A new Tomb Raider game has arrived in stores, and Xbox promoted it in just about the most epic way possible. The Microsoft-owned entertainment brand sent four online video content creators–Oli White, Tom Syndicate, Jade Jolie, and Yammy xox–to Siberia, where they had to negotiate a series of obstacles.
In Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is now out for Xbox 360 and Xbox One, protagonist Lara Croft travels to the Russian wilderness to uncover an ancient city. The challenges Xbox set up for the “Escape from Siberia” video are meant to resemble the ones Lara faces in the video game: The participating creators had to climb rock faces, zipline across rivers, and hit targets at an impromptu archery range. After 48 hours, they were picked up by a helicopter; for their sake, I hope it was stocked with hot chocolate.
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All four of the creators who took part in the video are gamers themselves. Syndicate’s main channel is one of YouTube’s most popular destinations, White plays games in addition to his vlogs and sketches, Yammy specializes in Minecraft and The Sims, and Jolie is primarily a Twitch streamer. “This was without a doubt one of the best trips I’ve ever been on in my life!” tweeted Syndicate.
“Escape from Siberia” isn’t the first branded campaign to bring YouTube stars to a real-life environment that resembles a fictional world. Last year, popular gamer PewDiePie made his way through a haunted house modeled to look like the film As Above, So Below.
Rise of the Tomb Raider was released on November 10th, the same day as the hotly-anticipated title Fallout 4. If “Escape from Siberia” makes you curious about the game, be forewarned–it’s probably more thrilling to perform Lara Croft’s stunts in real life than on a TV screen.
