Dispatch
Review
I'm Not Crying, You're Crying!
by Quinn Levandoski
reviewed on PC
Yep, It's Pretty Super
Usually, when I write a review, I open with an anecdote and slowly meander my way into how that story connects to my feelings about the game at hand. Today, I'm going to try something different and give you the bottom line up front - Dispatch is incredible. I can't stop thinking about it, and with only a few weeks left in 2025, it's hard to imagine that anything will dethrone it as the best game I've played all year. Every once in a while, if we're lucky, we all find that piece of media that might not be quite perfect but aligns the stars to deliver the perfect product for us. Dispatch is that game for me. I have to imagine that my picture was hung up somewhere in an AdHoc Studio meeting room as the platonic ideal of the target market, and they hit the bullseye.
That said, the game isn't going to be for everyone due to the very nature of what it is. In fact, a "game" isn't even what it feels like for much of its run-time, which makes sense if you know who made it. Dispatch is the first release by AdHoc studios, but the creatives are no strangers to immersive, narrative-forward experience. The studio was founded by and is comprised of several former Telltale employees, who you may recognize as the developers of several choose-your-own-adventure games like The Walking Dead, Tales From the Borderlands, and a whole bunch more based on popular IPs. Dispatch is a beautiful evolution of the formula explored in Telltale games, trimming some of what hasn't historically worked, improving what has, and wrapping it all up in a fantastic package that’s part game and part high-quality interactive TV show.
There's More Than One Way To Be A Hero
As much as I'd like to, I'm not going to get super into the minutiae of Dispatch's story, because experiencing the story is the whole reason to pick up the game. That said, the general narrative setup is interesting, paying homage to classic elements of superhero fiction while delivering plenty of unique twists to establish a world that feels distinct. Dispatch starts with the player character - Robert Robertson II - getting his ass kicked. A third-generation superhero without any actual powers, Robert is Tony Stark without the money or most of the technical know-how. He pilots a hulking robotic suit as the superhero Mecha Man, a mantle passed down from his grandfather, to his father, to him, but knowing how to operate the machinery isn't the same as being able to build or fix it.
So, in this case, a particularly bad beating leaves him with a demolished suit and the totally-not-an-arc-reactor power source lost. However, as luck should have it, a superhero agency named SDN can help Robert fix his suit and offer him employment in the meantime. With superheroes and villains quite common in the world of Dispatch, SDN is a fancy insurance-like company that lets people pay for access to superheroes who will help them with everything from physical safety to cats stuck in trees. However, every hero needs a "person at the desk," and without innate superpowers, Robert becomes a titular dispatcher who fields calls and determines which heroes to send to which calls to get the best results.
It's not an easy transition for Robert to step away from the front lines and send others to do the more traditional heroics, but it's made even harder by the fact that Robert isn't working with the A-tier heroes. Instead, Robert is tasked with running the Phoenix Program, a collection of former villains looking to rehabilitate themselves for legal forgiveness and a paycheck. As you can imagine, hilarity, drama, and action ensure, all in equal measure.
Tropes Are Tropes For A Reason
The issue of "tropes" is an interesting one in any piece of superhero media because the whole "genre," for lack of a better word, is a constant push and pull between standing on the shoulders of icons that have come before, while treading new ground without completely losing sight of what makes superhero content work. So does Dispatch fall into classic tropes? Absolutely it does, but in a story like this, it's more about whether they're used to tell an interesting story and present something fresh than how completely, top-to-bottom original things are. In that regard, Dispatch is a masterpiece. Yes, this isn't the first time you're going to see villains with hearts of gold, Superman stand-ins, or pathos-laden monologues about the real superpowers being the friends we made along the way. Yet, despite those familiar trappings, Robert and his supporting cast of characters feel simultaneously grounded and tangible while being firmly rooted in a world that's bright and "super."
Which is another point in its favour. It's very in vogue to refuse to commit to the earnestness of more classic superhero characters, and Dispatch does occasionally acknowledge the silliness of it all, but it always makes the player feel like they're laughing with the tights and silly names, not at them. In other words, Dispatch feels proud of what superheroes are, rather than trying to twist familiar trappings into something subversive and "better" than people in bright costumes saving the day. Those stories have their place, but Dispatch chooses to modernize itself in its smaller interpersonal moments instead of twisting the golden-age feel of its larger world.
Does Free Will Exist?
Interactive narratives certainly aren't new, and it's a valid question to ask how any game in the genre balances choices that matter with a compelling, structured narrative. So, do choices matter in Dispatch? Yeah, big time. There's definitely a set overarching plot that's followed, and the same major beats are going to happen, but Dispatch smartly crafts its conversations to impact interpersonal relationships that matter more than the core story beats. In other words, there are branching narrative paths in the game and a few different endings, but choices matter more for the emotional context in which those story beats unfold than for dramatically changing the story of Dispatch.
It works because Dispatch's entire cast of characters is simply remarkable. Robert himself is far from a blank-slate player insert, and every single member of Z Team has plenty of moments to shine. Dialogue is sharp and well written, and it's all delivered without stand-out vocal performances from a mix of established voice talent and new-to-the-scene internet personalities. Aaron Paul, Laura Bailey, Erin Yvette, and Jeffrey Wright give life to the four most predominant characters, but the dozen or so members of the main cast deserve praise.
Can You Feel The Love Tonight?
With interpersonal relationships being the core focus of Dispatch, it's worth spending some time digging into how it handles romance. I'll be honest that I find romance with choice in games to be pretty cringeworthy more often than not as, too frequently, things devolve into "look all these people throwing themselves at my player character for not good reason - who do I want to bang?" I won't get into spoilers, but Dispatch largely avoids this, and the romance options are a highlight of the narrative. Yes, there's some sexualized (and non-sexualized) nudity, and some of the romance paths start a bit abruptly, but the different paths change the game in meaningful ways, and they're even quite beautiful. I will say that one of the romance paths feels a bit more narratively fleshed out - and it's not the one I chose on my main playthrough - but the door is open for more development in a hopeful second season, and what was there for each romantic partner still felt valid and earned.
My only narrative complaint isn't a big one, but it does involve a love interest. Again, it is hard to talk about while remaining spoiler-free, but there's a big narrative moment in the final episode that can go a few different ways, and my interpretation of how I'd been treating a character did not at all match up with the game telling me in the credits and in a Steam achievement that I'd neglected and failed them. After nurturing what I thought was a close relationship with some moments of tough but fair love, that hurt. But besides that, the varying narrative branches all flow together remarkably well. Specific plot beats will make more sense if you've experienced certain scenes that are choice-dependent to get, but it all gels.
The story - romantic and otherwise - also works so well because the visuals and audio are mesmerizing. I already touched on the voice acting and writing, which are worth praising again, but the licensed and original music also do a lot to elevate the script and story moments to be something special. From a late-night party to one of the best karaoke renditions I've ever heard, the audio is superb, and I immediately listened to the soundtrack after the final credits rolled. Not only that, but the animation and artistic direction are on par with high-budget TV shows. There's nuance to character animations that sell subtle emotions, and the action is inventive and exciting. While I strongly encourage anyone with a passing interest to play Dispatch, I’d guess that watching a playthrough is pretty close to as enjoyable as watching a good animated series (but why skip the interactivity)?
How's The Actual Gameplay?
It might seem odd that I haven't spoken much about the actual dispatching gameplay mentioned earlier, and that's because it really does take a back seat to the narrative for most of the game. However, that doesn't mean it isn't great fun. Each character has stats that can be levelled up and special abilities and combos that are unlocked with training and experience. Seeing the prompt for a call, which will spell out what needs to be done, and guessing which hero(s) is best suited to complete it has strategic depth, and some episodes feature more of this gameplay than others. Moreover, the dialogue does continue to build character and narrative. Some hacking minigames are pretty straightforward but also enjoyable.
That said, there's no infinity-dispatch more or anything like that, so you can't play the game-ier parts of Dispatch once you've completed the story without just replaying chapters. I think that's fine since each call is hand-crafted, but in any future releases, it'd be great to find a way to let players come back to this more. Moreover, the game touches on some very interesting concepts and additions to dispatching in the final episode, which made me retroactively wish there'd been more of that depth earlier.
So yeah. Dispatch isn't a perfect game, but it's about as perfect a game for me as I've played. AdHoc has crafted a wonderful superhero world that I hope to revisit, but more than that, they've created a remarkable cast of characters filled with nuance, growth, humour, tragedy, and everything else that you want to see in great stories. I cheered. I cried (on the inside). I laughed. What more can I ask for? As a good experience should, I've been left wanting more, and I'll be the first in line to pick up whatever this studio does next - Dispatch or otherwise.
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10
fun score
Pros
Beautifully crafted story with meaningful choices, Romances that feel rewarding and not objectifying, Top-tier voice acting and wonderful animation, Engaging dispatch gameplay.
Cons
I'd like some easier replayability for the game-ier sections
