Ever since the first walking simulators and interactive fiction games came into our lives the definitions of what makes a game have gotten fuzzier as time has continued its endless march forward. The interactive element, even if it’s the most rudimentary of clicks, seems to be the line in which most will agree on but beyond that things are pretty much up for debate. That debate brings with it the question of suitability: is the medium chosen by the creator the right one to convey their narrative, story or experience. This was a question that played over in my head as I made my way through Dispatch as it’s at its strongest when it’s being anything but a game. Would this have been better served as a mini-series on Netflix, or was the choice of the former Telltale developers to go with what they knew because that’s their best chance of success? Whatever the reasoning it’s hard to argue with what they’ve achieved, gameplay be damned.
Robert Robertson was the man behind the mask; the pilot behind the crime fighting robot known to all as Mecha Man. He was carrying on his father’s legacy of being both an inspiration to the good citizens of Torrance and the ever-present spectre haunting its supervillain underworld. It all came to an abrupt end when a fight with his long time nemesis didn’t end in his favour and, with the last of his inheritance long since spent on mecha repairs, he resigns himself to a quiet life and a city without its robot protector. That’s when the Superhero Dispatch Network reached out with an offer: work as one of our dispatch officers and we’ll get you back in the suit. Catch is the team that he gets put in charge of might just all be on their last legs themselves.
I am honestly in awe with what AdHoc has managed to put together in terms of the audiovisual experience in Dispatch. The animated sequences are on-par or beyond that of most major animation houses with an incredible amount of attention paid to every detail. The combination of high end cell-shading techniques coupled with modern lighting effects realises that comic-book aesthetic perfectly. Couple this with a cast that includes numerous high profile individuals, all of which give amazing performances with an awesome soundtrack and you’ve got a debut release of a quality I haven’t seen many achieve. Honestly I both love and hate it, given that (as of writing) AdHoc is no longer involved with The Wolf Among Us 2. This shows us what could of been in the most bittersweet way.
Dispatch vacillates between being an interactive fiction game and a management simulator, one where you’re put in charge of figuring out which hero to send to what job. The game is deliberately obtuse about what the job requires, leaving it up to you to figure out what set of skills and traits would be best placed to succeed there. You’ll get a feel for it over time but it’s far from an exact science as even with perfect knowledge of what’s to come having the perfect solution at hand (since you’ll be sending heroes out on other jobs as well) is a rare occurrence. There’s also a hacking mini-game which is pretty straightforward, even with limited retries and occasionally a time limit. Your heroes have a bunch of skills to unlock as well and will level up as they complete jobs successfully, making them even more effective. It’s a pretty simple system which is somewhat engaging although, honestly, the real meat is always going to be in the interactive fiction parts.
Which is what has led to a lot of discussion with my gaming mates about whether or not a game was the right medium for Dispatch. We’re all in agreeance that the weakest part of Dispatch is by far the game aspects of it as whilst those missions do provide some colour and flavour to the world it ends up feeling like a distraction; a side quest whilst you rack up some playtime so you can unlock the next sequence. Granted it’s not really that much time but since there’s been other examples like We are OFK that leaned more into the interactive fiction part and didn’t feel weaker for it. It does beg the question though: had they gone say the Netflix route would the audience who had diligently followed their work under the Telltale banner transition across?
Surely the answer is that a non-zero percentage of them would but then they would be among the other giants competing for the same eyeballs for second screen entertainment. Is it then somewhat trite to criticise Dispatch’s game elements for being its weakest part? Perhaps, although I guess where I’m going with this is that whilst I feel like Dispatch is already great for what it is with some work on the gameplay elements, making them more a core part of the overall experience and not a distraction from the meatier parts of it, would elevate this from great to incredible. As it stands now Dispatch would still make one helluva a great show with all that removed.
That (un)fortunately all comes down to just how well written the narrative is which makes the sections which aren’t given as much time to develop stand out all the more. The characters are real, despite the extremely alien world that they exist in. Their faults, challenges and desires are all too human, something which is played off so well by the few non-human characters who act as an amazing foil to some of the game’s more serious moments. The jury is out on just how much influence you have over the games major beats but, for this old gamer, I felt like I had enough of an impact on the story to make it matter to me. This just reminds me of why I fell in love with games like this in the first place: they had stories that felt like they mattered.
Dispatch will go down as yet another of 2025’s hits showing that, despite what the AAA developers would have you believe, you can create something on a smaller budget that has a big impact. AdHoc’s craftsmanship, born out of their years at Telltale and Ubisoft, shines through in what they’ve created here in every respect. Whilst I spent most of this review nitpicking on the fact that the game elements are its weakest elements that’s only because of how great everything else is. Now is also the best time to play it in my mind as, whilst I was once a fan of the episodic model, I’ve wholeheartedly given into the binge mindset. There’s precious few games that I’d say are worth playing in one sitting but Dispatch is one of them.
Rating: 9.25/10
Dispatch is available on PC and Playstation right now for $43.95. Game was played on the PC with a total of 8.2 hours playtime and 63% of the achievements unlocked.
