpolished game riddled with stupid quips and little coherence. “It will be quick and easy, let’s just get it over with”, I told myself. Never have I been so wrong.
The game is set somewhere in space, where ducks fight each other in an array of stages. The aim of each level is simple: be the last one standing. And although it is quite a laugh, it is not due to poor quality. On the contrary, whether you’re playing on your own or with friends, you’ll find that this game is brilliantly designed. What makes it so fun is not the different ridiculous hats your duck can wear, or the feathers flying when you shoot at other ducks. It’s the fast-paced, original and finely elaborated combat system that will have you addicted to it for weeks, and able to trigger the most absurd situations.

Duck Game is a 2D platform-shooter, consisting on some of the simplest mechanics: you pick up the different weapons lying around, and you aim them at other ducks. From different sorts of pistols, machine guns, net guns, swords or saxophones — plus the great number of weapons that I’m omitting —, they all require a different approach. Once you lay hands on a weapon, you must outsmart the opponents and shoot them before they shoot you — all likely to wield more powerful weapons than you. And there’s the rub, most weapons are a one-hit kill, and the ones that are not are pretty much useless. There’s even a NERF gun that does no damage.

In theory, a submachine gun would always have the upper hand against a one-shot pistol, but not necessarily always. In Duck Game, the use of the level, with all its platforms and weapon locations, is even more crucial than the weapon you have. The difficulty curve is impressively high for such a simplistic game, mainly due to the amount of weapons to master and the physics of the game, which you must become proficient at managing if you want to beat an opponent with a better gun.

Games will rarely last more than 8-10 seconds, as it doesn’t take much more to run to the nearest gun and start shooting the nearest duck. A game can look quite frenetic, but there’s quite a lot of trickery and strategy involved. It’s no Civ V, of course, but a much more rapid and smoother game where every second matters. There’s barely time to catch your breath in-between games and the multiplayer game can’t actually be paused. The electronic, rhythmic and frantic music only speeds up your heartrate even more and makes you want to get back in the game as soon as possible — in this way, it reminds me of the feeling after dying in games like Call of Duty, only there’s no fourteen-year-olds yelling at you.

The main game mode, which is either played online or offline in the same screen, is a competition to reach a certain number of victories. The single player mode is rather dull, consisting of a series of stage-challenges, and is more focused on helping you hone your skills with different weapons and unlocking new hats than an actual ‘story’. Luckily, it lasts just enough to get you started in the game and aid you in getting the hang of the weapons that are most difficult to use.

The aforementioned NERF gun, for example, can be considered useless. However, if you’re clever enough, timing your shots to hit an enemy duck mid-air can push him away just enough to make him not land on solid ground and plummet into the abyss (and die). You can also trick your enemy into shooting you with a revolver so the recoil pushes them just enough to slip off a ledge and share the same fate as our NERFed friend. As you can see, the environmental possibilities are as important as the gunplay; unfortunately, it still feels that a few more traps here and there could have introduced a lot of variety in the game.

Sadly, the biggest flaw of this game is the lack of variety in its maps. Every time I’ve played, I haven’t been able to find more than 15-20 maps, which, given their small size and the amount of times you’ll be playing in them, it becomes rather repetitive, particularly when there are so many available weapons. In fact, becoming proficient at the game can ultimately turn into learning each map’s tricks by heart and using them to your advantage, rather than pure skill.

As I was playing, I kept thinking of tricky combinations of platforms and weapons that just weren’t there! However, my prayers were answered: there is a level editor, where anybody can create and play their own levels. At the moment, there is a beta branch where you can pick levels created by other players — which is actually a bit of a hassle. For now, this seems, in the long run, the main tool to keep the game alive. However, if they don’t add an easier system to input these user-created levels into every duck’s game, I’m afraid this game will get old pretty quickly.

All in all, even with its few levels and lack of narrative, Duck Game remains one of the best executed set of mechanics that I’ve seen in a long time. Although it’s clearly influenced by some other couch indie games like Towerfall, Duck Game feels fresh and with much greater depth. The perfectly designed physics system is the basis for the well balanced gameplay, rather than the balancing of guns themselves. If you’re looking for a game where you can just have fun with friends (or even alone) and worry about nothing more, this is the one.