Dispatch is an episodic adventure game developed by AdHoc Studio. It follows an ex-superhero who swaps being a hero for becoming a dispatcher for other heroes. This is a reaction to episodes 5 and 6. These episodes are a bit harder to react to without spoilers. I’ll still refrain from mentioning the big moments, but previous episodes will be spoiled.
Both these episodes, but episode 5 especially, felt like the developers were flying too close to the sun. The episodes focused a lot more on the dispatch and hacking gameplay than the previous episodes. As mentioned below, although enjoyable, it’s not that deep and so the more of it that you put in, the less enjoyable it gets. Previous episodes at least broke this up with more cutscene and choice content sprinkled throughout, but these episodes have chosen to leave the for the end.
That said, the cutscene content at the end of both episodes is so exceptionally good and the best stuff that the game has yet put out that you quickly forget how concerned you were while dispatching. Icarus survives another day.
We’re finally a team.
It took a while to get the group to really develop the different characters outside of the ones in focus and really build a dynamic, but episode 5 is a masterclass in fosteing relationships and coming together as a group.
The bar provided a great opportunity to learn about each character through what they say as well as what they do, and it’s probably also the most fun I’ve had so far playing Dispatch. The voice acting also really shines through here. Big shout out to Lance Cantstopolis specifically for his Flambae karaoke song. I’ve been humming “I’m a bitch, my name’s Robert” to myself constantly.
There are definitely some choices to be made, but they seem not to be that significant just yet. Of course certain choices have changed how the game progresses. Whether it’s your choice of person to cut or who you romance, the scenes do change to account for those. However, I feel like Ad Hoc is trying to really hold off on the consequences of the choices as much as they can. There have been various moments where the game tells you that others will remember your choice, but there have been few situations where the consequences have yet come to bite us.
Now of course the game is not done, and it makes sense that many of them will play a larger role at the end. But it would have been nice to see a bit more of it as we went along.
On the other hand, the choice to tell them you’re Mecha Man or not did change up that scene quite a lot and how Flambae interacted. I chose to say I was Mecha Man and really loved the ensuing scene, but I am very curious to see how hiding that affects the story in the last two episodes. I also do feel like perhaps our choices have had impacts that just haven’t been revealed yet but hard to gauge.
What a fucking gut punch that ending to episode 6 is. Just seeing it happen and feeling helpless just like Robert to do anything about it. Then the credits roll in silence in stark contrast to the previous episode… Damn. (The picture is not a spoiler for this, it is purposefully irrelevant.)
GCReaction
After a little scare that the devs put a bit too much stock in the strength of its dispatching gameplay, they followed up with some of the best story content thus far at the end of both episodes. We are now a real team who like each other and the stakes have been set. Can’t wait to see where the last two episodes go from here. I have full faith in Ad Hoc to bring this home.
