Shivah
Main game
3.08 average rating based on 103 ratings
- Developers
- Wadjet Eye Games
- Publishers
- Wadjet Eye Games
- Platforms
- Android, Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS
- Genres
- Adventure, Indie, Point-and-click
- Themes
- Action
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Shivah?
CaseMav's review of Shivah
Love the music, writings, voice actings (do listen to the Bloopers! ) and arts. The system gave me one of the best Eurika moments in my experience with this genre of games. The story is mostly a Hardboiled detective one, despite its Jewish cultural background. I wish it was longer so as to make more use of the system and elaborate the plot for a little bit more, the current version starts rushing once past a certain point. btw the final fight is surely a rabbiacal one XD
It´s cool
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
The game and the detective work were fantastic, and the connection to Blackwell was a great touch. However, it felt more like a demo than a full game—it was way too short. The fight with the rabbi was both exhausting and illogical. Plus, I could have done without the religious elements, as they didn’t really resonate with me.
good atmo and short
Nice short noir adventure that for me worked in the mobile system (played it on IOS), but it's true that it expects you to memorize stuff. Very good atmosphere. Also has a Rosa Blackwell cameo. OST is also rather good.
yields's review of Shivah
Boring and annoying, and a bad OST - the only good thing is the "rabbinical answers". Other Wadjet Games are way better.
FredLobster's review of Shivah
I'm not sure exactly where I stand on The Shivah. On the one hand, it's a point-and-click adventure with reasonable, enjoyable puzzles, a really solidly written story, and a (thankfully sensitively handled) Jewish twist on a classic film noir recipe. You play as Russell Stone, a down-on-his-luck rabbi running the saddest little synagogue in Manhattan. Faced with imminent bankruptcy, you suddenly find yourself inheriting a tiny fortune from a dead former member of your congregation who, by all rights, has every reason to despise you. With the police eyeballing you as their most likely suspect and your faith teetering on the edge of total collapse, you set out to discover exactly what's going on, armed with nothing more than a mean left hook and a knack for answering questions really obnoxiously. I quickly found myself liking the cast and appreciating the effort that went into the voice acting, and you can tell the dev team put a lot of love into bringing the story to life.
On the other hand, it's noticeably short (I finished the game, replayed it, got every ending, and snagged every Steam achievement in under three hours), and it introduces features that get used exactly once …
I'm not sure exactly where I stand on The Shivah. On the one hand, it's a point-and-click adventure with reasonable, enjoyable puzzles, a really solidly written story, and a (thankfully sensitively handled) Jewish twist on a classic film noir recipe. You play as Russell Stone, a down-on-his-luck rabbi running the saddest little synagogue in Manhattan. Faced with imminent bankruptcy, you suddenly find yourself inheriting a tiny fortune from a dead former member of your congregation who, by all rights, has every reason to despise you. With the police eyeballing you as their most likely suspect and your faith teetering on the edge of total collapse, you set out to discover exactly what's going on, armed with nothing more than a mean left hook and a knack for answering questions really obnoxiously. I quickly found myself liking the cast and appreciating the effort that went into the voice acting, and you can tell the dev team put a lot of love into bringing the story to life.
On the other hand, it's noticeably short (I finished the game, replayed it, got every ending, and snagged every Steam achievement in under three hours), and it introduces features that get used exactly once before being set aside for the rest of the game. While this is better than a game that runs too long and relies too heavily on adventure game non-logic, I did wind up feeling just a little bit cheated. I'm not saying I wouldn't tell my adventure game-loving friends to try it out, but I think I might wait until it hits a Steam Sale first.
The first in a wonderful tradition
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
Wadjet Eye games and Dave Gilbert makes or publishes a series of games I'm a pretty big fan of. The games are all relatively short pixel graphic games where a combination of inventory management, location visiting and dialogue options advance the story, all in the name of solving a mystery. Most notable among these are the five game Blackwell series and The Excavation of Hobs Barrow, both absolutely worth playing.
The Shivah is the first game put out by Wadjet Eye and sets the stage for the formula they would later put to much better use. I enjoyed it. It's very short. It's about a cynical rabbi who
I played it more for the historical significance than the game itself.
Just not the target audience for this game
- Year played: 2015
- Playtime: about 2 hours
- Completion level: 100%
I'll be honest, I mostly played this because it was fairly short and would be pretty easy to snag all the achievements and I wanted to increase my perfect games count on my steam profile. I had it from a bundle, I think.
I feel bad giving it a low rating since this game is clearly not for me - I'm not a big adventure game player, and I don't have any connection to the characters or jewish culture. It was rather slow and dry for me, a lot of text and I just wasn't engaged. I did see it through to the end though and wanted to give it a solid shot, only checking some walkthroughs to grab the last couple achievements, but overall I was just not that into it.
I think for fans of gritty noir and retro adventure games, it could be a great pick! But... yeah, just not one for me. Sometimes it's like that.
I wanted to like it
I really wanted to like this game for its unusual subject material and theme. However, I bounced right off it twice - once when trying the demo on PC and a second time when playing the full game on my phone. While the adjusted UI for smartphones was quite good, I dimply couldn't get all into an adventure game (with lots of clue-hunting and memory tricks) when playing in a mobile setting, with its short sittings and many distractions.