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100% kosher.

The Shivah, an original and mature adventure game with a New York Rabbi investigating the killing of an ex-member of his synagogue, now with highly enhanced pixel-art graphics, is available on GOG.com for only $4.99.

For any Jew, it's a great mitzvah to visit the house of a departed acquaintance during the week of mourning--the Shivah, and pay respect to the avels. But when you are a Rabbi, it's more than that: it's a duty. Especially, if the deceased unexpectedly left you a large sum of money, even though you didn't part ways in friendship. If the police suspects you had something to do with a murder, it would be meshugge not to try and clear your name. But when you are a Rabbi, it's more than that: it's a duty. Your synagogue looks up to you, after all. They may like you, or not. They may respect you, or not. They may listen to you, or not, but there must be no doubt in their minds that you are a good Jew. It's natural for any man to ponder upon the nature of morality and reassess the important things in life, when faced with a dark mystery and a gruesome death. But when you're a Rabbi, it's more than that. It's a duty. You have to face your doubts and fears before you help others to do so. Yes, life isn't easy at all. But when you are a Rabbi, it comes with some extra challenges.

The Shivah is a point-and-click title designed by Dave Gilbert of Wadjet Eye Games, one of the modern adventure game power-houses. Initially executed in Adventure Game Studio it received a lot of praise from both gamers and gaming media, despite the simplistic visuals of the original 2006 version. It was welcomed as a mature and thought-provoking experience, as well as an unique insight into the contemporary Jewish culture. Pair that with a gripping, non-linear crime story and you've got a title unlike any other. Now, seven years after its initial release, this intriguing title is making a comeback, in the so called "Kosher Edition", sporting higher resolution pixel-art graphics made from scratch to make the game look as good as we came to expect from Wadjet Eye titles. MP3 soundtrack included!

As Rabbi Russell Stone attend The Shivah of Jack Lauder, and solve the mystery of his untimely death, while facing some of your own demons, for as little as $4.99 on GOG.com.
The fun is in walking the path, after all. Not in knowing the signposts, stops or possible destinations. ;)
Wonder what kind of reaction we'd have gotten if GOG had waited and released this as GOG 666th game ;-p
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davelgil: Dave Gilbert of WEG here. I know I don't post here often, but wanted to pop in and say hi! I'm happy that you guys are enjoying the game. And it appears I missed some drama earlier!

Anyway, the "classic" Shivah was originally made because I was trying to avoid getting a real job, and I enjoyed making it so much that I couldn't envision doing anything else with my life. Seven years and eleven games later, here we are. Revisiting the game was almost like coming full-circle. It feels quite good! :)

If you have any questions about the game, feel free to email me at admin AT wadjeteyegames DOT com.

And thanks again!

-Dave
Thanks for coming to visit us GOG fans, Dave. This game looks amazing. It looks quite kosher as well, in that there are so many "hammy" games out there, but this one's pure gefilte fish and smoked kippers with fine lox on classic water bagels kosher.
I can't wait to give it a try.
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StealthMomo: This is not a food you know. Kosher, silly joke.
Kosher can refer not just to food only.
Another title you would not see from a big publisher in a million years. Gotta love the indie scene.
More Wadjet Eye is always good.
Interesting release! Hopefully it lives up to its theme (after all, many a 'mature' game is anything but... however, since it's Wadjet Eye so I suppose it's all good).
Since it appears that "professional-goy" can't seem to stop himself from posting anti-Semitic garbage as a "review", I'm beginning to agree with the sentiment of others on here in that only people who have bought a game on GOG should be allowed to post a review of that game. Same goes for the ratings system as well - it's just as open to abuse from professional trolls and sun-dodging nolifes as the review section is.
Post edited November 22, 2013 by uknortherner
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tfishell: Having not looked, I wonder how much of this thread is about the main character being a religious figure and having a problem with that. (hopefully not too much)
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Telika: Uh. None at all, actually.

Also, the in-game rabbinic reflexions feel more philosophical than theological. I don't know if it's due to Gilbert, to Stone, or to rabbis in general (I'm lame at judaism). I found the same sort of broad philosophical outlooks (different from what I'd expect from, say, a christian priest) in Coen's "A serious man". So maybe it's a thing.
There are also a lot of different "streams" in Judaism; who are also quite antagonistic to each other. So it depends on the particular Jewish 'sect' (though not quite the right word) that the Rabbi prescribes too as owning to his own views of Judaism and life in general. :D

I've been meaning to play this game for a while might just pick it up here.

Also it makes me smile a bit to see Hebrew used (and often misused) in media; for example in the Witcher and in the Dune books.
Post edited November 22, 2013 by shattenyagger
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uknortherner: Since it appears that "professional-goy" can't seem to stop himself from posting anti-Semitic garbage as a "review", I'm beginning to agree with the sentiment of others on here in that only people who have bought a game on GOG should be allowed to post a review of that game. Same goes for the ratings system as well - it's just as open to abuse from professional trolls and sun-dodging nolifes as the review section is.
I think Mr. professional-ban should have a chat with mr. professional-goy.
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tburger: Wishlisted. Likely will buy it during Christmas even if it doesn't go on sale as my wishlist is soo short :-(
Wish I had that problem! :-)
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Novotnus: I think Mr. professional-ban should have a chat with mr. professional-goy.
Ah, I've just noticed that for some reason, GOG decided to reactivate both professional-goy's and BillyCrush's reviews but with a "redacted" message on them as both messages still show their original post date (yesterday). All this does is give these Stormfront cretins the oxygen of publicity that they crave so much, even if you can no longer read the reviews themselves.
Post edited November 22, 2013 by uknortherner
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tburger: Wishlisted. Likely will buy it during Christmas even if it doesn't go on sale as my wishlist is soo short :-(
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jackster79: Wish I had that problem! :-)
Will exchange half of your free time for half of my collection. Do we have a deal :-D?
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tfishell: Having not looked, I wonder how much of this thread is about the main character being a religious figure and having a problem with that. (hopefully not too much)
Okay, I'll bite.

The problem in western media -- what sane people object to -- is pervasive unexamined Christianity.

I'll give one neutral example (I'd rather not bash an adventure game in another adventure game's release thread). Tabletop 3E D&D features several "vows" (poverty, peace, nonviolence, chastity) that provide rather powerful character abilities as long as the character behaves appropriately. All of them are shitty: the ones that don't ruin the fun for the other players are worthless, the ones that do -- well, they ruin the fun for other players, that's already bad, amirite? -- are overpowered, and if you jump through enough hoops to bypass behavioral restrictions, you have pretty much won D&D.

At this point in the discussion, people objected. They said bypassing the restrictions was an unworkable and absolutely badwrongstupid perversion of the original idea; regardless of the mechanical failings, any flavor other than "intention is all that matters" wouldn't fly. However, we have a Chinese participant on the forums, and he remarked that this sort of thing happens all the time in Eastern myth: demons seriously get boons from gods and perform holy feats through trickery, twisting the meaning of words, and just plain perseverance. For more a quarter of the world's population, an idea that triggered a "wtfisthisricockulousnonsense" reaction from those guys is the cultural default.

Christian ethics and Christian tropes are hardcoded into a vast, vast majority of Western cultural works. The only set of ethics/aesthetics/tropes that is about just as widespread is Nazi Romanticism. If you have a villain at all, the conflict is very likely to run on the Christian difference engine of salvation and damnation. If you have a fictional evil cleric, that cleric is either Christian (usually Catholic; KJV might define the language of [epic], but Catholics have style) or a cultist (a Christian-authored caricature of other religions). It doesn't matter all that much if a church stamps the work with its seal of approval or not.

Now, The Shivah happens to be a game about a Rabbi who is losing his faith. You can't mount indoctrination on this chassis. The only sane people who might have a problem with the premise are Orthodox Jews -- and some did, sort of, you can find a newspaper article if you google hard -- the mild paternal disapproval is not anywhere near FROTH AT THE MOUTH RAAAAAAAGE you see from nutcases of every persuasion. And nutcases don't really need a reason to be nutcases. Speaking of which, GOG should really clean up that review section; it reflects badly on the site when a game is lowrated because of a one-asshole-strong racist hate campaign.
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jackster79: Wish I had that problem! :-)
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tburger: Will exchange half of your free time for half of my collection. Do we have a deal :-D?
Free time? What's that? Cannot say I have ever heard of -- oh oh you mean gaming time?

Nice try. :-D