Scourge of Worlds Movie Review

Choose Your Own Adventure comes to DVD in this Dungeons & Dragons-inspired CGI-animated adventure story. Sure, interactive DVDs -- where you control the plot by making periodic choices via your remote -- are nothing new, but Scourge of Worlds is more complex than those that have come before it and certainly carries better production values.

Despite some 200 story combinations (according to the box; 990 according to the disc) and four distinct endings, my first stab at playing the story -- which involves a party of three adventurers and a mysterious weapon that could destroy the world -- ended within 20 minutes. I didn't even find out about the end of the world thing! Thankfully, even when you screw up, the disc lets you pick up at a more intelligent decision (hint: don't ignore the omens and just go back to sleep, and never choose to fight).

The animation is top notch for a straight-to-DVD experience, proving that the state of the art is accessible to just about anyone these days. The story, however, is a bit random -- as with the CYOA books there's not a lot of logic that goes into deciding which path to take, just plain old trial and error.