Samantha Swift and the Fountains of Fate is the fourth installment of a
hidden object series starring an archaeologist adventurer, where she must
travel around the world to recover artifacts before evil organizations. This
time she’s after the Emerald of Judgement, the key to the legendary Fountain
of Youth.

The gameplay follows a simple pattern, where initially the player has to find
all the items from a list at the bottom of the screen, with two full listings
of objects to be found on each scene. The list entries can be selected to show
their silhouettes on the scanner grid at the bottom-left corner. Some of the
entries are written as riddles, like “mimic expert” for a parrot and other
clues. Entries written in green are hidden from view, and only become visible
after some scenery interaction.

The hint button is a lightning bolt that, when activated, shoots electric arcs
towards a selected list entry to reveal its position. Extra hints can be
collected as bolts placed discreetly around the scenery. There are two swift
birds hidden on each location, and the player must find most of them to unlock
the unlimited mode at the main menu, where the goal is to find all the objects
from a previously visited scene as fast as possible.

After finding all the list objects, some of them are stored inside inventory
slots at the bottom-right corner, from where they have to be dragged and
dropped on appropriate and logical portions of the scenery to complete a task
or perform a required action. Some locations have mini-games that take place
on a separate screen, where the player has to arrange boards on a fence to
form a picture, connect a series of shells to recreate patterns and complete
other similar challenges.

Samantha Swift and the Fountains of Fate