New video game lets players 'free Palestine' and fight Israel

• Published date: 29 September 2021
• Author: AARON REICH

Titled Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the game is developed by Nidal Nijm, a Brazilian resident of Palestinian origin.

The game promises to let players take the role of Palestinian freedom fighters and break what it calls "the cliché of portraying Arabs as Terrorists."

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"You will play in missions across Palestine with many objectives to accomplish, epic battles, powerful guns, vehicles to drive, and more," the game's page on Steam notes.

The game is currently slated for a December 2021 release, and user reviews are currently not available on the platform. However, a free playable demo is available for download.

The game's story follows protagonist Ahmad al-Falastini, who was "unjustly tortured and jailed" by the IDF for five years and who lost his family in an IDF airstrike, as noted on the Fursan Al-Aqsa website. Now free from prison, Falastini is out for revenge and to retake his homeland by joining the titular Fursan Al-Aqsa, a new Palestinian resistance movement.

The story and gameplay combined promise a high-octane action experience, with the story taking place over adrenaline-packed missions on the ground, sea and sky. It will feature a wide variety of guns, settings, vehicles and even boss fights.

With its politically charged narrative and contemporary setting, the game itself bears similarities to its influences, such as the Metal Gear Solid and Call of Duty franchises.

NIJM HIMSELF has been working on this game alone for around 10 years, and the efforts do show in the initial trailers and gameplay footage. In it, one can see an alternating third- and first-person perspective, a variety of environments, with Falastini even using what appears to be bullet-time mechanics mid-combat as well as shouting "Allahu Akbar" – "God is Great."

Fursan Al-Aqsa will also have a multiplayer mode. Rather than having an emphasis on online play, the multiplayer will be split-screen, which, in Nijm's own words, is "to revive the golden era of 90s shooters."

The throwback is on full display in that respect, with a notable influence from the classic 90s shooter Goldeneye 007 for the N64, the game which revolutionized first-person shooters and local multiplayer.

And this influence doesn't just hark back to the gameplay, but to the difficulty.

Giving the comparison of the more recent title Hotline Miami, Nijm noted...