Shipping is quite an anomaly. It feels like a 2012 game and a vision of the future for epic adventure games. With well-written characters, great animation, and performances that are directly inspired by the Critical Role era (many of the actors are even Critical Role cast members), Adhoc Games delivers an experience that is instantly compelling. But it's also not much of a video game.
Telltale Game titles like The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead have received similar criticism amid their considerable critical acclaim, including how the developer simplified much of the classic point-and-click formula for the new generation. But it did so by putting the storytelling and player choice elements first, and whether you liked it or not, it was a sure recipe for success that paid off over the years.
The developer went out of business in 2018 after a number of lucrative deals fell through, but its spirit lives on through games like Life is Strange, Firewatch, Until Dawn, and now — Dispatch. AdHoc is a literal and figurative torchbearer, made up of many former Telltale employees. It's an excellent game that caught my attention after just a few episodes, all because it carries the Telltale spirit forward and builds on it in some fascinating ways.
Dispatch is an eloquent play for the generation of critical roles
In Dispatch, you play as Robert Robertson – formerly known as Mecha Man – a man who used to be a superhero but now struggles to make ends meet. Now that he no longer has the means to fight crime in all of Los Angeles, he must figure out his future. A strong performance brought to life by deep-voiced Aaron Paul makes this lead easy to root for despite his apathy to the world around him.
After a few drinks with the famous superhero Blue Blazer, Robertson becomes a dispatcher for the local superhero agency SDN, a subscription service that dispatches heroes to fight crime and help clients whenever they run into trouble. The twist – you have a series of reformed supervillains to control who want to make your life hell.
It's killer in its setup, leaving you deeply interested in this world, its characters, and exactly where it's going in future episodes. I'll admit it takes liberal inspiration from properties like Invincible, but it feels infinitely more hilarious and inspired by the many talents behind it.
Developed with the direct involvement of Critical Role and starring members like Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham and Matthew Mercer, I can imagine many fans going into Dispatch feeling at home with the voices and personalities they've already spent a lot of time with. Most of the characters are instantly likable and full of intrigue, but also ripe with enough superhero conventions that you'll know what they're about in seconds.
I wanted to learn more about this world and do more, but the game isn't designed to accommodate that. Aside from dialogue, optional quick events, and some great mini-games to help advance the story, Dispatch isn't a video game at all.
Other actors include JackSepticEye, MoistCr1TiKaL, Alanah Pierce and Jeffery Wright. I hope you've spent a lot of time on the internet over the past decade.
You will spend more time watching the submission than playing
Classic Telltale Games often saw you take control of a character as you navigated through a selection of small environments to talk to characters, interact with items and solve puzzles before continuing the narrative.
The story could go in a few different directions depending on the choices you made, but otherwise it was pretty linear and wanted to lead you on specific adventures over and over again. The shipping is pretty much the same, and right now I'm not sure how much my decision-making will affect the story going forward.
But man, I'm incredibly invested. Conversations require you to make a handful of choices in which you can influence the unfolding story and the feelings of the characters around you, such as deciding to lean in for a drunken kiss with Blue Blazer in the first episode, or to pull away from embarrassment.
Little chicks that come home to nest in different ways, but mostly it's about coming with us and reacting when necessary. There is no control of Robert in Dispatch other than dialog choices and optional quick events (which you can turn off before starting a new game if you don't want to be in trouble) that accompany the action scenes.
Most of the interaction comes through the titular control room, in which you'll sit at a computer and command your roster of heroes to solve crimes that best suit their abilities. I love the fast pacing of these sections and how they naturally lead into the heavier parts of the narrative, but again, I'm not sure if you're doing well in sequences like this or you're completely screwing up. But in all honesty, I don't care.
Dispatch simplifies the Telltale formula to the point where it might as well be a TV show, but this willingness to strip down and keep only the bare essentials might be its greatest strength.
The animation is excellent, the writing is crisp, and the performances are so strong that Adhoc doesn't need to overplay Dispatch's video game qualities to stand out. I have no doubt it will turn some people off, but judging by its early adoption, it doesn't matter in the end.
