Where's Samantha?

Side-scrolling platformers have something of a reputation for telling stories that are little more than a motivation for the hero -- Mario is trying to save the princess, Sonic needs to save his animal friends and Bubsy is stopping an alien invasion by collecting yarn balls. There's no character development, no big twist and nothing resembling a three-act structure. But that's not the case when it comes to the new game Where's Samantha? by Respect Studios. Here's a 2D platformer that wants you to genuinely care for the characters and be moved by their epic adventure. And you will for most of the journey. Unfortunately, it also proves to be the game's biggest liability. Where's Samantha? is a perfect example of how a good game can be completely undermined by a terrible ending.

Forget where Samantha is for a moment, because we first need to address the more pressing question: Who's Samantha? The simple answer is that she is a small swatch of fabric who is madly in love George, a fellow piece of fabric who has no idea what's in store for him. When a mighty gust of wind blows the love of his life away, George leaps into action to brave a sewn-together world full of puzzles and bottomless pits in order to rescue Samantha.

As setups go, this is right in line with all the 2D platformers I mentioned at the start of the review. But where that's the end of the story in most games, Where's Samantha? uses that as a jumping off point to explore what George is going through. He is not your typical hero, and not just because he's a piece of fabric. He's full of self-doubt and more than a little insecure about his relationship with Samantha. We explore all this in great detail thanks to a lengthy story read by none other than British comedian Rufus Hound.

I would like to say that it's all in his head, but there's a good case to be made that George has real reason to be concerned. In order to solve the game's many puzzles, he'll need to team up with clones who look and sound identical in every way. There's also Frank, a tall swatch of fabric who can double jump. What if Samantha is fooled by one of these clones or ends up falling for the taller and more talented Frank?

As worried as George is, he still has an important job to do. He runs, jumps and puzzle solves his way through 45 bite-sized stages. He does this by sewing on different types of fabrics in order to interact with the world in different ways. For example, by merging with Frank, he'll be able to double jump between platforms, while combining two or three clones will weigh him down in ways that will make beating the level easier. Sometimes it makes sense to tackle an obstacle as one combined piece, while other times you'll want to switch between the pieces of fabric in order to trigger different parts of the level. It's basically a cross between The Lost Vikings and Yoshi’s Woolly World.

As puzzles go, there are a lot of clever ones to play through in Where's Samantha? Combining the characters and then splitting them apart plays a huge role, and the developer does an excellent job mixing things up with new and unique challenges. There are portals, lasers, bounce pads, spikes, deadly fans and a whole bunch of different types of platforms you'll need to navigate. And what's cool about these obstacles is that everything is made from real world objects, such as hair combs, ratty old socks, flowers made with buttons, bells, pencils and, of course, fabric. Every part of this world looks like something I could recreate on my desk in about twenty minutes, which gives it a real tactile aesthetic.

For most of the game, I found Where's Samantha? to be a real charmer. I loved the look of the levels, the constantly changing obstacles and the great performance by Rufus Hound. But the longer I played the game, the more holes I started to see in the fabric. The first sign of trouble was the color palette, which never really changes much throughout the game. Where most platformers mix things up with a wide assortment of backgrounds and stage types, we spend almost all of this game in what looks like the same location. Sure, the stages get more and more desaturated as the game goes on, but everything still has a very light tan look to it. None of the backgrounds stand out in any way, and I spent most of the game convinced that they were using the same assets for every single stage.

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There are also a number of gameplay and level design problems. While the overall handling of the characters is tight and responsive, I did find that my characters would get stuck in the environment if I wasn't careful enough. There's also the problem of not being able to see where you're jumping or what obstacles stand in the way. I ran into a lot of problems where I would jump into a bottomless pit because there's no way to look around or see where the platforms are. So much of the game revolves around trial and error, which ultimately means you're going to suffer a lot of cheap and pointless deaths that could have easily been avoided if the camera was pulled back a little bit.

The repetitive graphics and cheap deaths are certainly annoying, but the real problem with the game is the ending. You would think that a game with so much story would lead to something, but it doesn't. Where's Samantha? has one of the most anticlimactic endings I've ever seen. In fact, the conclusion is so unsatisfying that I went back through the final stage several times just to see if there was another path that would lead to the real ending. I certainly didn't find anything and there's no mention of multiple endings on the store page. The ending that we get is a big slap on the face to anybody who was invested in these characters and their journey, and I'm not afraid to admit that it made me a little angry. I don't think it's too much to say that it ruins a lot of what the story was going for. It's a stark reminder that if a developer is going to invest this much time in the narrative, then they absolutely need to pay it off in the end. This is one of the few games where you're better off quitting before the final stage.

There's a lot to like about the style of Where's Samantha? From the fabric-filled levels to the well-written storytelling to the real-world objects being used as obstacles, this is a charming platformer that controls well and offers a lot of great puzzles. Unfortunately, the game begins to unravel the moment you notice the repetitive backgrounds, dubious stage designs and thoroughly unsatisfying ending. This is one of the few side-scrolling platformers where there's so much storytelling that it nearly overshadows the gameplay. I like a lot of what first-time developer Respect Studios is doing here, but I guarantee that the ending is going to piss you off. You've been warned.