Dispatch review

As someone who still carries a torch for Telltale narrative adventures, I really wanted AdHoc Studio's Dispatch—a superhero workplace comedy full of HR violations—to be great, even as I had my doubts about the return of the episodic release model and the prevalence of celebrity streamers in the cast.

Those doubts were a distant memory by the end of the second episode, thankfully, and the rest of the eight-episode run only served to cement this as a brilliant piece of interactive TV. I am genuinely sad that it's over and desperately hoping for a second season.

Turning on the charm

Dispatch has rizz for days. With such a large cast, many of whom have more experience streaming than voice acting, like Jacksepticeye and MoistCr1TiKaL. I expected there to be at least a couple of duds, but nope! Everyone kills it. Even the villain-turned-hero that's been designed for us to hate—Flambae, a short-tempered asshole firestarter—gets multiple moments to shine.

When he got up on stage during a karaoke night to give us a rendition of Bitch, with the lyrics changed to call into question the size of the protagonist Robert Robertson's penis, I just couldn't hate him.

Dispatch is a million miles away from the quippy, family-friendly MCU. We've got heroes talking about their sex dreams, colleagues beating each other up, a barrage of cutting insults, booze-based bribery and in-office romances that would make HR professionals squirm.

But it's also full of heart. Dispatch is ultimately a story about second chances—a fallen hero trying to find his place in the world after his super-powered mech suit is blown to smithereens; villains trying to walk a new path, protecting a city that expects them to fail; people who have spent their lives closed off, opening up to their found family.

Where it indulges in superhero cliches, it does so with a wink and a grin, but it's also a celebration of classic heroic stories, and the surprising ability for characters rooted in comic books to reveal something about ourselves or challenge us to be better. You are more than your past, more than your failures, more than your worst moments, it says.

God, this game makes me a cheeseball.

Heroes for hire

It kicks off with Robert Robertson's worst moment. He is Mecha Man, a big-time hero, and he's getting his ass handed to him. After his suit is destroyed, we find him drowning his sorrows in a bar. Along with a hangover, he also ends up with a new job, as a dispatcher for a company with heroes for hire, sending them to help out subscribers, whether they've lost their cat or their power plant is about to explode.

Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul lends Robert his gravelly voice and proves to be perfectly cast as a tired, world-weary man who worries that he's lost everything. But like everyone else, Robert is a quickfire joker, with a brutal arsenal of putdowns and comebacks. Dispatch can get pretty damn bleak, but the lowest moments are always undercut by a great gag. And on one occasion a rather loud fart.

Unlike Telltale's adventures, AdHoc (which was founded by Telltale vets) has gone for a pure interactive TV approach. Each Dispatch episode largely plays out like a superhero cartoon—bolstered by impeccable art and animation that outdoes most cartoons in the genre, including the otherwise fantastic Invincible—where each scene is tightly scripted and leaves you no room to wander around clicking on things.

You're still in charge of these scenes, to a degree, with Dispatch giving you the opportunity to pick dialogue options or actions that drive the story forward, or veer off in one of a few different directions. And these can have a significant impact. There are two distinct romantic entanglements; heroes can be cut from the roster, or new ones added; and the journey the other characters go on can be meaningfully altered by your interactions.

There are some impressive QTE brawls, too, among the best I've ever seen. They don't demand much from players, but each is blessed with a flawless rhythm and a level of flash and stylishness that elevates them well beyond a bog standard, lightly-interactive cinematic. I just wish there were a few more of them.

Even as I was getting very comfy watching the story play out, I did find myself wanting to be a bit more involved. Sometimes it's too easy to forget that technically this is a videogame, and every episode has scenes where I couldn't help but think 'This would be a bit better if I was actually doing something right now.' I don't even mean light Telltale-style puzzles or explorations. Even a few more QTEs would have been welcome.

There's a house-warming party in the sixth episode that I really enjoyed—great visual gags, lots of camaraderie, some brilliant dancing—but I just kept wanting to be more involved. Maybe an interactive dance off? A drinking game? Just something a bit more than a few dialogue choices.

Clocking in

Elsewhere, though, Dispatch does try to go the extra mile—specifically when it comes to the work of a superhero dispatcher. Most episodes give you two shifts, where you'll sit at your computer and direct your team of z-list villains-turned-heroes, sending them out on calls.

The shifts are brief but surprisingly involved. Each hero has their own stat spread and special abilities, and they can be upgraded in an RPG-lite fashion. Each job requires specific skills or sometimes offers unique opportunities for specific characters. Anything involving influencers, music, or demanding plenty of rizz is best handled by Prism, for example, as she's a music influencer on top of having some snazzy light-based powers.

There are team-ups, serviceable hacking mini-games, and story-based wrinkles, like the entire city losing power, heroes trying to sabotage each other, and one Superman-esque dude who's dealing with a breakup and becomes depressed whenever the team fails a mission, taking him out of the roster for a while.

Your choices outside of these shifts can affect how things go when you're on the clock. Sad Superman, for instance, might not even be on your team. Other heroes might act out, skive shifts, or take off early, all because of workplace drama you're involved in.

AdHoc manages to keep this light but engaging for most of the season, though I confess my enthusiasm for it did start to wane by the end, as I felt like I'd seen all it could offer and it started to become a touch predictable. The last shift, though, is a doozy.

But I was happy to stick around for all the messy pre and post-shift drama, the drinks after work, the parties, the heart-to-hearts, the jokes—good and bad, and indeed bad most of all—and of course Robert's lovable chunky dog, Beef. He's a cutie and I would die for him.

Superfriends

I'm just so bloody enamoured with these characters. Abrasive Punch-Up and his love of whacking people in the balls; haughty Prism with her killer dance moves; damp, pathetic Waterboy, with his incredibly gross, moist powers; and my best bud Chase, a former speedster whose accelerated metabolism has left him looking like a tiny old man (or, as another character jokes, Black Einstein).

Laura Bailey's Invisigal (AKA Invisibitch) might be the highlight, though. The foul-mouthed punk who just needs someone to believe in her might be one of the most tired cliches around, but Bailey's performance, and her constant verbal sparring with Robert, will make you forget you've seen this arc a million times before.

She's one of Robert's potential love interests, with the other being Blonde Blazer, a Supergirl analogue and also Robert's boss. So yeah, it's an HR nightmare. The romance side of things is… well it's a touch problematic due to the power dynamics, it's thrust upon you pretty swiftly, and I'm not convinced it adds much that isn't also offered by the platonic relationships the game handles so well.

The Invisigal romance absolutely feels like the canon choice, leaving the Blonde Blazer relationship a bit half-baked, but either way they don't add extra stakes or friction that wouldn't already be present if they had just remained friends and teammates. And the choice of a 'bad girl' or 'good girl' just feels like a tired trope, and one Dispatch doesn't do much with. You'll be able to predict all the story beats here right from the start. All the friendships you build, however, are a lot more rewarding.

When Z-Team properly welcomed me into the fold—as we were devouring tacos and licking our wounds after a bar brawl—and we became more than just antagonistic colleagues, my heart grew 10 sizes. It's impossible to not care about these dorks, and want what's best for them. Even awful Flambae.

My desire for a bit more interactivity aside, this is a triumphant season of interactive TV, and against all the odds it's even made me excited about the Critical Role game the studio is working on next. As it stands I am not a fan, but I think AdHoc could turn me.