When DVD technology was first released, one of the possibilities that was touted was video-game DVDs that would erase the boundary between movies and games.  While a few of these titles have been released, the idea hasn't really taken off.  After watching/playing Scourge of Worlds, a Dungeons and Dragons adventure, I can see why.

In this interactive game, you get to control some of the actions of a small band of adventurers.   The group consists of a halfling thief, an elven mage clad in her battle bikini, and a big human fighter who sleeps in his armor.  They have been hired by a group of priests to track down and capture a cleric, one of their number, who has stolen the map to an ultimate weapon.  Every so often during the watching of this show, (about every 5-7 minutes) the viewer is asked what the group should do.  Should they attack the villain, or try to reason with him?  Should they go to this town or that?  The choices determine which scene will be shown next.  The makers claim that there are over 1000 different combinations with six different endings.

D & D players will recognize the monsters and spells used in the show, but non-players won't have trouble following along at all.  The plot, what there is of one, is fairly standard and comes complete with a villain who reveals her plans to the heroes early on.

Done totally with 3-D computer generated graphics, the show looks like a slightly cheaper version of Final Fantasy.  The monsters and creatures look good, though the people look a little unrealistic.  The proportions look off in some scenes, with the halfling having a head that looks too large for her body.  The teeth look especially poor, looking more like a picket fence than real dentin.

Taken as a movie, this disc is not too good.  The show lacks character development and a solid plot.  Much of the story is nonsensical, if you give it any thought it seems pretty dumb.  Of course it isn't a movie, it's a game.  Kind of.  But this disc also doesn't succeed as a video game.  There just isn't too much for the viewer to do.  The first time through I only made about a dozen choices in the 40 minutes or so that it took me to go through the story.

A lot of the time it doesn't really matter which choice is made either.  At one section early in the show the party is in a bar, and they have no money for a room.  After seeing a group of drunk barbarians at a nearby table, both the thief and fighter offer to procure the necessary funds.  No matter which course you take, the end result is the same, though the path is a little different.

That's the main problem with the game element of the show.  No matter what you do, the party always ends up at certain key places in the narrative.  Sometimes it take a while to get there, and sometimes you find a short cut, but the key events are always almost identical.  Becasue of this, the replay value is rather limited.  (And getting screen captures a pain.)

Another aspect that really cuts down on the replay interest is the fact that they've disabled most of the buttons on the remote.  You can't fast forward through scenes that you've already seen, which is a drag.  There is a menu on the second 'help' page that lets you jump to six key scenes, but that's all the navigating you can do.

Audio:

There is the choice of stereo or 5.1 English soundtracks.  Both were clean and clear, but the 5.1 mix was more fun overall.  It made fairly good use of the surrounds and had a bit of punch during the fight scenes.  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sound.

Video:

Another surprise was the video.  This game/show is presented with an anamorphically enhanced widescreen picture.  The colors look very bright, and the detail was excellent.  Since the video was computer generated, there wasn't any flaws that can crop up when you are dealing with film; no spots, tears, or fading.  Digital artifacts were at a minimum, a nice looking disc.

Extras:

This two disc set has a good number of extras included.  The first disc is devoted to the game, while the second one has all the bonus materail.

First off is the "Linear Movie;" the game played out from start to finish hitting most of the high points.  This doesn't include all of the various alternate paths, but it does tell the complete story.  It runs a tad over 48 minutes in length.

There is a pretty neat image gallery that has rotating 3-D images of the characters, monsters, and scenery used in the show.

The making of section is very complete.  They include a 20-minute "making-of" featurette where the creation of the DVD is discussed.  It looked at how the 3-D animation was created, how the character designs were changed to fit in with the 3-D animation, the sound, the live models for the action scenes, and just about everything you'd want to know about the production.  A two minute trailer, labeled as 'post-production' for some reason is also included.

There is also a fairly lame trivia game with five questions like: "How many times does Mialee cast Magic Missiles throughout the entire DVD?"  If you answer them all correctly you get to see three clips from the show.

Final Thoughts:

While I applaud the effort that was made, this isn't a very good as a game or as a movie.  The story and characters just aren't that interesting, and the game play is very minimal.  If you are looking for a way to kill an hour or so, this wouldn't be bad to check out, but it would probably best to Rent It.