Get Your Hunger Games on With Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s Twitch.tv Integration
Rise of the Tomb Raider has been out for about a day now, and many of the reviews are just glowing. Interestingly enough, not much is being said in those reviews about the game’s integration with Twitch.tv, which features a really neat interactive element: viewers can vote to impact what’s going on in the game.
It works like this: viewers watching online will periodically be presented with two “cards” to vote on. Each of the cards will have a unique impact on the player’s game, and the effects vary. One card increases enemy difficulty, while another, uh, gives Lara a rainbow particle effect that trails behind her as she moves. I’m not even kidding.
Viewers who watch will also receive rewards for doing so, getting their own cards to play with to modify their own games.
As Polygon points out, this isn’t the first game to introduce interactive Twitch.tv elements, but it is the first “big name title” to do so. Personally, I’m hoping this catches on because the idea of voting on what a player has to do next is kind of a great fourth-wall breaker. It also reminds me a lot of The Running Man or Hunger Games whose stories featured viewers who could influence their respective games from the outside, albeit these are much, much darker contexts.
You should check out the full feature video on Twitch’s blog, which sheds some light on more of the card effects. Or you can not do that, and have everything be a surprise for you. Isn’t that fun?
Anyway, is this enough to get you thinking about picking up Rise of the Tomb Raider? Or at least maybe watching a few streams on Twitch?
—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—
Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?
Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com
