Search - Roughnecks - The Starship Troopers Chronicles - The Hydora Campaign on DVD

The battle against the bugs continues. . .

Stephen Liverman | Perry Hall, Maryland USA | 12/31/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles- the Hydora Campaign" continues the story of Razak's Roughnecks, an elite unit in the Mobile Infantry as they face the 'bugs', a terrifying alien race bent on the destruction of humankind. After discovering the 'bugs' on Pluto, the Roughnecks follow the threat to Hydora, a world covered in water. Hoping to find the bug's home world, the squad discovers a planet that is one of the Arachnid's conquered worlds. On missions ranging from reconnaissance to search-and-destroy, our heroes face new perils with every new bug species. The Hydora campaign comes to a climax when the Roughnecks discover a brain bug, a massive swollen grub that acts as the unifying mind of the bug armies. Only Carl Jenkins, the squad's psychic has any hope of facing the bug and destroying it."Roughnecks" represents the best CGI animation that ever came to TV. Animated by Foundation Imaging (who also did digital effects for Babyon 5 and Star Trek: Voyager), the series has a sophistication and realism never before accomplished on the small screen. In Hydora, I was amazed by the superior water effects, atmospheric 'haze' and first rate character animation. What is equally remarkable is that the story and characters are sophisticated enough for even this adult to enjoy. If you've seen the earlier DVD's (Pluto campaign and Tesca campaign) you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen this series yet, you're in for a real treat! Any serious fan of science fiction, computer animation or good storytelling will love this series."

ROUGHNECKS - A series that grows on ya. Part II.

Lincoln 6 Echo | Harrisburg, IL USA | 05/27/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Campaign numero two. Hydora. A water planet. After pursuing the huge Transport Bug from Pluto, the SICOM MI troopers find themselves at a water planet where the Transport Bug lands to refuel itself.In this campaign, the characters continue to grow and develop. Carl Jenkins develops his mental powers to a new height when he confronts the first appearance of a brain bug.Hydora is a planet of apparently dense water that doesn't allow itself too much for boiyancy and swimming. So the troopers wear a inflatable life perserver in case they fall in. Which, unfortunately happens a lot. However there is land on this planet but it's mainly just like corral reef type stuff and caves. While being a water planet, we get to see a lot of new hardware. Water skiffs, jet ski type thingies and some weapons that go kablooey. In this campaign we see basically one type of bug. The Ripplers, who this time are animated a bit better than they were in Pluto. The Ripplers' main weapon is a volley of sharp barbs that come from their mouths. This of course provides a new problem for our MI troopers. However we do see some regular warrior bugs, but being a water planet, the Ripplers are more suited for this planet. Now the action once again is top-notch. We see a lot of nice explosions of bugs going kablooey. There's a really great scene at the end with lots of stuff going on. Be sure to check out the technical commentary during that section.But all in all, this campaign is quite exciting, but a bit tedious at times due to the static environment they're in."

Great Mixed In With Average

Spri | NY | 09/03/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I like the whole concept of Hydora, love the implementation of the jetski along with the two watercrafts. I enjoyed the part about how you could breathe on this planet for at most fifteen minutes before the atmosphere drowned you. Little touches thrown in all over the place to just accentuate the coolness of it all. Interesting storylines such as the power struggle between Sarge and Rico were hits also. The action scenes with the flying bugs were unmatched and the final nuking of the hive was spine-tingling. There are better campaigns, but this was is a winner. Just an unbalanced mix of great shows and average ones."

The weakest of the series

Dwayne A. Day | Vienna, VA United States | 05/24/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I found this to be the weakest of the Roughnecks DVDs. I missed the show when it was originally aired and saw only one or two episodes. It can really only be enjoyed if viewed in sequence. Nevertheless, I made a mistake when I found these at my local video store and did not know the order of the DVDs (it is not on the boxes) and I viewed The Hydora Campaign first.My reaction was generally negative. The plot for this one was very thin. Usually for each campaign there is a clear beginning and ending, with the Mobile Infantry troopers learning several important things about the bugs during the campaign. But the Hydora Campaign was weak. They had very little story. There is one sequence during one of the later episodes on this DVD where the troopers are on a hovercraft and are chased by bugs across the water for around nine minutes. This got very tedious and it was clear that the writers did not have much story. It reminded me of the saying that it is boring to watch somebody else play a video game. Seeing people get chased for nine minutes is dull.Another annoying feature of this disc, common to several of the others, is that a great deal of the dialogue consists of smart-aleck cliches tossed back and forth. Sometimes this is done cleverly, but after awhile one gets the impression that the writers simply looked up cliches in a book and dropped them into the script.I am going to buy the entire set, but this is the one that I will probably rewatch the least. In fact, it can essentially be skipped for the next disk in the set."