The Shivah

This game gets points for novelty, since to my knowledge there aren't many games that focus so completely on Jewishness. The game really leans into this, which is fun both on the surface (e.g. with the list of jokes you can find) and more implicitly (e.g. "Rabbinical Answer" as a style being a frequent dialog option). Features like the Yiddish dictionary and some non-Jewish characters (as a potential audience surrogate) make the fun more understandable for non-Jewish players as well. Most of my complaints are technical rough edges. The voice acting itself was good, but the recording quality was inconsistent between characters. Some puzzles felt like the logical equivalent of pixel hunting and can be brute forced, which is always a disappointment. There's at least one mechanic that seemed almost entirely superfluous. At first I wasn't sure if I had truly reached the end, since my first attempts led to a dreary and unsatisfying state of affairs... but it also seemed to match the vibe of Rabbi Stone's life well enough that I could believe the game meant it to be that way. I was glad to discover that I was wrong and there was more to see, but I would not have figured out the solution without the hindsight of a walkthrough. Maybe I should have talked to rabbis more in life. It's important to judge this game for what it is, though - an early game in Wadjet Eye's history made around a fun concept (rabbi solves mysteries). It succeeds there, and Wadjet Eye's later games show growth that address my complaints. If you like the idea of a game very focused on Jewishness (seriously - the loading cursor is a star of David) and don't mind working around some less forgiving puzzles in the style of old point and click adventures, you may enjoy this. Otherwise, go for a later Wadjet Eye game that has worked out some of the kinks (like the Unavowed).

Is an ok adventure game, but really too short. Will probably give you about two hours of gameplay at most. I also wasn't really sure if the rabbi you played as was really that likeable, he seemed rather intolerant. Decent effort for an indie title and could have been really good, but as it is I feel it isn't worth the full price. Grab it for a bargain price if you want about an evening of adventure gaming.

The plot is good, the writing is good, the arguing mechanism is fun, the ending is rather ok. It's just a shame that it's so short.

The game is short, about two hours for a blind playthrough with the happiest ending. It's one of Wadjet Eye's numerous AGS games, but rather poor in comparison to most of their catalogue. It's based around collecting information instead of inventory puzzles, which I appreciated. I also applaud them basing the game around Jewish culture (though I can't speak to its accuracy) - if nothing else it spared me from another pseudo-noir setting. Plot-wise, they seem to have been trying for a more profound story, but ended up with a somewhat absurd detective game that puts on airs. I was particularly bothered by my inability to notify the police once I had uncovered clear evidence of the villain's guilt. I also struggled to notice any pattern to the final confrontation on the balcony, turning it into a trial-and-error affair.

A rabbi with an existential crisis gets caught up in a crime story: hell of a pitch! But "The Shivah" is fine—it's pretty basic, as adventure games go, and the game can be done in two or three hours. You can't really hit any dead ends, and the puzzles are mostly good—only one kind of left me baffled. It's Wadjet Eye before they really found themselves, part of what I think of as their rough batch: this, the first "Blackwell" game, and "A Golden Wake". They're *enjoyable*, and this one is actually quite different. Elements of the great writing that would mark later Wadjet Eye games are there, but the plotting isn't always on-point; the characters sometimes do things I question. Abe Goldfarb is here, obviously. The music is nice. The updated art is great. It's a great afternoon in. But it's amateurish, and a start—the first breath before a lot of better things happened. (A couple of characters from later games make cameos!) I'm adding an extra star for effort, but this is squarely three stars.