It is a mix of both rivalry and chivalry when one extremist group releases a video game portraying another as a brutal terrorist organisation. The long-running Shia-Sunni conflict was on full display when Lebanon's Hezbollah released a video game keeping the Islamic State (Isis) militants as the main antagonists in the Middle East war.

A Call of Duty-like game, named "Holy defense – protecting the homeland and holy sites," was produced by Hezbollah's so-called electronic media department allowing the main character to fight Isis militants.

Making it clear that it is not just a simulation, the developers have said the game is intended to show what the real battlefield would look like if you don't believe in what they called a true form of Islam.

"The Holy Defense game is not just a mere game, but a simulation aimed at documenting a stage of the holy defense facing the takfiri tide and confronting the American-Zionist project, chronicling the sacrifices made in this way," said the description of the game in its official website using the term takfiri (impure), often used by Shia Muslims to denote other Islamic faiths.

The main protagonist is named Ahmed and could be seen in the streets of Syria taking down the Islamist extremists. In the first few scenes of the 12-hour-long campaign, Ahmed visits the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine, one of the holy sites for Shia Muslims, and when it came under attack, he quickly changes from civilian clothes to military uniforms launching a counter-attack.

Users are given an option to wage their combat in a variety of locations in Syria and Lebanon. Not so surprisingly, images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah were also seen in the video game.

Hassan Allam, one of the game's developers, told AFP news agency that the game reflects some of Hezbollah's real-life experience picked up from its war in Syria. This is not exactly the first time Hezbollah has released video games as they have done in the past in 2004 and 2007 simulating attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah, which controls more firepower than the Lebanese army itself, waded into the long-running Syrian conflict during the later stages and in favour of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

Lebanon Hezbollah on Jerusalem
Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah speaks via a screen during a protest in Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon Aziz Taher/Reuters