When a game comes along that features a rabbi as the lead character, you cannot help but do a double-take. In The Shivah, a point-and-click adventure game from Wadjet Eye Games, that is what you’ll do.
You play as Rabbi Russell Stone, a man whose faith is dwindling very as fast as his congregation. evening after services, Stone is visited by a policeman, who tells him that a former member of his synagogue, Jack Lauder, has been killed. Apparently, Lauder left Stone a giant sum of money, but Stone doesn’t understand why Lauder would have left anything to him after the falling out they had years ago. Thus begins the mystery.
The gameplay itself is rudimentary. You seldom have any stock to speak of, & the cast of characters is not very giant. There are not lots of places to visit on the map of Manhattan. There’s no actual brain twisters here, apart from piecing together the knowledge given to you by the few folks you do speak to.
As a whole, the game is basically designed. The sprite graphics are crude compared to most games of today, yet retain a positive charm. The soundtrack is very well-done, & played with actual instruments. The tone is set by dark jazz & solo violin lines that have the right blend of drama & klezmer. All the characters are voiced well, with actual actors as against the “volunteer” performances often heard in these kinds of games.
The game even begins with an elderly Jewish joke of a who asks a rabbi why every query asked of the rabbi is met with another query (the answer is, “Why not?”). The Shivah also tackles some actual heavy issues, not all of which will appeal to everyone.
, what makes this game fascinating is its take on Jewish culture & humor. For example, the name “shivah” refers to the seven-day period of mourning after the death of a loved, & helps to set the serious tone of the game. The Shivah even starts with a cantor (a who sings prayers at the synagogue) singing a traditional Sabbath prayer.
Imagine the surprise, though, that the crisis is then taken in to the absurd. In fact, Rabbi Stone gets involved with some serious violence, which would appear to run counter to his belief process as the game portrays it. By the finish, Rabbi Stone seems less a man on a spiritual mission & more of a rogue military man. & with the game being very short (it ought to take about hours at most to clear) the journey Stone takes feels sometimes disjointed & rushed.
But central to the story is the crisis of faith & Jewish identity that haunts the main character. Throughout the game, Rabbi Stone constantly asks himself why he is doing what he is doing, & is God there? These kinds of deep, spiritual issues are seldom seen in any video game, not to mention in the casual space.
Developer Dave Gilbert has added some fascinating extras, including a “kibbitz” (meaning gossip) mode, which has a sprite of Gilbert’s head pop up & give extensive behind-the-scenes commentary on the game. It is definitely a great addition, helping to give insight in to this unusual title.
Taken by itself, The Shivah is a short, esthetically bland adventure title. Granted, it is not as fleshed out as the Wadjet Eye games that came after (like Emerald City Confidential & the Blackwell series), but to take on this type of mature & difficult subject matter elevates The Shivah to something greater than the sum of its parts
For those of you who have not bothered to check this game out because it’s Tegra 2 exclusivity, this is a puzzle game based physics is quite unique.
