Duck Paradox review

When your pet duck Quark inadvertently flutters into a time machine, things are about to turn fowl. The repercussions of this lab accident send protagonist Dr. Cynthia Paraducks (a pun far better than mine) and Quark through a succession of alternative dimensions across each run.

Inside each of these multiverses, the protagonist has to lead Quark from one side of the stage to another. While this is transpiring, malevolent Quark clones materialize from fissures. Once they emerge, these glowing duplicate-ducks make a beeline to death-peck the doctor. Luckily, Cynthia carries a gun used to hunt these aquatic aggressors as well as the ability to temporarily slow down time. But in these parallel worlds, bullets rebound endlessly, making errant shots extremely dangerous.

Search, Rescue, and Slaughter

Across each run, Dr. Paraducks starts in a small room, with Quark positioned just above her, offered a friendly warm-up. But subsequent stages truly dial up the heat. Floors become overrun with lava, color-coded door switches complicate get-aways, some rooms filled up with flocks of feathered fiends, and Quark is further away. Making your way through thirty stages seems impossible when you’re repeatedly dying on the fifth one.

Developer Magic Games attempts to assist by letting players select from two different power-ups after successfully completing each stage. But some of these offerings are ruses. Firing multiple or bigger bullets might diminish a need for precision. However, these perks can fill the room with bloated, bouncing projectiles, exponentially plummeting your chances for survival. On the upside, they do provide you with an entourage of ducklings who follow you around, recalling Namco’s Mappy.

Throw That Ducking Controller

Undoubtedly, Paradox is engrossing, with a taut run-up to Quark, a chaotic escape, and a showdown against a barrage of enemy ducks. But the sharp spike just a few stages in can cause aggravation. This kind of merciless difficulty is permissible when roguelikes provide metagame progress. But save for a trio of tools that make subsequent runs just a bit easier and two additional play modes (Survival and Impossible), Duck Paradox doesn’t offer much incentive after its initial set of unlocks.

Paradox’s other enigma is how tight-billed the developers are with information. I nearly overlooked alternative disco and duckwash dimensions that remix stages and goals. Similarly, the game isn’t communicative about what the collectables hidden behind breakaway walls do. There’s also a target practice area in the game’s hub world. Part of me wonders if the simplicity of aim-training wasn’t hiding some other secret. Duck Paradox is difficult and cagey. While those qualities probably might not earn a throng of supporters, they will cultivate a loyal following of masochists.

Duck Paradox was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.