Sort Them Ducks Review Summary

Creative duck designs and cute gameplay offer a relaxing experience, but performance stuttering, mouse sensitivity issues, and confusing duck categories detract.

Duck designs are creative: Players consistently praise the duck designs as beautiful, creative, and cute. The variety and charisma of the designs are major highlights.

Game is cute and fun: Reviewers find the overall game very cute and enjoyable. The combination of cuteness and fun gameplay is a key positive aspect.

Relaxing and stress-relieving: Many players describe the game as relaxing, soothing, and helpful for unwinding. It provides a calm and satisfying experience.

Good for passing time: The game is considered a great way to pass time and is fun to play casually. It offers a simple and engaging distraction.

Sorting gameplay is addictive: The sorting mechanic, particularly organizing ducks on shelves, is described as fun and addictive. It provides satisfying gameplay loops.

Performance and stuttering: Frequent frame drops, stuttering (especially with many ducks), and jittery performance make the game feel unplayable for many users. Issues persist even on hardware that should handle the game easily.

Mouse sensitivity problems: Mouse sensitivity is often too high even at the lowest settings, or becomes inconsistent, causing shaky or uncontrollable camera movement. This hampers precision tasks like placing ducks.

Confusing duck categories: Category organization is illogical, with many ducks placed in wrong or confusing groups (e.g., mermaid in pirates, rainbow in weather). This makes sorting frustrating.

Camera and responsiveness issues: The camera can be jerky, snap randomly, or cause motion sickness, and the game often feels unresponsive. Movement and click registration lag, especially during frame drops.

Save system broken: The save system fails to preserve progress, resetting upgrades, inventory, and abilities upon reloading or after updates. This leads to frustration and lost playtime.

Core sorting gameplay: The game involves sorting and organizing ducks into categorized shelves. Players pick up ducks from the floor and place them into the correct categories.

Upgrade and power-up system: The game includes an upgrade system with features like sprint, movement speed, and abilities that unlock as players progress. Perks and power-ups help speed up sorting tasks.

Relaxing and casual experience: The game is described as a cozy, relaxing, and casual sorting game suitable for passing time. It appeals to players who enjoy tidy-up/organization games.

Duck categories and labels: Ducks are sorted into categories like garden, food, pirates, beach, weather, colour, animals, warrior, country, and circus. Items are clearly labeled for easy identification.

Shelf completion and objectives: The game features a shelf-completion system, a color tower objective, and extra tasks like finding eggs. Completing a shelf produces satisfying clicks.

Frequent frame drops: Multiple reviews report frequent frame drops, making the game unplayable on good PCs. The issue includes drops of 20-30 FPS every few seconds.

Runs smoothly and no issues: Several reviews report the game runs smoothly, with no FPS drops, stuttering, or bugs spotted.

Steam Deck runs well: Several players confirm the game runs very well on Steam Deck, with no issues reported. This is a strong positive point for handheld performance.

Camera jumping and snapping: Reviews mention a jumping camera while running and a camera snapping issue, which can be resolved by capping the frame rate to 120 or 60 FPS.

Slow response and input lag: Players report slow response while running and mouse skipping during frame drops. This suggests input lag tied to performance issues.

Highly recommended overall: Multiple reviewers strongly recommend the game, praising it as a great experience. These positive endorsements come from several clusters of feedback.

Good for sorting fans: The game is specifically recommended for fans of cozy, relaxing sorting games. Reviewers note it is not suitable for those who dislike sorting mechanics.

Recommended for duck lovers: Reviewers highlight the game's appeal to duck enthusiasts, offering a unique theme. This niche recommendation is backed by multiple positive mentions.

Good for organization enthusiasts: Reviewers recommend the game for people who love organizing and sorting items. It appeals to players who enjoy systematic gameplay.

Great value for price: Reviewers feel the game is worth its cost and recommend it for its price point. It offers good value relative to similar titles.

Game completion: 7.0h.

Sort Them Ducks is immediately enjoyable as a simple, relaxing sorting game that players find addictive from the start.

Cozy Duck Sorter: Casual, attentive sorting with a focus on relaxation and cute aesthetics. Motivation: Relaxation and enjoyment from organizing ducks in a cozy, addictive loop. Stance: buy.

Quality-Conscious Comparer: Comparative shopper who evaluates the game against alternatives in the genre. Motivation: Seeking the best value and quality among similar sorting or cozy games. Stance: no buy.

Both hardware cohorts report generally stable and playable performance, with only isolated frame drop complaints on higher VRAM systems.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Most players report smooth performance and no bugs, though a few experience frame drops on certain setups.

Windows <8GB VRAM: positive. Runs well on lower-end hardware; capping framerate resolves a minor camera sensitivity issue reported by one user.

Steam Deck: The game is playable on Steam Deck with occasional FPS stuttering and drops, but many users report a smooth experience with good controller support. No major blockers like forced Proton or launcher issues exist.

Linux and Proton: The game shows good baseline Proton/Linux compatibility on Steam Deck. One user reports no issues, while another notes mild performance hiccups at launch. Neither review indicates crashes, anti-cheat failures, or the need for Proton version switching. The only Linux-relevant concern is moderate performance, which does not prevent play.

Unfavorable genre comparisons: Reviewers compare this game negatively to other sorting games, noting similar issues not found in titles like Librarian or Supermarket Chaos.

Performance issues reported: Several players report FPS drops and frame rate issues, though a developer update fixed performance for AMD processors.

Duck variety praised: The game features many duck designs, including a butterfly duck and thousands of ducks, adding to its appeal.

Content volume highlighted: Players mention the game has a lot of content, with sessions lasting up to 6 hours and thousands of ducks to sort.

Game duration mismatch: The game's actual completion time of 5-7 hours exceeds the advertised 4-hour playtime, causing frustration for players expecting a shorter experience.