Bought it to play on my steam deck but it doesn't have controller support. I used a community controller profile that uses the trackpads and it's awkward to play. It's 2025 and this is an isometric shooter, I don't know why you wouldn't have native twin-stick support. The gameplay is fun, though, and the looter-shooter style packed into something compact and casual, with the potential to be a sweat-fest is an impressive accomplishment. Just add controller support, please.

I ~really~ want to like Duckov, but it's just not hittng for me.

I've spent hundreds of hours in Tarkov(EFT) many years ago and recently dove into Zero Sievert(ZS), which scratched that itch far better than I expected. Since I just wrapped it up and heard so many good things about Duckov(EFD), I jumped in hoping for a similar experience. While I can easily say that EFD is very pretty and controls well, there's a certain spark that's missing.

First of all, the loot. While there's no secret that EFD pulls heavily from EFT, the loot doesn't feel important or interesting. In both EFT and ZS, the loot feels great; most things feel useful for something logical that you may need in the future, whereas the loot in EFD fills upgrade bars but not necessarily for any logical reason. I have stuff, but it doesn't make sense why I want this stuff.

Slightly related, the weapon modifications don't give the same impact to the player as they do in EFT or ZS. There are some notable changes when improving them which I really like, such as changing the reticle when aiming, however it's really just limited to that. Part of the appeal of EFT and ZS is making changes to your weaponry and literally seeing that in your weapon, whereas here it's moreso like filling an mod slot in a BR other less tactical shooter. This isn't necessarily a bad thing per se, however it does feel missing, especially given the source material.

As for the enemies, while I admit that I'm not too far in yet, they are either absolutely braindead or will hunt you down with lethal precision with no middle ground. I understand that this may be many people's first game like this, but it's such a softball at the beginning that the moment you come across a harder enemy, it's a shock. I'll admit that I have a lot of experience in games like this and can hold my own quite well, however I've only had one close call so far with no deaths, despite starting on the hardest difficulty. I just wish that the enemies made me think, as opposed to either "just keep shooting" or "run away as fast as possible".

I can see why a lot of people love this game and, as I said at the start, I really want to like it, but it's just not clicking for me so far. I'm going to play it a bit more as I just unlocked the entry into the third area and I've heard it starts to pick up after that, but it may just not be for me, unfortunately.

A top-down extraction style survival game that has you playing as a duck trying to escape the planet.

Create your own custom duck in a quest to gather supplies to complete quests, and ultimately, build your own spacecraft in order to escape a planet besieged by storms from space. A bunker acts as your home hub, being the place where you accept quests, build different stations for trade / crafting, store your excess items / loot, and upgrade your stats.

Gameplay consists of runs outside your bunker into different zones, with the ultimate goal of gathering equipment, food, items, and money to put towards upgrades and quests. Time is continually passing, there being a day-to-night cycle that will change the type of enemies which spawn (robot spiders), as well as a space storm which will pass overhead every few days, requiring its own set of protection in order to explore during the time it is active. Hydration and energy are survival stats that require management, making sure you are both fed and watered; if you run out of hydration, your stamina will no longer regenerate, hunger making your health start to steadily drop until death.

Progressing through the different zones will give you the opportunity to gather higher level weapons, ammo, and equipment to increase your survivability. Food tends to be rather plentiful, easily acquired from crates scattered about a zone. Storing supplies has never been much of an issue, as the warehouse can be upgraded to hold hundreds of items, even though you can sell quite a bit of the items you might end up bringing back for storage.

Enemies will increase in lethality, usually indicated by the type of foe coming at you; scavengers being the most common, mercenaries being the black ducks with better weaponry, specialized ducks that act as mini-bosses for different zones, then enemies like ghosts, space ducks, and a highly lethal orange duck that is marked on your map. Once you have steady access to higher classes of AP ammunition, the majority of enemies can be handled with ease. Certain types of cover, such as sandbags, can be shot through so long as you are popping off headshots, although sandbags can be easily annihilated by enemies. Health can be managed with different medkits, bleeding being managed with bandages and a specific hypodermic needle.

Building stations inside your bunker will give you access to crafting, money storage, repair, medications, armour, weapons, and ammunition, plus, vendors will be your source of quests to gather the parts necessary in order to build a spacecraft out of a van in the back of the bunker.

Generally, I don't really care for crafting / survival style games, but I found Escape From Duckov to be surprisingly addictive - I really enjoyed doing a few runs while a show would run in the background. There are multiple endings to Escape From Duckov, giving some incentive to keep on playing once you get the spacecraft repaired. I'd recommend checking this one out, especially if you can get it on sale.

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