How Lara Croft cured my Clash of Clans addiction

She’s always in search of relics, whether venturing through murky swamp waters or abandoned desert ruins, there’s something about this game that has me hooked, but we’ll get to this later.

For now, let me describe my now-deserted and destitute Clash of Clans village.

Notice (from the image below) that I haven’t collected my gold or elixirs. This is quite unusual for someone who typically gathers these daily and stores in the relevant vessels. Another sign that my village has been neglected is the beautiful border of trees and bark along the edge of the frame — probably not a picturesque sight for my fellow Clanners looking in. Frankly I’m surprised that I haven’t been given the boot yet.

Surely you’re familiar with the notion that Clash Of Clans is a fairly addictive game. Developer Supercell has been committed to keeping things interesting and they’ve done a stellar job thus far with regular updates for troops, spells and the like. Perhaps it’s just me, but introducing new troops and potions is no longer enough to keep me playing. It is so hard to farm for resources and by extension upgrade troops and defences. The way I see it is the more you play, the more impatient you become with upgrades and such (note that this is very important if you want to progress).

Take another look at the picture below and look at my dark elixir level — I had about 30k a few weeks ago and the amount reduced too fast for my liking, regardless of how much my dark elixir drills produced on a daily basis.

At this stage I’m basically rambling about why I no longer play Clash of Clans (and I trust that none of my clan-mates are reading this — I mean I don’t want my group membership revoked).

I used to dream of maxing out my town hall, troops, defences and potions but now all I want is to unlock the third map in Lara Croft: Relic Run. I’ve been through the jungle, and I’m 31 levels into the desert ruins. I need to get to the snowy region already!

Lara Croft: Relic Run brings that Tomb Raider-on-console-feel to mobile. It is fantastic; I even got my older brother hooked on it. The two of us are at it during every free moment without a grievance to spare for the one who falls behind.

The game gets harder as you progress but the rewards are well worth the wait. Defeating T-Rex gives you a rush so intense that you think you can handle anything that comes your way… next thing you know a freaking nearly-indestructible squad of Lizardmen hurl fireballs and arrows at you left, right and centre. But wait, the grand monster at Desert Ruin level — the Manticore — looks like something cooked up in a lab where a giant lizard and scorpion were interbred. Awesome.

Granted that these are both freemium games, I have not spent a single penny on Lara Croft: Relic Run, because it offers a ‘free-run’ mode (with each new map you unlock you have to complete the first 20 levels in order to unlock this feature) as well as a supply drop every three hours. There’s also a daily prize which is enough to sustain you (arsenal, coins and gems, etc.).

With that, I’ll admit that I have spent some money on Clash of Clans (not cool) just to get that last bit of elixir or gems required for an essential upgrade because I’m too lazy to steal it from another village. I apologize, it’s not actually called stealing — it’s called farming for resources.

Playing an RTS game like Clash of Clans is time-consuming and boring (*whispers*) because it is an RTS game! Perhaps it’s the fact that I have a clan depending on me to up the overall clan score for group rewards that has killed my ambition, or probably the obvious dreary period spent waiting on troops and defences to upgrade — it’s feels worse than watching paint dry.

Who knows, I might get bored of grappling with particular challenges that come with Relic Run but there’s always the perks of free run to bail me out, eventually. It’s the promise of riding a dirt bike through the desert and a quad bike through the jungle that gets me going — here’s to keeping on!

If you’ve played either game, let us know what you think in the comments section below.