UPDATE 7/19/2026: After working with Steam Support and the game's developer, the issue was resolved and was confirmed only to be an issue for those issues a Curator Connect package. The game should work fine for all regular users and now works correctly for Curators as well.

UPDATE 7/4/2026: The original version of this review claimed that the Steam game has some kind of issue where the game installs with 0 Bytes of data. After a second Steam Curator Connect game (which this one was) gave me the exact same issue, and some further research, I have reason to believe this is an issue specifically with Steam's Curator Connect system and not Peleg Harel's game itself. Further, Peleg did eventually get back to me in the Steam page's Discussion section. I am working with him and Steam support to verify this issue is limited to my own experience. For those interested, the game is currently on sale on Steam for only $0.69. I intend to follow up again should the issue get fully resolved. My apologies to the developer for the potential confusion I have caused.

Thank you Peleg Harel for providing us with a review copy!

I've reviewed my fair share of puzzle games in my short tenure as a writer here, but only Exodus has given me the opportunity to play as the literal hand of God. It's an interesting premise, really. You play as God's hand, and your job is to lead the Israelites through the desert and help them avoid the various ways of dying while out there (usually in the form of Egyptian warriors or drowning).

I initially thought that this would mean that you have to enact the plagues on Egypt, then lead the Israelites through the wilderness, but it's more simple than that. Essentially, every stage has one or more Israelite wanderers who need to get across the map, and there are obstacles in their way. Using God's hand, you can manipulate the terrain to some degree, such as parting water, making seismic waves of the land that lift and carry objects, or simply lifting a single wanderer directly upwards above some moving hazard. Different ideas get added in as time goes on, like spikes on the ground, colored sand to hit switches of matching colors, or an incredibly long snake simply blocking people from walking past it.

It's really rather simple. In some ways, maybe a little too simple. Each thing you can interact with basically only has one way to interact with it: grab it and either lift it or push it down. Once you see what that does, it isn't usually too hard to put the pieces together on how to solve each level.

The graphics are very low-polygon 3D models, but they serve the game fine. The music and sound effects are likewise understated, but they fit the general "relaxing puzzle game" aesthetic well.

As far as moral content is concerned, there are a few ways for both the Israelite wanderers and the soldiers chasing them to die. The soldiers carry swords and will swing them at the wanderers, killing them, if they reach them. They can both be drowned, and they can both be killed by spike traps from below. There is no blood, and the deaths come with a quirky sound effect and a little "falling off the screen" animation.

Now, here's the big caveat to everything I've reviewed. We received a copy of Exodus through Steam as a Curator Connect offer. I accepted the offer, installed the game, went to launch it, and got an error. Long story short, the game's install folder is empty. You can see in the attached screenshot that the install takes up 0 B. I even ran the "Verify integrity" check in Steam and it came back as being correct. I uninstalled and reinstalled the game numerous times, but nothing fixed the issue. I left a comment on the Discussion page on Steam a few days before writing this review, but to no avail. So, I figured I'd at least review the demo. It took me less than an hour to complete the levels that were available, with a number shown as locked for the full game.

Exodus is a unique little puzzle game, if a little easy. The gameplay, graphics, and music are all on the low-quality side, but for being made by a solo developer, and for the style of game it is, and for the price that was being asked, it's not too bad. It'd be something I could see some younger kids getting a little enjoyment out of. However, with the broken installer and no current way to contact the developer, I unfortunately have to warn people away from paying for the full game until the issue has been addressed.  As stated in the update at the top of this review, this issue is very likely was an issue with the Curator Connect system and not the game at large. I still couldn't review the whole game, but the part I did play was fun, and the game itself is, as of this update, on sale for less than a dollar.  All things permitting, I will write up a full review in the near future.

- maestro_dana