Video games that are genuinely funny don’t come around all that often; one that can also have your heart pumping with adrenaline — or silent tears streaming down your face — is almost unicorn rarity. Dispatch is that game.
The superhero workplace-comedy is full of adult themes, violence, and vulgar language… I couldn’t help but draw comparisons to Invincible — visually, too. Its clean, comic-book art-style pops with bright colours and slick animations. The occasional, action heavy cut scenes are a real stand out, including the best bar fight in video game history!
Superpowered Storytelling
Being an interactive story game it might be no surprise that Dispatch‘s biggest strength is its narrative. It follows down and out supe, Mecha Man, whose only mech suit is wrecked by supervillain Shroud. The benched Robert Robertson goes to work for the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN), co-ordinating a rag-tag team of villains-turned-heroes. Getting a group of ex-villains to work together is easier said than done however, resulting in plenty of infighting and hijinks.
The episodic nature of the eight-part series works extremely well, though I would’ve preferred to have them all in one go, rather than the ‘TV show’ style of weekly releases. Each installment lasts around an hour, but the game packs plenty of comedy and drama into its short runtime.
Decision making is core to the game. There’s a wide range of options and outcomes to your choices that affect the direction of the story and your relationship with characters (team Mandy). Not every decision is as important, some just give you a variation of the same outcome, but with a different quip or joke thrown in.
The big choices can be difficult and gut wrenching, leaving you second guessing yourself — like having to choose which hero gets cut from the team. Do I keep the character I like more? Or the one who’ll strengthen the team the most?
I’ve already jumped in for my second playthrough, excited to see how different choices will reshape the story.
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The Z-Team
Dispatch nails its characters. They’re a bunch of weird, foul-mouthed, assholes… And I love them all (even Flambae). The Z-Team is a motley crew of second-rate criminals that’ve decided (for various reasons) to give heroism a shot. There’s humanoid bat-creatures, half-demons, pyromaniacs, janitors… To name a few.
Invisigal (voiced by Laura Bailey) is abrasive, snarky, and loves a dirty joke. She can turn invisible (duh), but only while holding her breath. She also has asthma, which isn’t ideal! Her habit of sneaking into places she isn’t supposed to be, made me conscious of the dialogue choices I was making, just in case she was hiding in the room (she often was)!
Chemistry between the various characters is great, with inspired dialogue and joke writing; all brought to life by a stellar cast. Scenes between Robert (Aaron Paul) and Chase (Jeffrey Wright) were my favourite; the quick-witted, no-holes-barred banter made them instantly feel like comfortable old friends.
The Matthew Mercer voiced supervillain, Shroud, dominates every scene he’s in. A sociopathic genius, he was always two steps ahead, silently pulling the strings from behind the scenes. The inevitable showdown between Shroud and Mecha Man, is the perfect cap to the game.
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Desk Job
When you aren’t making decisions, the main gameplay of Dispatch is… Well… Dispatching. You’re the man in the chair, sending your team out on jobs that fit their stats and abilities. Success depends on how well you can cover the requirements of the mission.
Stats are spread over five categories: Combat, Vigor, Mobility, Charisma, and Intellect. For a job that requires protecting a VIP, you’ll need a hero with good vigor stats, while successfully defusing a bomb requires high intellect. Most jobs have multiple requirements, so you’ll either need a hero that’s strong in those specific areas, or you’ll need to send multiple team members. It’s a balancing act though, sending lots of heroes on one mission might guarantee success, but you can be left with an empty bench when the next job comes in.
There’s also times where a specific hero is perfect for the job, completing it without the need for a stat roll. I had a baby kaiju rampaging in the city and sent Golem to deal with it. Instead of attacking or subduing it, Golem had the option of adopting it instead!
Initially, I didn’t really like dispatching. Trying to figure out which stats were needed from a brief help request could feel like guesswork, while results felt too dependent on luck. Having a 90% chance of success, but still failing, felt frustrating and gutting. Failing a mission can cause injuries to the heroes attending, damaging their stats, and easily snowballing into a string of defeats.
But as my team steadily improved, the gameplay grew on me. I also had a shift in mindset; this is a team of misfits and failures… I couldn’t expect them to nail every job perfectly. As heroes earn experience points and level up, you can slowly increase their stats. My strategy was to have a few all-rounders and the rest be specialists, to try and cover all my bases.
Heroes can also unlock special abilities that bring much more strategy to the game. Malevola can heal an injured hero when on a mission together, while Flambae gets a buff to his stats after each successful assignment. My favourite was Golems’ ability to reset and reallocate his stats once per shift, which came in clutch to fill in any unexpected gaps.
Compared to the flash and colour of the story segments, the dispatching gameplay was a bit visually bland. The voiceover banter helps keep things from getting boring, but a bit more visual flair would go a long way to making assignments feel more unique and interesting.
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Should you play Dispatch?
If you value great characters, writing and story, Dispatch is for you. If you love witty humour and filthy jokes, Dispatch is for you. If you like the idea of micro-managing a team of dysfunctional ex-villains while they save kittens from trees and break up crime syndicates, then yes, Dispatch is for you.
AdHoc Studio has delivered a comedy with real heart. It’s slick and polished, with plenty of replayability through the choices you make. Dispatch is easily up there with the best of the ‘interactive story’ genre.
Dispatch is out now on PlayStation 5 and PC.
Quest Daily scores Dispatch:
9.5/10
Quest Daily was supplied with a review copy of Dispatch thanks to the publisher.
