A person I know has a question regarding video games. There is a game in which you play as a caveman around 10,000 BCE, and it gives some educational insight into the lives of people in Europe at that time, like regarding animals and human history, but there is one thing that bothers him. Although it is not necessary to play the game, there is a side quest where you place what is called stone totems, which are carvings of animals, on altars. However, you do not physically carve the statue of an animal yourself; you merely place it on an altar by pressing a button, and it pops up there. Now, there is no praying to the totems or asking them for help in the game as such, but has he committed Shirk (polytheism) by placing the totems there? I know that Islamweb has clarified the matter on video games and Shirk a few times, but he wants to know very specifically about this matter as he is worried that his Shahadah (Testimony of Faith) might have been nullified.

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

What we establish is that it is not permissible to play or watch what is considered as an imitation to the non-Muslims offering sacrifices to other than Allah as well as other forms of imitation of acts of disbelief and Shirk.

There is no doubt that imitating the non-Muslims is forbidden, especially in matters that are related to the creed (belief), as, for example, we are forbidden to prostrate to Allah at sunrise and at sunset as this coincides with the time the disbelievers prostrate to it, as has been reported in Saheeh Muslim and others.

Nonetheless, we cannot issue a ruling about the game that you described to us, as we cannot perceive what it is exactly.

The general clarification that we have already mentioned would be enough for the one who knows this game to know its ruling. So if the quest you mentioned is from the rituals of Shirk and acts of worship devoted to idols, then it is Islamically forbidden to play with this game, but if it is not so, then it is not forbidden.

In any case, even if it is forbidden to play with such games, it is not considered Kufr (disbelief) at all.

Allah knows best.