REVIEW: ‘Escape From Duckov’ Provides Occasional Excitement And Not Much Else

If you combined high-stakes tactical action with cute ducks, you would probably end up with something similar to Escape from Duckov. The top-down looter shooter throws players into a single-player adventure resembling an extraction shooter, where any mistake could send you back to your headquarters early.

Developed by Team Soda and published by bilibili, Escape from Duckov provides the occasionally satisfying firefight, but suffers from a dependence on randomly generated loot, excessive inventory management, and often unforgiving exploration.

Before dropping into the hostile world, players are given the opportunity to customize their duck, including their beak, wings, feather color, and more. After a brief tutorial, they’ll find themselves in an underground bunker with a storage space, a firing range, and an assistant of sorts that can give quests to help get started. You even have access to a radio that plays smooth jazz and other soothing songs, the only music to be found in the game.

Success feels hard-earned as you advance in Escape from Duckov.

Once you’ve finished exploring the bunker, you’re able to head out into the world for the first time, where the eerie silence is only interrupted by the occasional quack or gunshots, a sign that some of the enemy factions have spotted you or each other. These moments significantly amplify the tension, since you never know if a shotgun-wielding enemy is about to come around a corner, or if your enemies are taking each other out.

The first map you can explore is not the largest, but during the first trip, it feels like an endless expanse full of loot and danger. A top-down view is good for spotting danger before it’s suddenly upon you, but you can only spot enemies—who are also ducks, and sometimes dogs—within your cone of vision, which shrinks when night falls.

This means that occasionally, you will be attacked by a charging melee attacker you didn’t know was there until you turned around. It doesn’t feel unfair, but it is frustrating nonetheless. On the other hand, expertly dodging enemy fire and wiping out an encampment feels good and hard-earned, a feeling that becomes more common as you find better gear and learn more about the game.

Extraction is a challenging, sometimes requesit option for finishing maps.

After filling your bag with junk, weapons, ammo, and other loot, you can return to your home base to place it all into storage. You can do this by either returning to the hatch from which you entered or by finding an extraction point marked on your map.

These are typically located on the far end of the zone and require fighting through enemy territory, but it can be worth it to save time. It’s worth noting that on some maps, extraction is your only option, so you’ll want to be extra sure that you’re prepared before you even set foot in those regions.

Once you’re back home, you can turn in quests, organize your inventory, and sleep if it’s late. If you want to head out at night, the game warns you that it’s much more dangerous to explore at night, with robotic spiders attacking anything that moves, even your former enemies.

Escape from Duckov can be unforgiving, as the game goes on.

Escape from Duckov can be unforgiving, making any small progress well worth the effort. Gaining access to explosives allows you to blow open a crumbling wall, opening a shortcut. In another case, you can open a one-way door, saving you a long roundabout trip in the future. Upgrades and shortcuts come in numerous forms, but all of them bring with them a sense of relief. When it comes to completing quests, however, Escape from Duckov’s biggest issue comes into play.

Escape from Duckov’s quest system starts as a tutorial, introducing players to the basic concepts of the game, but soon you’ll be accepting quests that encourage exploration through the game’s various maps, as well as using specific weapons or defeating certain enemy types. The worst quests, however, require you to collect a few random items or build a new station within your base, which can also require an assortment of junk items.

When exploring, you’ll come across food and water, gear, weapons, ammo, junk, and more, all of which take up space in your inventory or your storage. If one of your new quests requires you to build a medic station, which needs a few medical items, then your success hinges on luck.

The random generation of loot makes procession equally random.

The big issue with Escape from Duckov is that loot, and therefore progress, is randomly generated. Loot containers seem to be static, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll find that last syringe you need to build your medical center, or the plastic barrel you need to expand your storage. Until that storage gets expanded, you’ll probably need to dump some of the seemingly useless junk items to make room for the important ones.

Then you’ll receive a quest that asks for something you just threw away, starting the vicious cycle anew. Furthermore, dying in the field puts your full inventory in a box where you died, giving you a chance to retrieve it. This encourages players to keep enough backup gear to survive a trip to recover their gear, further exacerbating the inventory problems.

Even if you just need specific items to craft weapons or gear, there is no guarantee that you’ll ever find what you’re looking for. The only recourse is to return home and head out again, so you can check the newly spawned loot containers scattered around. Eventually, though, you’ll accrue enough weapons, ammo, and armor that you feel untouchable in the game’s starting map. This is a firm indicator that it’s time to explore new grounds.

Exploration is the most exciting pat of Escape from Duckov.

The most exciting part of Escape from Duckov is exploring, because you’ll discover new enemies, new loot, and new potential allies to join you back home. These NPCs can also give you quests or simply provide a storefront for a new type of item, or even just a different selection of items.

Each new map is also dangerous. Your level 3 body armor might be fine in the starting map, but in other areas, your enemies will shred you to pieces before you know what happened. If you die again before recovering it, you can kiss your gear goodbye, marking the start of a painful and slow period where you’ll attempt to rebuild your arsenal.

This wouldn’t be such a daunting process but for the fact that Escape from Duckov just isn’t that fun. It is occasionally exciting, but the journey ultimately feels like you’re climbing a muddy slope, where the simplest mistake can send you back to square one.

As a purely single-player experience, it feels like a solid introduction to the extraction shooter genre, but even the cute ducks can’t save Escape from Duckov from feeling like a chore.

Escape from Duckov releases October 16, 2025 on PC.