One Of The Best Narrative Adventures In Years
Being a superhero in a video game is hardly an original concept. I feel like I’ve been them all, from Spider-Man to Batman to the Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s something that has become familiar and, at times, a little cliché. Lately, though, TV has given us a darker take on superheroes with shows like The Boys and Invincible, exploring a more adult side of the genre and what it actually means to be a superhero at work.
Dispatch takes things one step further by focusing on the person behind the scenes; the person who keeps the superhero team together and sends them out on missions. I’m going to lay my cards on the table from the very beginning and say this game is amazing. Here’s why.
A Superhero Story Packed With Heart, Humour And Brilliant Characters
Made by former developers from Telltale Games, the team behind The Walking Dead series, AdHoc Studio makes its debut with Dispatch. The game opens with a battle between the hero Mecha Man and a group of villains inside a warehouse. Mecha Man – essentially a giant robot controlled by Robert Robertson – is destroyed by the supervillain, Shroud. Broken, drunk and fed up, Robert heads to a bar, where he meets the hero Blond Blazer, who offers him a new job. Instead of being a superhero, Robert becomes the dispatcher responsible for managing a team of reformed villains known as the Z-Team.
The Z-Team really are the worst of the worst. There’s a half-bat humanoid in a suit, an angry invisible woman, a depressed alien, a demon teleporter, a flame-throwing Latina, an illusionist with serious anger issues, and a golem. Robert’s task is to somehow turn them into functioning heroes. Alongside this, he begins developing a relationship with Blond Blazer while slowly rebuilding his destroyed suit. Naturally, things never go quite to plan.
I’m not going to say any more about the story across the eight chapters because it genuinely is first-class. If this were adapted into an eight-part television series, I think it would be a huge success. The writing is superb throughout, the characters are brilliantly realised, and every one of them feels fully developed. The story is exciting, laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly heartfelt. And I haven’t even mentioned Robert’s wonderful dog, Beef, yet.
Meaningful Choices Drive Every Decision
Gameplay follows the familiar Telltale formula, focusing heavily on dialogue choices and major decisions that influence how the story unfolds. There are plenty of moments that encourage a second playthrough just to see how different choices affect events. At the end of each episode, the classic percentage breakdown returns, showing how your decisions compared with everyone else’s.
Dispatching Heroes Is A Surprisingly Addictive Gameplay Twist
The other major gameplay system in Dispatch revolves around Robert’s dispatch duties. Sitting behind a console, you monitor a digital map of LA while managing your roster of heroes. Each character has different strengths – some are physically stronger, others more intelligent, while some excel at handling public relations. As incidents appear across the city, it’s your job to assign the right hero to the right situation. Once a mission is complete, you discover whether it was successful based on the team’s abilities and the circumstances involved. Injured heroes need time to recover before they can return to duty, so you’re constantly balancing your available roster while more emergencies keep arriving. You can also improve your heroes’ abilities over time, and each shift ends with a performance report showing how well you’ve managed everything. It’s a fantastic system and surprisingly addictive. It reminded me quite a lot of This Is the Police in the way it works.
The final gameplay element is a hacking mini-game that appears throughout the story. You’ll use it to assist heroes in the field, unlock security systems and, at one point, stop a runaway self-driving electric car. It’s enjoyable, gradually becoming more challenging by introducing new mechanics and time pressure. Essentially, you’re guiding an orb around a grid, unlocking passwords and opening pathways. It’s much easier to understand once you’re actually playing it.
Stylish Presentation And An Outstanding Voice Cast
Dispatch looks outstanding. The graphic novel-inspired art style is gorgeous throughout, with fantastic character designs, beautiful environments and some spectacular action sequences. It’s the smaller details that impressed me just as much, though – the posters scattered around the office, the cracks in Robert’s empty apartment, and the wonderfully adorable Beef.
The soundtrack is packed with brilliant songs that had me searching for the Spotify playlist almost immediately. Every track feels perfectly chosen to complement the story, especially during the big emotional moments and episode endings. The voice cast is equally impressive. Jeffrey Wright, Laura Bailey and Aaron Paul headline an outstanding ensemble, but every performance, even from the smallest supporting roles, feels completely committed.
A Masterclass In Interactive Storytelling
Dispatch is one of those rare experiences that you simply can’t stop playing; before you know it, nine or ten hours have disappeared and the credits are rolling. It’s a masterclass in storytelling, supported by gameplay systems that complement the narrative brilliantly. Some might argue there isn’t enough gameplay, but I actually think there’s more here than in a traditional Telltale adventure, and I loved those games too.
If you enjoy great storytelling, memorable characters and excellent writing, you really should play Dispatch. I’m already hoping for both a sequel and a spin-off.
Excellent work, heroes.
Important Links
Dispatch Launches On Xbox – From The Minds Behind Two Of Gaming’s Best Narrative Adventures – https://www.thexboxhub.com/dispatch-launches-on-xbox/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/dispatch/9NDJSV855T3P
There’s a Deluxe Edition too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/dispatch-digital-deluxe-edition/9PB2ZQCB7K2Z/0010
