Imagine a superhero game where you’re not the one flying into danger in a cape or a suit. Instead, you’re stuck behind a desk. That’s the vibe of Dispatch, an episodic adventure game where each episode lasts roughly an hour. You play as Robert Robertson (voiced by Aaron Paul), better known as Mecha Man, whose mech suit has been destroyed. Now, he finds himself managing a squad of, let’s say, unique, reformed villains at the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN).
Available on PC and PlayStation 5, Dispatch is part strategy, part narrative, part workplace comedy. I like to think of it as a primetime office drama with superpowers. You’ll choose who to send where, dealing with egos the size of Los Angeles, and try to pull off heroics from the sidelines. But how does it all work, and does developer AdHoc Studio manage to capture the charm that had people fall in love with games like The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, and Batman: The Enemy Within?
Dispatch Spoiler-Free Review: Episodes 1 & 2
The first thing you notice with Dispatch is just how beautiful the game looks. It gives off Invincible vibes, but with a bit more polish to the environment, shadows, lighting, and more. It’s not going to appeal to everyone, but, to me, it’s one of the best-looking games of the year.
At the start of Episode 1, you find out who Mecha Man is and why you end up losing your suit. From a gameplay standpoint, things are a slow build. The first episode is more about getting you into the feeling of how things will go as opposed to diving into the full experience. You’ll meet important characters like Blonde Blazer, Chase, and the group of “heroes” you’ll be managing.
From the get-go, you feel the weight of everything in front of you, from the emotional state of Robertson and the loss of identity to what the SDN is trying to accomplish. Part of a government project known as Phoenix, this Suicide Squad Z-Team of former villains all have unique track records and abilities that you need to learn. There are five different stats to be aware of with your team: Combat, Charisma, Intelligence, Strength, and Vigor.
The core gameplay loop is simple but satisfying: dispatch your team of “reformed” villains to handle a variety of situations. You’ll need to decide whose skills and abilities are the best fit for the job. Some are as simple as helping someone across the road, while others require you to try and put out blazing infernos. Each character has their share of strengths and weaknesses, with some even working well together on multi-person dispatches.
At the end of your shift, you get a recap of how successful your dispatches were and how the team improved.
Dispatch includes quick-time events (QTEs) during cinematic sequences, though thankfully, they can be toggled off. Personally, I recommend it because it can get a bit distracting to deal with during the game. If I had to find one main complaint, it’s that the QTEs just feel like something that was added for the sake of putting more in the game. They don’t really add anything to the experience.
Another area of the gameplay is the hacking minigames. Through two episodes, they are few and far between, but still provide a nice break during various moments of the story. As the game moves forward, the hope is that not only will there be more instances of them, but they’ll actually provide a challenge.
A Story Worth Loving With Great Acting To Boot
With this being a game from a studio of former Telltale Game employees, it’s no surprise that Dispatch leans heavily into branching choices and dialogue. It’s hard to talk more about the choices you make without spoiling anything, so I won’t go into what the options you get are.
What I will say, however, is that you don’t get to the point where they all matter too much just yet through two episodes. Every choice you make—the game tells you that various characters will remember what you say and do—sets up something, and it feels like we’re left waiting a bit longer for what that something is. And that’s not a complaint because some decisions do impact what happens immediately after, but you can tell when the bigger ones are being made. It adds to that feeling of wanting more that Adhoc is clearly going for here.
As you listen to the dialogue and watch scenes unfold in each, it’s easy to tell that Dispatch is a game that knows when to be serious while at the same time bringing in a nice blend of sarcasm and humor to it all. It didn’t even take half of the first episode to realize how perfect Paul’s casting was for the role of Robertson.
In fact, every voice actor fits their character so well. Jeffrey Wright nails the crass attitude of Chase, while Charles “MoistCr1TiKaL” White’s voice captures the arrogance of Sonar, who might be one of my favorite characters so far, despite limited screentime through two episodes. Hell, even the seemingly harmless scene with Royd in the bathroom shows the personality of Dispatch at every level.
Of course, things can go off the rails over the next six episodes, so a follow-up review and final verdict—with some spoilers—on Dispatch will come after the final episodes are released on November 12. Until then, I can’t wait to see how the rest of Robertson’s story unfolds.
Note: A copy of Dispatch on PC was provided to Insider Gaming for the purposes of this review. (Read our review policy)
Mike has been covering the gaming industry since 2012, and has reported on some of the largest events in the industry while also working as an investigative reporter. Outside of…
More from Mike Straw
