Dispatch [Review]

About thirteen years ago, on the tenth anniversary of “The Game Awards”, nearing the last year of the PS3/Wii/X360 era, among heavy hitters like Assassin's Creed 3, Mass Effect 3, Journey, Sleeping Dogs (criminally not nominated…) and Gravity Rush, it was Telltale's the Walking Dead that took the big “Game of the Year” award.

At the time, even considering it was in its tenth iteration, the event didn't really have an identity nor really a public, it was way more US-Centric and… A bit sketchy. But the choice of giving the biggest award for a narrative game was a clear sign for many players, developers – and, of course, Telltale – that there was a hunger for narrative first games. While not all winners of the GOTY from “The Game Awards” really makes sense over the years, undoubtedly, even alongside franchise titans, it was Telltale's simplistic gameplay with a striking and heavy story that actually changed the industry, and receiving the award made perfect sense. A rare win for the TGA's.

Feels like Ad-hoc Studio's Dispatch is hitting this sign for the world once again.

Having a weekly release, it all started with less than 60k concurrent players on Steam – a great amount already for a new game from a new studio – and ended with a bit more than 210k concurrent players, making it one of the most played single player games of the year. And there's a reason: superbly made cutscenes with interesting character designs and worldbuilding that makes for a great first impression.

Robert Robertson, retired from superheroing by injury, finds himself as a professional Dispatcher, a person that employs and directs super people and makes them help and solve crimes through the city. As the player, I make the choices for Robert, but like the narrative games of the 2010s, the main story is more or less defined, with the player agency being closely tied to the relationships of Robertson – be it romantic, professional and with the newfound friends of his Z-Team.

At work, the gameplay is more or less a real-time strategy for superheroes situation. Sending the right hero to the right mission feels very rewarding, and after the first sense of being lost, the gameplay started making more sense, and there's a surprisingly low amount of repetition of tasks, all of them always in the same map, with the occasional special event. The characters interact in cool ways on the mission, and each one plays differently from one another with their buffs and quirks.

Outside work, it is basically an animated series. The gameplay structure is very simplistic (it felt like a mobile game for me), with no exploration, item mixing or puzzles whatsoever. There are choices, yes, but these choices have more micro consequences than real progression change apart from the BIGGEST choices from the game that can shape the structure of the finale – still, the outcome is somewhat similar in all of them on the big plot points.

It is nice to see some progression of these consequences, but the routes themselves feel rushed and artificial as the game goes on, mostly on the last 2 chapters, that rush most of the player made conclusions without properly working on them. Sometimes, the narrative is running against itself, and it shows.

The story, yeah, it is a bit too safe, samey and “Status Quo” for me. It isn't as subversive as it should be, there are lots of characters that don't really have an in game arc and felt unused, while other characters are definitely overused. Robert was too stiff, and the non-experimental nature of this narrative makes the progression of the story be predictable, even if most of the time well executed. I wished to know more of everyone on the Z-Team, but the focus is on the male power fantasy, not really on the world building, and the lack of real character progression outside a few really hurt the game for me.

Dispatch, in the end, is a great time, with nice visuals, cutscene direction and interesting designs alongside a decent strategy game. A bland villain, unused cast, samey choices and the male power fantasy aspect of it all – that renders the story generic – mixed with a rushed ending and lack of world exploration in any way kinda held its potential. Still, I had a good time, and it felt like a great franchise starter, and if superheroes are known for something, it is about their franchise potential.

7.5/10

All the captures here are from IGDb!