ISIS and gaming: 5 students want to teach about surviving under the militants’ heel

Games are often frivolous distractions from the real world, but a group of students from the Netherlands want to use the medium to learn more about horrifying events in Syria.

Refugen is a new PC game that puts players in the role of a 13-year-old refugee boy named Sayyid who must survive the horrors of an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) occupation. The developers call it a survival game, and you must decide how to react to events to either save your own life or to save your humanity. ISIS is a group of militant Islamists that have taken over control of certain areas in Syria and Iraq. Refugen does not have a release date or price at this time, but you can download a test version for free.