DISPATCH

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I am a big fan of Telltale Games. WOLF AMONG US was a treasure. TALES FROM THE BORDERLANDS were downright hilarious. It was a great tragedy that the studio sort of collapsed under its own ambition. Or at least, that is the story I heard, the whispered telling of how picking on too many projects, too many costly intellectual properties tanked its capability to deliver quality stuff. But as the saying goes - nature abhors a vacuum. It was written in the stars that a successor would emerge, for the hunger for these narrative experiences never vanished.

And here we are, in the year 2025 with ADHOC Studio finally dropping on us their debut title - DISPATCH. A superhero workplace comedy-drama about a former superhero turned office worker for other heroes. There was a heft of expectations hanging off this title, because ADHOC isn't just a random studio trying to pick up the mantle of the old Telltale formula. The studio in question is a proper successor, with talents that escaped the clutches of Ubisoft as well as veterans from the original Telltale Games and Night School Studio. And so, there was a promise here, a built-in hype that they can deliver that prime storytelling adventure once again, and bring this particular genre of guided entertainment back to the players.

I think they nailed it. DISPATCH is a riot of good fun. I'll try to avoid spoilers, since the story is the core component of the experience. But in short - we step into the shoes of Robert Robertson, a former superhero Mecha Man. A man with no powers, but lots of gumption, a can-do attitude and a suit of mechanised, advanced armour which got busted, big time, grounding Robert out of hero work for the time being. As his life turns to shambles, he's given an offer from a superheroine par excellence - Blonde Blazer. To join a corporate superhero enterprise as a dispatched - an office agent that helps a team of heroes with keeping their sector of the city nice and safe. Assigning them to tasks, responding to calls... Herding cats, really.

Meet your team of unlikely champions! It's a hard transition from a villain to a hero.

What makes it particularly difficult is the team he is being given to handle. It's not your usual cast of do-gooders in spandex and perfect teeth gleaming in boisterous smiles. Nah, the Z-Team are former villains turned heroes by a rehabilitation programme. Each and every one of them is delightfully packed with issues, sports a potty mouth, and an ego to match. Former assassins, digital conmen in the form of a bat, mouthy pop-star criminals, a living heap of mud and trash, and a four-foot-tall manlet of buzzing, Irish anger, to name a few. Oh, there's also a god-like superman with immense powers who suffers from debilitating depression to really stir the pot. Yikes.

Add to this some romance. A revenge story against an unhinged sociopath with a technological kink. And a burning desire to become a hero once more, and you get quite a lot of threads to pull on. You'll have 8 episodes to enjoy the interactions, shape your narrative by your decisions, opt in and out of storylines based on your actions. Grow closer with some folks, let others go. Shape the team into an efficient heroism dealing engine! Maybe cop a punch to the face here and there for your effort. The story itself is nothing mind-boggling. No grand masterful twists, no revolution in the literary arts. But heck, I can't lie - I got attached to the characters. To Invisigal's crassness, Sonar's quips and Golem's chill. To see how they can grow their bond with us, to see them flourish. I was eagerly waiting for every Wednesday for the double episode drop, making it The DISPATCH Day in my calendar. I laughed, I cringed, I shed a tear. It has it all!

The illusion of choice is back and in full force. It's a Telltale Games staple, a contentious point that always divided its fans into two enemy camps! Well, I am exaggerating, but it is still worth pointing out - your decision does not matter that much. In each episode, only one of your choices really matters. You'll find it at the big event at the end, after all the fun. You’ll find other choices and decisions in each episode. The game even teases you with the ominous message, "They will remember that." But they do not, not really. In most cases, the outcome will be the same, just in different flavours. It's kind of like ordering a hot dog at a small stand. You can decide what relish and sauce you want on top - but you're still going to enjoy the sausage and the bun, no matter your choices.

Dispatching is the game'y part of the fun. Sent your team to tackle variety of situations as you see fit.

I am in the camp for which this is not an issue at all. For two reasons. First, I understand that ADHOC has a story to tell. A tight narrative with foregone conclusions. Making an open-ended story with dozens of varied outcomes is definitely possible, but something then would have to give in. I can't expect a game made from pre-rendered scenes to have such an extreme degree of variability. The fact we even have 3 or 4 different endings that keep the robust story with multiple characters on track is already quite a treat. And the second point - it never mattered to me. Even if I know my decisions do not matter for the overall framing of the narrative, I still feel they are impactful. Because they let me flex who I want the protagonist to be. Is he a snarky bastard? A goodie two-shoes with a golden heart? A mean dead-inside revenge machine? For me, even these inconsequential dialogue options add the right amount of flavour. Emotion. And can guide you to hilarious or heartfelt scenes. That matters to me even more than having a high modality of outcomes.

And the biggest revolution ADHOC brings to the formula is truly nigh impossible to grasp. The world-leading gameologist and scienticians worked tirelessly for a decade, despite many claiming it cannot be done. And yet, they did it. They managed to do the impossible! That is bring actual honest-to-gods gameplay into a Telltale formula game. Yes! No longer are we just watching an interactive TV show in which, on occasion, we have to press a button! There is a whole mode where we are gaming - the titular dispatching.

Now I am not able to glaze it too much, because the mode is fairly ah... rudimentary. It's a bit of a worker placement, resource management bit of puzzle fun, where time puts pressure on your decision-making. It's a pretty simple puzzle, all things considered. You're given a quest, a half-vague description of what kind of skills are needed for said quest, and then you just assign a hero most suited to succeed. Dice roll, percentages are shown, and you hope for the best. There are some minor hacking mini-games tossed in for variety, and each hero has their secret sauce abilities to spice things up and offer you some flexibility of approach. But what elevates this part of each episode, what makes it fun, is the integration with the narrative. Your loser heroes banter and whine; they share personal tidbits, comment on the most current events, and interact with each other to some degree. That's nice. And the best part is, this game'y aspect of DISPATCH also makes you feel closer to the characters. Seeing them fail made me cuss under my breath. Watching them succeed against some low odds made me cheer for them! That feels proper.

Each character can grow with you - make them the champion you need them to be.

Before I wrap up this burgeoning text, I would be remiss not to mention the voice acting. It's just so, so great. Aaron Paul as our main character is spectacular. He makes Robert feel so grounded, but so tired, exhausted with the world, with his life and the failures that drive him onward. Matthew Mercer is a staple name in the industry and he delivers that growly menace to our main bad guy; love that. And I must say, I think ADHOC showed a great marketing knack for employing so many big-time YouTube celebrities to their roster. Not only did they do a genuinely good job in their roles, like MoistCr1TiKaL voicing somewhat deadpan Sonar or Jacksepticeye doing Punch-up justice. But also made sure that DISPATCH, thanks to their involvement, was being widely streamed and talked about on their platforms. Clever, and it worked out well for everyone I reckon.

DISPATCH's raging success is a beautiful thing to behold. It sold well, got great scores in reviews, and everywhere I read about it, the reception has been only positive. I reckon I am now adding my little brick to these voices, too, because I had a blast playing this game and enjoying the story it wanted to tell. I am not going to say this is some kind of milestone, some generational masterpiece. Nah. It's one of those shows where you have a jolly good ole time when in it, but the moment you close the story up, it softly melts in your mind into a vague feeling of 'well, that was fun, what's next'.

What makes me happy, though, is that their success very likely means that ADHOC is here to stay, and with them, more and more games like this are to come. And that, my dearest reader, is what matters most to me - I crave these narrative-driven experiences and cannot wait to see more of them.