The Shivah

Alright but extremely short (most of my playtime was just waiting for the card drops). What feels like what was only going to be the end of Act 1 to a much grander mystery, ended up as the end of the game. Not the best from WadjetEye (honestly probably one of their weaker), but it is pretty much a polished "game jam" game originally and Dave Gilberts first commercial game. It's predictable and there are very little in regards to puzzles but it's not bad, so I can't really do a thumbs down. Pick it up at a sale. if you want some light detective game.

tl;dr i had such high hopes for this game, and its both poorly designed and is vivid and blatant antisemitism. dont play this game, dont give them money. I searched on Steam for a game that was Jewish, and as somebody who is an Orthodox Jew, I was really excited for this game. It is pretty simple, and there is Jewish iconography everywhere. The cursor is the Star of David, and the whole setting is around multiple rabbis. What I read in the description was somehow apt, but the main character—for being a rabbi—is completely un-rabbi-like. For being a supposed figure representing our culture, he is the most toxic, argumentative, and disgusting example of a human being. When he makes choices, everybody around him hails him as this significant figure. I was expecting this to be about Shivah, so I expected it to be about redemption. Instead, it was a descent. This character, who is already very flawed and terrible, never makes a moral choice throughout the entire game Not only that, but the antagonist and the major plotline is blatantly and extremely anti-Semitic. The plotline of the story is about a main character acting as a vigilante and uncovering that a person he used to know (and whom he had kicked out of his synagogue) has been killed. He goes to fight the assassin responsible for the murder directly instead of going to the police. Later, he discovers another rabbi in a different shul that is bigger, more elaborate, better made, and very popular with the people. However, the rabbi everyone likes turns out to be part of the mafia. He is a criminal mastermind utilizing his synagogue as a method of extortion and mass murder. Furthermore, even if you get past the actual plot of the story and the terribleness of that, playing the game is almost impossible without a walkthrough. You are given basically no clues about what to do next. Even if you try everything, there are certain gates where you need to find passwords for computers (and read other people's emails without their permission as an "esteemed rabbi" would do). You just have to just guess the passwords that are the merging of different clues with no guidance and no feedback if you are on the right track. Overall, it was a game I tried to play normally, but there is just no way to finish all of the endings without a walkthrough. There is always only one choice and no direction, so you just have to try randomly to figure out where to go next and brute force every single interactable, of which there are many. I've played a number of games that have a similar style, and none of them were as bad as this one in terms of showing the player what comes next. All in all, I'm frankly disgusted with a game where rabbis kidnap, steal, commit murder, and extort, all for personal monetary profit. yuck

I appreciated the dive into Jewish cultural practices and sincere engagement with a moral philosophy that encourages grappling with hard questions rather than finding easy answers. Not an amazing game, but an intriguing short story.

Do you have the chutzpah to uncover the mystery of Jack Lauder’s death? If so, this game is intended for you a real mensch.

This is a solid 10 oys out of 10 veys, defiitely recommend.

An ok pixel-graphics point-and-click game that's on the short side. Nothing special here, but the various dialogue choices, locations, quirky characters and different possible endings maintain the interest until the end. You play as a disgruntled Rabbi that gets involved in a crime mystery and gets to play detective. Gameplay is basically talking to other characters to get clues, check out/combine said clues and search your computer for more clues and for unlocking new locations to visit or characters to interact with. You can get different endings depending on your choices, and there are achievements to hunt for, but like I said the game is on the short side. I managed to get every ending and all the achievements in under 5 hours. You can also save manually at any time and there are multiple save slots, which is a big plus when you're going for different achievements. The asking price is quite low, plus there is a nice and original bonus feature once you get to the finish line [spoiler]a bunch of voice actors' blooper recordings![/spoiler]. Also, the voice acting is decent for the most part.

The Shivah is a charming little noir point-and-click that manages to pack a surprising amount of heart into its brief runtime — I finished it in about two hours, but it never felt padded or wasteful. Playing as Rabbi Stone, a bitter man of faith investigating a murder he's been implicated in, gave me a protagonist type I'd genuinely never experienced before, and the dialogue system where you choose between a human response and a rabbinical one was a clever touch that kept conversations interesting. The pixel art style and moody jazz score fit the Manhattan setting perfectly, and the voice acting — bloopers included — added real personality to the cast. My only real gripes are that the final confrontation is frustratingly trial-and-error, and the story occasionally feels like it's skating on the surface of deeper themes it could have explored more fully. Still, for five dollars, this is an easy recommend for any fan of Wadjet Eye Games or classic adventure games looking for something short and genuinely unlike anything else out there.

Кошерно! Купил игру за 29 рублей, а продал коллекционные карточки за 55 рублей!