I really liked this game - the story was philosophical, thoughtful, and adult. The multiple endings are a great touch - I wanted to see the other endings so much I replayed the game as soon as I finished. Loved the rabbinical fight scene.

I'm happy that everyone is enjoying the game. Regarding the long intro, I have two words. The first is "Press", and the second is "Escape."

Thanks for playing!

Brian, just because you couldn't work it out doesn't mean that there wasn't logic to things. I beta tested for Dave and it didn't take me too long to work out how the fight system worked, without any prompting from Dave.

This is a truly excellent game and you shoudl check out Dave's website for the special edition

THe story is really well done. And the music is fantastic. That said, this game has some serious playability issues.

First of all, the clues in this game need to be reworked. And as has been previously mentioned, its not clear that you can USE clues on other clues. Not that this really helps directly, the only thing this did for me was eliminate one clue in my inventory to make room for the next one. And THAT made it possible for me to advance the story: It wasnt that i didnt have the clue, it was that the clue wasnt showing in my inventory. Its a very shady system.

Secondly, the dialogue system is very interesting, but there is absolutely no way to get "good" at it. This is PAINFULLY clear at the end of the game - or, what i presume to be the end: I could NOT find a series of responses to satisfy Rabbi Zelig. There was no clear way of knowing when i was supposed to "fight" and when i was supposed to ask a question. Further frustration comes from the long intro to the game. If you die, you cant immediately load up and get back into the story, you have to wait through the intro EVERY TIME.

I think what shines in this game is the story and the gameplay IDEAS, but at the core, this game is frustrating and slow. Some time spent on the flow of the story midgame, and a total overhaul of the endgame fight sequence would bump this up a few notches.

Despite my unending frustration with this game, i would encourage the designers to keep working, there is obvious talent here.

This is one of my favorite AGS games ever! The storyline is EXTREMELY well-written, great endings, overall a very enjoyable experience--this is one of those that you keep to play again later.

A few things that could be better:

Include in a game manual something encouraging the player to use the clues on different things, including on each other. I had a hard time coming to the realization that the clues in Shivah are a lot like the inventory in other AGS games.

Graphics could be a lot better--they were pretty decent for 320x240 resolution, but a game with a story as good as this one relies a lot on the mood and better graphics would contribute to that. A remake of this game with better graphics would be well worth the download!

Soundtrack: Some of the music is a bit tiring, but some is very good. I understand it is all original composition? I'd love to have the music available separately.