The diabolical social experiment that was Twitch Plays Pokemon proved that a million monkeys on typewriters can indeed play a videogame, and now the recently released Rise of the Tomb Raider has effectively given those monkeys the nuclear launch codes by letting viewers mess with streamers directly through the game.

Rise of the Tomb Raider streamers can play a new Expedition Mode game type that will cause a random set of Expedition Cards to occasionally pop up on the screen while they are playing. Each card affects the game in a different way, and viewers are able to vote on which one they want to activate.

Many of the cards seem to make things harder for the player. For example, one card doubles the armor strength of enemies, and another disables player health regeneration. Other cards activate a variety of goofy effects, including the classic Big Head Mode.

By playing in Expedition Mode, streamers are effectively putting their fate in the hands of their viewers, and knowing the Twitch community, the vote will likely end up going to the worst card.

Viewers who watch through the Xbox One Twitch app will also be rewarded for participating with in-game credits that are given out when the streamer reaches certain milestones within the game, provided that the streamer is also using the Xbox One Twitch app. They can then use the credits to purchase their own Expedition Cards to be used when they play in Expedition mode themselves.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a direct sequel to Crystal Dynamics’ Tomb Raider, which rebooted the Lara Croft franchise in 2013. While the first game focused on Lara’s evolution into a throat stabbing maniac, the new game follows the now badass Lara on an adventure through the frozen wastes of Siberia. It is currently available for Xbox One and Xbox 360, and it will be arriving on PC in early 2016. It will also be coming to PlayStation 4 at some point much later next year.

Photo credit: Microsoft Corp, Rise of the Tomb Raider
Screenshot courtesy of Twitch