…but I know it will.
Dispatch, the new episodic game series from AdHoc Studio (comprised of many former Telltale Games employees), has me absolutely hooked right now. While the first episode is heavily centered around Mecha Man’s vendetta against his father’s killer and the mystery surrounding him, the subsequent three episodes have represented a rather drastic tonal shift from the series’ debut, and it’s a welcome one.
The game wastes no time in plopping Robert into his desk job, and from there, Dispatch becomes a work/office sitcom with ridiculous characters and fun dynamics. While the game’s second episode gave us just a taste of what the Phoenix Program members were like, the third and fourth episodes go hard on those characters. While I know that the story will eventually turn back to Shroud and Robert’s revenge story (and I’ve still got money on Blonde Blazer being a secret baddie, and not in a sexy way), right now it’s just fun to enjoy Dispatch with its short, sitcom-like structure and watch the relationships develop.
Flambae and Prism are the clear divas of the group, making them a very fun pair to send out together on missions as one is able to flamboyantly punch his way out of trouble, while the other serves as a smooth talker. Sonar (my personal favorite of the bunch) is literally a bat man who generally stays out of the drama, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t above watching from the sidelines behind his crypto bro magazine because he, like any of us, loves that hot goss. There are some duds of course, including Coupe and Malevola, which is why I was quick to cut the former over Sonar when I got the chance in episode 3. Malevola’s design is just straight up Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3 and while I’ve not gotten much out of her yet, I’m hopeful that she’ll change my mind in the coming episodes.
Then there’s Invisigal (formerly Invisibitch and brilliantly voice acted by Laura Bailey), who’s very clearly supposed to be set up as one of the main characters of Dispatch. I love a good underdog story. And I especially love a good underdog story when its subject is a classic tsundere character, which is why Invisigal just hits all the right notes for me. Here, we have the scrappy girl who was raised in a rough environment. Despite having a good heart and wanting to be a hero who does good, Invisigal’s powers of, well, invisibility don’t exactly lend themselves well to the flashy superhero aesthetic everyone knows and loves. She believes she’s destined to be a villain, and it explains why she’s so rude to Robert and reluctant to accept his help at first.
This, of course, changes as you play. Eventually, Robert is able to get through to her and successfully guides her in taking down a villain. This all culminates in one of the most adorable scenes in Dispatch, where Invisigal sees that her hero ranking has gone up ever so slightly and she takes a photo of her score before smiling at it like a total sweetheart. And then, predictably, she notices Robert observing her and she immediately scowls and flips him off. Classic tsundere. I love this stuff.
As tempting as it was to romance Invisigal though, I much prefer the mentor-student relationship she shares with Robert. And also I’ll admit I was immediately entranced by the prospect of dating Blonde Blazer. I mean, who’s going to pass up a dinner date with a smoking hot superhero whose only flaw is that she’s secretly brunette? Certainly not my Robert.
Episode 4 reinforces the teamwork and office friendship aspects of Dispatch, as you get to recruit one of two new members to the Phoenix Program. You could go with Phenomaman, who’s very powerful but is currently depressed after getting dumped by Blonde Blazer, or Waterboy, who’s painfully weak and whose only superpower is vomiting and excreting water. Naturally, I went with Waterboy. My version of Robert is kind and nurturing, and with the Phoenix Program being Dispatch’s version of the Suicide Squad with nothing but misfits, it seemed only appropriate that we add Waterboy to the roster too.
The point is that Dispatch is at its best when it’s all about the characters and how they interact with each other. It’s about bringing your dog to work and having your colleagues fawn over him. It’s about getting into petty fights with the co-workers you don’t always get along with and ultimately making good with them because you still need to work together at the end of the day. Thankfully, apart from episode 1 (which was also great, don’t get me wrong), Dispatch has gone all-in on the office sitcom formula. I know we’ll eventually have to get back to Mecha Man’s conflict with Shroud, but for now, let me enjoy the workplace drama.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher.
I’m super glad to see that loads of people are enjoying this game, I utterly love choices matter games, so hopefully the success of this one will bring a bunch more into production. I’ve read both your articles covering this game and I do think you’ve hit the nail on the head about what it does so great.
Though, I do think you were a bit premature in saying Dispatch has restored your faith in choice based narrative games, so far it feels to me it’s running the risk of falling into the pitfalls of previous Telltale titles where whilst they had albeit fantastic narratives there was actually very little player agency in dictating the games overall narrative. A great example of this which both the first Walking Dead game from 2012 and Dispatch have done is *SPOILERS* the cutting of a group member. That being Doug + Carla in TWD, and Sonar + Coupe in Dispatch, where pretty famously despite it seemingly being a key decision in TWD, they both end up getting killed the same way anyway to fulfill the same narrative beat. So whilst the game is still unfinished and there’s plenty of time for these actions to have overarching consequences, I do feel like currently the game is still in a sort of trouble area of being a fantastic visual novel, but a poor choices matter game, though I am very much wishing for the best.
Also (more spoilers lol) just cause I really like yapping about this game, I agree with your theory that Blonde Blazer is secretly a villain of some kind, but also I think Invisigal is aswell with both of them being planted in SDN by Shroud in order to get something from Robert. This is because if you rewatch the fight in Episode 1, whilst Mecha Man is attempting to fly away, Toxic yells out something like “Get out of there, babe!” after showing a shot of Mecha Man’s back with nobody there. Then when he’s flying away in the sky, there was actually a bomb planted there, which I think Invisigal did. And then again, when it’s time to cut a member from the team, Blazer says even if Invisigal was bottom of the leaderboard, she wouldn’t have let you cut her, which is what really got me thinking they are actually double plants in the organisation.
Thank you so much for the meaningful and well-thought-out reply! And thank you for reading! I really appreciate it.
On Telltale’s track record, I very much agree with you that their past games have typically not done a very good job of making your choices actually matter at the end. The Carla vs Doug one is an infamous one, and I’ll never forgive Telltale for immediately negating the weight of that decision like one episode after it’s made. I think what I failed to properly convey is that despite most of these choices not mattering, they still helped to shape the way your journey looks as you head towards the conclusion that the developers have written for you. Generally, I think Telltale has done a fairly decent job of that in most of their games. (I’m with you that the Sonar vs Coupe decision ultimately won’t matter, though I’d be willing to bet your decision to keep one or the other might affect how you approach key missions in the future!)
A lot of my Telltale fatigue stemmed from that period of a couple years where they just seemed to be churning out game after game that felt increasingly uninspired. I think Dispatch has a lot going for it right out the gate: actual good characters, which lends itself well to the decision-making because the game makes you WANT to be careful/mindful of how you respond to others, and actual gameplay in the form of dispatching heroes that’s pretty fun.
So with all of that in mind, I find myself much more willing to overlook how important decisions may be in the grand scheme of things, as long as the story flow makes sense. Again, that might not have come through properly in these past couple articles and that’s my bad! But yeah, like you, I’m very much excited to see how things unfold over the next couple weeks.
Thank you again for reading! Means a lot as an owner of a small site 🙂