Omega That is really what Scourge of Worlds is. It is one of TSR's old Endless Quest pick-your-path books if it were made into a movie. Except here it is an interactive CGI film and from Wizard of the Coast who now own all the old TSR stuff. In this movie there are various points where the film pauses and you are given 2 or so choices as to what you could do. The story quickly branches into two tracks, and from there it branches further and further. A few choices lead to a unfortunate end for the characters, while a few more connect to the other side of the dual track. Thus there are about 50 different branches, 6 of these ending the story and giving you the option to try something else. All this leads to two choices out of 4 possible endings. One good, one so-so, one bad, and one very bad. The choices you made during the movie will determine your final two options. But you cannot fast forward through segments as this tends to mess with how the "score" is kept and can end you with generic endings no matter. But through trial-and-error, and patience you can work through to all the endings.The movie itself is done in CGI computer animation, and is for the larger part pretty good. The models and terrain are well set up and the textures have a lot of detail to them. Voice acting is good for the most part and the music has a good feel to it. At least a above average amount was spent on getting everything looking right. It is the animation department where things sometimes go slightly askew. For the most part the characters move well, flowing along more than one dimension and rare are the moments when a figure falls into a more mechanical 2D movement. It is in combat that things most often bog down. The characters either move with unusual slowness, or hold their weapons and attack poorly. Another minor problem is that the halfling character's neck acts like its double-jointed or something and looks particularly disconcerting a few times. The elf suffers this odd neck problem as well at least once.The story itself concerns 3 adventurers, Regdar the human male warrior, Mialee the elven female mage, and Lidda the halfling female thief. These are all characters from the d20 version of the Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks. (With some alterations here and there.) Along the way they meet up with Barathion, a human male priest of Pholtus. Along the way they will meet up with Earth Elementals, a Wraith, Wolves, a Dire Wolf, a Displacer Beast, (a 6 legged panther with tentacles,) Orcs, a Beholder, an Air Elemental, and maybe even the Dragon depicted on the box cover if you are unlucky. The story takes place in the Greyhawk world-setting and the city of Greyhawk is even mentioned a few times.The story, or stories if you will, move along well with only a few lapses. The characters at one point get from the Greyhawk area to that must be the Sea of Dust area with no real sense of having traveled a great distance. Otherwise its a good story with a few twists, some rather obvious, others not quite so.All in all a surprisingly good effort. One can only wonder what a second movie would have been like once the crew had a feel for the equipment.

23skidoo-4 Scourge of Worlds is an interactive DVD adventure. You watch the action for a few minutes, and then decide what the characters will do next based on a few choices.It isn't a perfect system - the choices ARE rather limited, and the producers made the mad decision to remove chapter stops and the ability to fast-forward through scenes you've watched over and over. This makes for a bit of a trying gaming and viewing experience.But as a movie, Scourge of Worlds holds up quite well. The computer animation is marvelous to behold, although it's obvious the production team had neither the time nor the budget that the makers of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had. As a result, the animation looks a bit clunky from time to time, and on occasion there are obvious errors especially with regards to the characters' teeth. There are also times where the characters move their arms when they talk for no real reason, almost as if they have St. Vitus Dance.The voice acting ranges from the moving to the hilarious. The voice actors for the three main characters (Regdar, Lidda and Mialee) come off best, with Lidda in particular being a quite appealing smart-ass of a character. Mialee, the elf wizard, isn't as unconsciously erotic as she is in the D&D rulebook and novels, but her brassiness sets her apart from the etherial elves we have come to expect from D&D and Lord of the Rings. Regdar, the fighter, comes off as a goofball at times, but he also gets some of the funniest lines in the film, depending on which direction you take the story.But the makers goofed when they chose the voice actor for the villain (who I won't name here and spoil the surprise). Nothing against the actor, who does a good job, but it's hard to take a villain seriously who sounds like someone who has OD'd on helium.Scourge of Worlds is a noble experiment, and entertaining if you don't mind repetition. I look forward to seeing more productions like this, as the technology improves.

bgrubb For those of us who grew up in the early 1980's with some cable companies promising interactive movies this is a dream come true. The interactive part is great and somewhat logical as to what you can do. That said there are a few minor problems. First while the CG animation is great there are still problems with faces especially in terms of hair or teeth. Second the lighting of the night scenes varied a great deal. It was like watching one of those old 'B' grade films where the director either had little knowledge on night shots or not enough money to do them right: ie in one scene you can clearly see the characters and in the next you can't see much of anything. Finally and more annoyingly while there is a way to skip to 6 of the choices (it is 'hidden' in the help section) they are not set up logically. In fact the order of the first two are reversed! Worse yet three of these choices (the middle one of the top three and the last two of the bottom three) have alternative versions and so choosing one of them can cause confusion if you went another path. IMHO it is a good idea to avoid this part of the disk until you have played the adventure several times. All in all though this is a good first attempt in making use of CG and DVDn technology.

savant_of_magi An excellent adventure. I can only hope they will make more. This DVD is the coolest thing I seen in my nine lives. This should be made part of Dungeons & Dragons 101. The different personalities and a story that shows, even the good guys can be deceived to fight each other. No guts or carnage. For an hack-n-slash gamer, that is a bummer, but just to have this DVD, more than makes up for it.You will love the halfling, she is funny, witty, greedy, and looks pretty hot. As opposed to the female elf. Lara Croft she is not. Don't worry, any prudes reading this, it is totally nude free. Nothing at all naughty. And for the gamers out there, one fun thing to do is figure the action sequences to gaming moves. Casts bless spell, she made her save, ooohh he didn't....ouch.This is a must have. Like I said bro', Very wicked cool.