I’ve been looking for a classic storytelling experience reminiscent of Telltale’s former work ever since their abrupt closure in 2018. While their brand and IP were ultimately bought, they have yet to grace us with any new games. Fortunately for us, the legacy left by Telltale never dies.
Dispatch, an interactive narrative adventure game developed and published by AdHoc Studios, is almost everything I could have asked for. It presents an array of complex, witty characters, a captivating branching narrative, and an engaging point-and-click gameplay loop that stands above those offered by its genre’s predecessors. Take a moment to don your superhero cosplay outfit and see why I think Dispatch is a must-play experience.
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Dispatch takes place in an alternate Los Angeles where superpowers are common, but not everyone wields great power with great responsibility, creating an environment of unease among those unable to protect themselves. The Superhero Dispatch Network, otherwise known as SDN, is formed to provide paid, superhero protection to civilians. Following the destruction of the Mecha Man suit, its creator and the story’s protagonist, Robert Robertson, is recruited by SDN as a dispatcher and put in charge of a dysfunctional, ragtag team of former villains.
Known as the Phoenix Program, this group includes members at different stages in their rehabilitation and with varying reasons for their involvement, from reduced sentences to a chance at redemption. Some are more inclined to cooperate than others. They are difficult to manage and have clashing personalities, but these traits help build fully-developed characters and facilitate engaging and humorous interactions.
An Animated Experience
Close to half my time was spent in story moments that included dialogue choices and quick time events (QTEs). These sequences are beautifully rendered, with animation quality that rivals the highest-budget animated TV. The fight scenes are a highlight, with clean and smooth visuals, quick pans, Dutch angles, camera shake, and other common cinematography tools. It is well composed, and, unlike many modern Hollywood movies, I didn’t struggle to follow the action beats or lose spatial awareness during the fights.
At times, Dispatch feels like an animated movie with gameplay segments scattered throughout, but I appreciate its hybrid form. Even the more benign scenes feature top-tier camera work and direction, such as the choice to show the protagonist at a press conference through the reflection of a convex studio camera lens. During these cinematics, I regularly forgot I was playing a game and became fixated on the animation and story.
The inclusion of QTEs during cinematics added a level of tension. While never daunting or difficult, they were easily missed without active engagement, so I was constantly on edge waiting for them to pop up. For those who dislike this sort of mechanic, the game offers a “cinematic” mode that disables them, allowing the player to focus solely on the story and animation. That said, I highly recommend trying the QTEs before deciding to turn them off, as the added pressure enhanced my experience and kept me focused from other distractions on my PC.
Dialogue prompts provide a limited amount of time to select an option before defaulting to a predefined choice. This design decision allows for the cinematics to flow naturally, without introducing artificial pauses while waiting for the player to make a selection. Although many of these choices don’t present any meaningful long-term consequences, they allow for player expression in how the protagonist reacts to the story as it unfolds.
That said, some of the choices do result in substantial story branching, an impressive feat given the high production value on display and the limited scope available to a smaller, independent studio. Be sure to take note of important choices you make so you can discover alternate outcomes in later playthroughs; there are significant and rewarding opportunities to alter the trajectory of your save progression.
Dispatching the Gameplay
The core gameplay loop revolves around dispatching your team to various SDN customer calls, shown as expiring exclamation points on an in-game work terminal. The dispatch map is rendered to mimic a cathode ray tube monitor, with bubbled screen edges, rolling band static, and other effects characteristic of CRT monitors. I genuinely appreciated this visual choice; it was nostalgic, comforting, and served as a clear distinction between the point-and-click and cinematic elements of the game.
Selecting a call on the map presents basic information about the dispatch event, such as a description of the disturbance and primary objectives needed for success. Players assign one or more characters, each with upgradable stats for combat, vigor, mobility, charisma, and intellect, visually displayed as a radar chart that expands to combine character stats when more than one is sent together. The goal is to correctly infer the required stats for a call based on the provided description and objectives so that the appropriate characters are sent.
Team members also exhibit different behaviors based on numerous circumstances and interactions that are only revealed once specific criteria are met. For example, Invisigal dispatches quicker when sent alone, reducing her travel and call completion time. Other interesting character attributes exist, but I’ll leave those to be discovered naturally while playing, as these traits are rewarding to uncover on your own.
Dispatches will sometimes encounter interruptions due to sabotage or other problems. When this happens, the player is presented with a list of possible resolutions. For example, the options to “weave” or “power” through motion sensors would perform stats checks against the characters’ mobility or combat stats. These choices can be a gamble, though, as you are unable to see how high the stats checks are before choosing. Thankfully, a hacking minigame is often presented as an alternate option, allowing you to avoid stats-based checks that may not work well with the characters you’ve selected.
The hacking gameplay is a relatively straightforward affair, offering branching pathways toggleable using directional input codes, like those used to call stratagems in Helldivers II. This minigame presents different challenges, such as traveling down a dead-end branch to collect data or exposing and memorizing a password needed to unlock another node. It is often time-limited, but I never felt too rushed, and the puzzles weren’t terribly challenging. Still, I found this minigame a worthwhile addition that added variety to dispatch segments. Moreover, additional mechanics continued to be introduced as the story progressed, increasing difficulty and ensuring hacks didn’t become repetitive or tedious.
My greatest annoyance is the inability to replay the dispatch and hacking segments on their own to perfect my shift success record. There are currently no story or cutscene skip options, so attempting to succeed in all missions requires watching half an hour of cutscenes per episode just to get to the dispatching and hacking gameplay segments. By the forth watch, I would have appreciated the ability to jump directly into the dispatch segments without rewatching all cutscenes and without resetting my save progression in the subsequent episodes.
That said, the game offers a good amount of replayability due to the myriad dialogue choices available, and I find it quite impressive that a narrative adventure game includes gameplay systems so interesting and addictive that I wanted to play them all by themselves, independent of the story. I hope AdHoc continues to raise the bar in this regard and expands on these concepts in future projects by continuing to introduce even more noteworthy gameplay elements.
A Villainous Team
While all of the characters have interesting and unique personalities, Invisigal, an asthmatic who needs to hold her breath to use her power of invisibility, is by far my favorite amongst the large ensemble cast. She is smart, confident, sarcastic, direct, and complex: all traits I’m drawn to. Perhaps I have an “I can fix her” complex, but I was immediately sold on this character. The combination of the animation, writing, and Laura Bailey’s vocal performance made it immediately clear that Invisigal was my top romance choice (it isn’t the first romanceable character voiced by Laura Bailey, either). I think many people will ultimately fall in love with her.
The other cast members are equally compelling in their own right. Blond Blazer, voiced by Erin Yvette, serves as the SDN Torrance branch leader. She is a warm, welcoming, and courageous idealist. Yvette’s performance brings an authentic earnestness to the character.
Under her command is our protagonist, Robert Robertson, voiced by Aaron Paul. His delivery is often sarcastic, muted, and even borders on depressed: not unexpected for a fallen hero. This choice causes emotional outbursts to stand in stark contrast to his normal demeanor, making these moments all the more impactful. I can’t imagine anyone else playing this character quite so perfectly.
Not to be outdone, Jeffrey Wright steals almost every scene that features his voiced character, Chase. Wright convincingly mixes the characteristics of a youthful man with that of an older, disillusioned elder, an appropriate combination given that his speedster superpower causes him to age faster than normal. I also laughed quite a few times due to his specific, dry delivery and liberal use of swears. He is an endearing character that adds both levity and drama to the story.
It’s also exciting to see a group of non-traditional voice talent, including comedian Lance Cantstopolis, improv actor Joel Haver, content creators Charlie White Jr. (aka Moist Cr1TiKaL) and Seán McLoughlin (aka jacksepticeye), musicians Yung Gravy and Thot Squad, industry professional Alanah Pearce, and more. The writers and actors give the characters distinct behaviors and meaningful development arcs, making each member of the large ensemble cast memorable, and I appreciate the internal conflicts and struggles such a diverse group creates. The entire cast did a fantastic job evoking every emotion from me at various points in the story.
While I expected the cinematics to flesh out the characters, I was pleasantly surprised by the voice lines during the point-and-click dispatch segments. Many interactions provided further insight into the characters and helped expose their underlying motivations and relationships. Crosstalk between team members also made the conversations feel more natural, as opposed to triggered, scripted lines. This stood out to me and kept me engaged in the story throughout my dispatching shifts.
A Standout in the Genre
While Dispatch doesn’t offer the most advanced gameplay loop, it combines a diverse array of elements that sets a high bar for future games in the interactive narrative genre. The story is memorable, with characters that feel distinct. The writing and voice acting had me laughing at one moment only to tear up the next. The tight runtime ensures it doesn’t overstay its welcome, and it facilitates additional playthroughs to discover its branching narratives. While not perfect, it excels in most areas, making it one of my favorite experiences this year.
For those who enjoy quality animation, point-and-click adventure games, and story-heavy branching narratives, I’d recommend fetching a headset, heading to your cubicle, and beginning your dispatch shift with haste.
You can find Seasoned Gaming’s review policy here
