Scourge Of The Worlds - A Dungeons And Dragons Adventure DVD

Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons and Dragons Adventure is not a film sequel to Dungeons and Dragons (2000), but the DVD equivalent of an interactive role-playing novel. There are over 900 short digitally animated sequences, leading every so often to a choice to be made with the remote control, resulting after about 90 minutes in one of four possible endings. Just as the original D&D was inspired by The Lord of the Rings, the scenarios here are Tolkien rehashed: a newly arisen darkness is seeking an ancient ultimate weapon, against which stand a human warrior, Regdar,... a halfling, Lidda and an elven wizard, Mialee. The CGI is closer to Roughnecks: The Starship Troopers Chronicles than the pseudo-realism of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the electronic score is tiresome and the contemporary American voice acting, using such expressions as "head's up" and "…or something", is laughable. What of the interactive element? Essentially it offers two equally uninteresting paths at the end of every major scene--uninteresting because it's impossible to care what happens to the marionette-like stereotypes no matter what they do. While the adventure does offer plenty of well-choreographed cartoon-style action, interacting with Scourge of Worlds is ultimately about as much fun as watching someone else play a computer game--and that's just the first time through. On the DVD: Scourge of Worlds: A Dungeons and Dragons Adventure fills the DVD with the 900-plus animated sequences, presumably leaving no room for extras. The only options are between stereo sound and far more involving Dolby Digital 5.1. The image appears to have been taken directly from a digital master and is flawless, the images only limited by the TV-standard computer rendering. --Gary S Dalkin [show more]

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