Adhoc Studio’s debut title Dispatch is a total triumph. It’s easily my personal ‘Game of the Year’ but beyond that, I truly believe this is one of the greatest games of all-time – and that’s not a claim I make lightly. Dispatch deserves to be the poster child of the episodic genre, with its winning formula placing it leagues above its competitors. The game doesn’t just boast outstanding visuals, a stellar cast, and a compelling story. Its tailor-made approach to gameplay and high value of player agency are the true icing on the cake, and if a second season of the game isn’t on the way already, one absolutely should be.
To recap (again), Dispatch is a “superhero workplace comedy” from AdHoc Studio, a team made up of former Telltale Games developers. It centres around Robert Robertson, also known as Mecha Man, a dispatcher at SDN, the Superhero Dispatch Network, who takes on the role after his suit is destroyed. He’s tasked with leading the Z-Team to success, former villains, with the game’s choice-based narrative being interspersed with puzzle-solving and management-inspired gameplay.
Every single batch of episodes has so far garnered a perfect score of 10 from me, so it’s once again difficult to continue to heap praise upon something I’ve already outlined as being worthy of such a score. In my review of the game’s first two episodes, I was full of praise for, well, just about every aspect of Dispatch. Its animation, cast, story, and gameplay mechanics all blew me away and yet, I’ve since come away having seen an improvement every subsequent week. Who knew you could improve on perfection?
In both my review of Episode 3 and 4 and Episode 5 and 6, I commended the game’s pacing and sense of development. With each successive batch of episodes, the demands placed upon you and Robert, as the dispatcher, have become more intense, and the story-based choices have too. Dispatch holds a certain respect for the player; it’s crafted in a way that values your growth, placing you into tighter and more difficult circumstances – and the same continues to be true in the game’s closing two episodes which are, easily, the best.
Episode 7 and 8 have the longest collective runtime compared to the other batches, and it only adds to the drama. As always, this is a spoiler-free review so I shan’t be venturing too far into the story, but it’s fair to say that the state of play of Dispatch’s world in these two episodes is chaotic. During your dispatch sessions, the calls will come in more rapidly than ever before. I was thrilled to see the arrival of some late team additions to spice things up, but that’s countered by Z-Team members also being unavailable at certain stages. When you’re receiving more calls than ever before but have the lowest number of resources, you really have to make some tough decisions.
It’s a measure of your skill as a dispatcher, a true culmination of everything you’ve learnt so far. I was worried these final episodes would be more cutscene heavy, struggling to fit in dispatching sessions but it’s the complete opposite. It’s truly at the heart of this finale.
There are also, of course, plenty of story-based sections where players will easily make their most difficult calls to date with a healthy number of QTEs thrown in for good measure. It’s why I praised the length of these episodes. Decisions, QTEs, dispatching … they’re all time-limited. If you don’t respond within a few seconds, you lose the opportunity to and as such, you can’t look away from Dispatch, although it’s so gripping that I can’t imagine you’d want to. It demands your full attention, prompting major decisions in a constant and steady stream.
I alluded to the fact that the story erupts into chaos here and the relentless demands placed upon the player perfectly match that. By the game’s conclusion, I was as excited for a breather as the Z-Team. In making itself feel like a playable TV show, Dispatch always risked feeling too passive. TV shows don’t demand much of us. Instead, Dispatch has defied odds and easily is one of the most immersive games I’ve played. All I’ll say about the story is that it is incredible. I gasped on several occasions and was completely satisfied with the ending. My choices? Not so much, but that’s only left me eager to run through it all again.
Dispatch is an all-time great, and I hope we’ll see it contend for GOTY. After an incredibly successful season, Adhoc’s developers totally deserve to put their feet up and luxuriate within all of this success … not for too long though. I’d quite like a second season please.
Pros: Story reaches engaging and satisfying conclusion, intensity of the pace matches the fact that it’s a season finale, further development of dispatching mechanics
Cons: Nothing
For fans of: Life is Strange, The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, The Boys
10/10: Perfect
Dispatch’s first season is available now on PC (version tested) and PlayStation 5. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
