PC Game Review: Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch

Samantha Swift fresh from her Roses of Athena Adventure readies herself for another that follows Midas’ golden touch. In Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch, a client hires Samantha to find Alexander the Great’s scroll, which lists all of the items that King Midas turned to gold. She can keep whatever else she finds on the quest, and of course, she puts everything in a museum to share with the world. Samantha naturally runs into trouble as someone wants to use Midas’ secret to turn everything to gold.

In this long lasting hidden object game, players have plenty to do to prevent boredom in searching the hand-drawn scenes for objects. Mini-games and puzzles are plentiful with no repetition. Many of the items that Samantha must find end up in her inventory for use later on. Instead of finding stop signs and other unrelated objects, Samantha picks up things that will go in the museum or further her quest.

The mini-games add a touch of the game’s theme and style. In its version of mah jongg, it has symbols that fell on top of each other. You match pairs that aren’t blocked and the symbols have a role after you solve the mini-game. A match three mini-game also appears, and again, it matches the story and current mystery. It’s rare for a player to enjoy all of the mini-games, but Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch does a beautiful job of fitting the games with the story without any repetition.

The puzzles have you interacting with objects from your inventory and the scene. While fun, these turn into a guessing game. Often, you can’t tell what you need to do in the scene. All you need to do is move your cursor around the scene until you see two blue gears turning. Once you do, you can figure out the rest. Sometimes it takes time to pinpoint where you need to go.

The visuals remain as sharp and charming with a nice complement from the audio. Story updates come in bite-sizes and short cutscenes to avoid overwhelming players with too much info. The story flows and intrigues from beginning to end.

The very young and those new to hidden object games delight in playing Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch. It provides endless amounts of hints and help. Every scene contains lightning bolts, which gives you hints anytime you need it. It takes little time to pile up on them.

Furthermore, a scanner shows you the outline of any object you need to find AND turn from white to orange to red to let you know how close you are to the item. Experienced players can challenge themselves not to use any hints or help. However, some items don’t look like what you expect. You could let the scanner show you what the item looks like and then click another item to turn off the scanner so you can find the item on your own. If you click too many times without hitting anything, the scanner punishes you by turning itself off for a few minutes.

Though hints are plentiful and guessing games needed, Samantha Swift and the Golden Touch is a game worth touching.

Download the game from your favorite site:

Big Fish Games

PlayFirst

Reflexive Arcade Game Center Solution