Introduction:
Samantha Swift is there for us for the fourth time, and this time like usual there is a lot to do and a lot that Samantha offers us in the fourth sequel. Legends and myths are there to keep people interested and feed their imagination about things that can only exist in ones dreams, and of course movies. But those myths must have come from somewhere, from some tale, some story told centuries ago as the times when they are first mentioned go way back in the first carvings and the oldest writings that exist on paper. That is the thing that makes archeologist seek for truth, Tomb Raiders search for gold, and adventurers go on voyages where all of the treasure in the world is meaningless except the one piece that is legendary… The thing that will contribute to the whole game is the fact that the legends and myths about its whereabouts used in the game are from our history and are not fiction.
Gameplay:
Fountain of Youth, theme for many movies, cartoons, and in our case Samantha Swift and the Fountains of Fate, where the only thing that matters is finding it. Our heroine seems to pull her strength from the fountain of youth itself as there is no stopping her in any way. She is restless and the only thing that can slow her down is you, that is if you don’t pay attention close enough on the items that need to be found. The game starts with you preparing yourself for the travels around the world so you can try to find the item that represents the one remaining key that is needed to unlock the mysteries of the Fountain of Youth and its whereabouts. But besides the fact that probably no one has ever found it before, nothing is stopping Samantha from finding the lost legend except two men and some very easy and very hard traps. The two men are Payne and M'alice, which have one task and that is to prevent you from continuing forward at any cost. But besides those devilish two, the game presents you with a very nice specter of different challenges that you need to complete to push forward your search. Unlike the previous parts of the Samantha Swift quadrilogy where the three first parts are more focused on the adventure part of the game, in the fourth part the game has a direct look on the hidden items. When you start your search in the game, each location is set out of two hidden object scenes. The items that you can find in those scenes are set in three categories. The first category is the green on, where the items you find are all found by interacting with the area around you. You will be either moving those items by putting them to the side, looking under items and so forth… The items that you find that way will be probably used for obtaining items marked in blue color, as for finding them you need to interact with the environment by suing the items that you have in your inventory. You will then perform an action (whatever it is) and obtain the item that lies behind the puzzle. The third category is quite special and there is no need to explain that much, as you will figure it out when you simply can’t find the items that you are looking for. This represents only the beginning of the game, as the things get complicated from now on… The additional complications in the form of description, as you get a description of an item that you need to find, without any picture based on associations. If you start having trouble in this part of the game the help is quite generous, and comes in many ways. The first way is using the hint system so it helps you find the item that you are looking for. Now, hints in this game are in the same time rechargeable and are collected. Using a hint starts the timer for the hint to recharge, however this doesn’t mean you can’t use it straight away, thanks to the lightning bolts that you can find throughout the game. However there is a catch for using those items, as you are denied from some awards that you can win. There are trophies that you can win throughout the game for different accomplishments that go from bronze to gold. To win the main trophies in the game you can’t use any of the hints provided by the game. Besides the hint system there is the silhouette and PDA assistance that dates from the three previous parts of the game. The same goes for them too, as using them means no chance for you to win the golden trophy. During your search for the items in the game, you should also keep an eye for the swift birds that you can find in each area. There are two of them in one area, and collecting enough of them unlocks Unlimited Hidden Object mode. After you unlock this mode you can come and visit any location that you want and compete against the time and try to collect all of the hidden items in that location. There are also golden, silver and bronze medal here too. The mini-games that come in between are the same old, same old like jigsaw, pipes and so forth, but the fact remains that the repetitive value is very high.
Graphics and audio:
Now the point of the game and its biggest pros is definitely the graphics part. The previous parts of the game, just like this one, are characterized with excellent graphics. The details of the items and the graphics as a whole are just simply great, nothing more nothing less.
