Dispatch is a narrative heavy episodic experience, telling the story of a former superhero working for a company that dispatches other super heros to various emergency calls around the city. Between shifts, you get to know the team you have been assigned to: The Z Team, a group of former villians and misfits, along with other heroes.
What I Didn't Like
Diffculty Spike at Episode 4 (or so)
This is an episodic adventure which I only started when all the episodes were out and avialable. As I started to feel like I was getting the hang of the mechanics, I started the next episode (I think it was episode 4) and got destroyed with the mechanics.
I figured it was my inability to play video games 😅, but I have heard from others that have played that that hit a similar spike.
Generally speaking, I don't like hitting "walls" in video games. It makes me question whether I really understood how to play at all-- which is not a great feeling.
What I Liked
Grown-Up Comedic Writing
Enen though this is game about superheros and fully animated, this is not a game for children. It is rated M for a reason.
I won't be playing this with my kids anytime soon, but I laughed out loud a number of times at the crude jokes and clever-ish entendres.
I haven't laughed so much in a game in a long time, and kept coming back hoping to get a few more laughs. It was refreshing, and hope to find some other games that take inspiration from Dispatch and lean heavily into the writing.
Episodic Breakdown
Like I mentioned, I bought this one once all the episodes were out-- so there wasn't any waiting around for the next episode. This meant I could binge as much or as little as I wanted nightly, much like a good TV show on your favourite streaming service.
What I appreciated about the format the most though was how the game defaulted to being broken up into bite sized gameplay sessions. Other than the last episode, each episode averaged about an hour or so which is a perfect gaming session. I would sit back, play one or two episodes, and call it a night as I have real life things to do in the morning and need to get some sleep.
But I kept thinking about it, like any good game or show, and wanted to know what was coming up in the next one.
Merging of Narrative and Gameplay
This is the part that genuinely stood out as a unique feature to me.
AdHoc Studio was founded by a number of former Telltale Games employees where this sort of story-telling gameplay was pioneered. Dispatch takes the next step where the gameplay of dispatching heros is quite involved. You feel like you're doing the work, but all the while the team is talking to you, you're (the main character) is talking to the team and depending on how you play and who you dispatch, you impact how the story goes.
That's not to say you need to be some kind of Dispatch pro to get the best ending, but rather, you need to play to get an ending. They have the difficulty and engagement options for players to customize how they experience Dispatch which let players play how they want to play.
The Conclusion
This game was unexpected. Put on my radar through the Triple Click podcast and when I was looking for a game to play that wasn't too difficult-- yet would engage me and keep me interested.
As much as I enjoyed this game, I am not convinced it isn't a one-hit-wonder. Like Telltale Studios before, I want to see if they repeat this. Maybe with a different leadership structure at AdHoc, I'm hoping they actually respect the work they put into their game and what quality actually means to their product.
Either way-- I'm eager to play the next thing from Ad Hoc, I just hope they give it the time it needs to make it something special, like Dispatch.
