Dispatch Review: Telltale-style superhero comedy is more of a TV show than a game, and that’s OK

Dispatch is proof that the Telltale Games formula fits the modern communal TV era like a glove.

The superhero choice-driven story by AdHoc Studios, a team formed primarily by ex-Telltale Games devs, has quickly gained notoriety and a large following around its episodic format. Debuting on October 22, AdHoc released two new episodes every Wednesday, with the season culminating on November 12. It went out to sell over 1 million copies in the first 10 days, reawakening a dormant interest in the format.

Studios like Dontnod Entertainment have continued to iterate on episodic releases with the Life is Strange series and this year’s Lost Records: Bloom and Rage. The appeal of Dispatch, however, is in catering directly to the modern TV show daze, and the communal FOMO that leads to people wanting to take part in the conversation of the latest popular release.

Every Wednesday, I saw players on social media sharing theories and thoughts about the latest episodes. Witnessing how some of my Steam friends opened the game almost in unison as soon as they dropped took me back to the times of Telltale of yore.

But the episodic format is far from the only element that allowed Dispatch to take over the zeitgeist for five weeks. The story is led by Robert Robertson III, or Robert for short, who is the former superhero Mecha Man. In seeking revenge for his father’s death while carrying the family legacy, despite not being born with actual superpowers, an operation against an enemy faction goes wrong, and his suit is rendered useless.

Soon after, he meets Blonde Blazer, leader of the Superhero Dispatch Network, who offers to lend his expertise and mentor a group of villains who signed up for a rehabilitation program of sorts, in exchange for helping fix the suit, and in turn, the city’s renowned hero.

The villains, assigned as the Z-Team, are as irritating as they are endearing. The contrast between the honorable Robert and the group of misfits creates an immediate spark, one that’s elevated by a strong cast of actors lending their voices, including Aaron Paul, Laura Bailey, and Jeffrey Wright, to name a few.

Dispatch greatly benefits from the fact that people have invested years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but its tone is more in line with the likes of Invincible, striking a balance between gore and comedy. It’s the most I’ve laughed with a video game this year, with the Z-Team constantly making fun of each other with both cursing and an almost absurd amalgamation of Gen-Z-fueled references to memes, music, films, games, and so on.

I can’t deny that seeing the words “Big Chungus” on the screen didn’t give me the ick, and some of the chronically online lingo is a bit forced (such as a character saying they’re “stacking mad Ws”), but largely, the comedy worked for me. My favorite moments showcased these elements in synergy, with characters snipping each other back and forth during violent confrontations that could go from vicious to funny at a moment’s notice, including a recurring villain who has his penis out at all times.

If you’re wondering why I’m focusing more on the story than the gameplay itself, there’s a good reason for it. According to interviews with AdHoc, the idea that would later turn into Dispatch started as a Telltale-style live-action game (see Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, for example). After a rather tumultuous development period, AdHoc ultimately decided to switch to an animated game.

“Dispatch greatly benefits from the fact that people have invested years in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but its tone is more in line with the likes of Invincible, striking a balance between gore and comedy.”

The context is useful, considering it’s very clear that the video game part of Dispatch came in later. When playing a game from Telltale, you could expect the choice-driven dialogue sequences to be divided between sections that involved walking while controlling a character or inspecting the environment, as well as quick-time events.

In Dispatch, most of the time is spent watching cutscenes with only the occasional assortment of quick-time events (which can be toggled on or off) and decisions, to the point where I was surprised by how often I could just sit and watch long sequences and conversations just play out.

The main gameplay focus is on the action of dispatching, which is carried out by Robert at the company’s office. As the player, you’re given access to an old computer with an overview look at the alternate depiction of the city of Torrance, California.

During shifts, a number of emergencies pop up on screen, with cityfolk asking for superhero aid in anything from delivering a very specific coffee order to rescuing people from a fire. You then have to manually assign and dispatch members of the Z-Team, using the hints from each emergency to try and select a character whose stats are the best fit for the job.

Characters gain experience, which allows players to increase their stats once they level up. They all have unique abilities as well, and there’s the occasional training session in which they can gain a few more. Robert might be the guy in the chair, but he can also take part in certain operations via a hacking minigame, which is sort of a simpler version of the one introduced in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Largely, you’re controlling a cube throughout fixed node paths to get to your goal, completing arrow movement patterns and trying to avoid contact with antiviruses in Pac-Man style chases. There are some welcome variations later on, such as having to memorize patterns or roaming around paths until you can match a frequency, but it remains fairly simplistic throughout.

“Robert might be the guy in the chair, but he can also take part in certain operations via a hacking minigame, which is sort of a simpler version of the one introduced in Deus Ex: Human Revolution”

In turn, the act of dispatching has its own highs and lows. At its worst, the sense of urgency that it evokes — especially since the characters you choose for an operation have to return to HQ and then spend a resting period before they can be redeployed — is largely artificial. Robert’s performance is graded at the end of each shift, taking into account how many operations were successful, a failure, or missed altogether, which can increase or decrease his overall career rank.

But the sole reward for exceeding in this is unlocking three items for shifts with one use each to reanimate inactive characters, as well as one random stat point that you can give to any character of your choosing. By episode 6, I had already achieved the highest rank. Aside from one specific conversation at the beginning of the story, it doesn’t seem like your performance during dispatches has any effect on the overall narrative.

Thankfully, the opposite is true. The Z-Team is constantly chatting with one another over comms, evoking the energy of a group chat on a Friday night. Fun banter aside, I enjoyed every moment in which forces and actions outside my control affected dispatching. During the first few shifts, the villains constantly sabotaged one another, ignored my orders, and refused assignments.

Later on, after certain story decisions, some characters refused to help altogether, which presented an unexpected obstacle, especially after spending a considerable time trying to optimize their stats and having them as a reliable option for specific operations, forcing me to improvise and, ultimately, embrace more failures than I planned to. Again, it’s unfortunate that the outcomes of these shifts feel somewhat disjointed from the actual story, but there’s at least enough variation to make the act of dispatching compelling, especially since you repeat it in every episode.

Speaking of disjointed, the story itself also suffers from this on occasion. In classic Telltale fashion, I was perpetually keeping an eye on the top corner of the screen, expecting the “X will remember this” message. It remains as satisfying as ever, as well as the act of comparing your actions against global stats and seeing how many other people lined up with your decisions. But the story outcomes — there are three main endings with some smaller variations — are the result of fairly fixed paths.

Your choices play a part in how some of the events prior play out, but by and large, the story is entangled in some rather forced romance options. Without entering spoiler territory, even while trying to suspend my disbelief around the context of power dynamics at the workplace, neither romance path felt natural in how they’re presented to the player. Considering I was only in the 4 percent of players who managed to reach the end credits without having pursued a romance, it tells me that achieving this is quite hard, and as a result, not the ending that AdHoc was most invested in.

There was also another fairly unpopular decision I took in episode 5 that the game simply did not know how to assess, with a later scene basically putting me in the other scenario by default, as characters only acknowledged it in passing without a clear ramification. It gave me the indication that some decisions are largely set in stone regardless of your input, which is largely in line with Telltale’s legacy.

Despite my gripes, I remained invested in Dispatch throughout. When I wasn’t laughing and shaking my head at the barrage of sex jokes in equal measure, I was invested in the characters surrounding Robert. The trope of a found family is executed well, and the quieter moments shone through.

If you tend to watch TV, featuring superheroes or not, you know what to expect — needle drops with licensed music at the end of (almost) each episode, big action montages, and the necessary plot twists and gut-punch moments to add the necessary sourness. There isn’t much of a video game in Dispatch, but that’s okay. I know the Z-Team will remember the few actions that I had agency on, as much as I’ll remember my fondness for them increasing with each new episode.