Another week has rolled around, and Dispatch has received two extra episodes, marking the mid-point of the game’s episodic release structure.
And boy was it worth the wait. Building on the initial introductions made by the first two episodes, this new batch expands on almost every character in the game, with interpersonal relationships between the cast coming to the forefront.
Split-second decision-making is taken up a notch, and while there are no quicktime events in this part, there is no shortage of gameplay, nor is the player ever left out of moral dilemmas faced by the protagonist.
Here is our review in progress for this pair of episodes.
Dispatch Episodes 3 and 4 pick off right where they left off, following again Robert Robertson as he settles into his new position as a dispatcher for villains-turned-heroes, all of whom are on the edge of crashing out almost constantly (the last episode cutting off just as one said crash out happened).
This time around we know all the faces, so introductions are less than necessary. The game understands that, and instead chooses to show us how these characters relate to each other. The writing is incredible, to say the least, and Dispatch takes a step towards a very mature approach to superhero storytelling.
It ditches every trope and stereotype that’d be expected of such a genre and setting, and brings everything down to the ground floor. These people are flawed, conflicted, layered, and oftentimes misunderstood, cast into villainy (or heroism) by their upbringing or circumstances.
Robert, the main guy, is a hero-in-name-only, born with no actual powers of his own and merely using a powerful suit, but even so, he manages to relate to our troubled bunch whose abilities seem to them more a burden than a boon.
Depending on how you play the game, things will happen drastically differently, and we finally get to see the first hints of actual romances that the player can engage in. Will you discipline the cast, relate to them, or will you be a cold know-it-all who sees them as nothing but an unruly mob? It’s all up to you, and, as I’ve said, no quicktime events are necessary to see that play out.
Choice-and-consequence is an AdHoc trademark, and Dispatch takes the concept more than seriously, making these four episodes, and especially the second batch, an unprecedented level of replayability and variation that’ll ensure every player has a markedly different experience.
Another huge character, in a literal sense, finally takes up a spot in the story in these two episodes. He is AdHoc’s version of the “evil superman” or rather, the “not-human-but-very-human superman that might turn out evil at some point.” That was a mouthful, but it’s the best description I have of the guy.
He is sort of a combination of Omni-Man and Superman, and I cannot wait to see how his character is developed in subsequent episodes. I believe he’s quite a unique take on an overdone trope, but I sense there’s a lot more to him than meets the eye.
Of course, the episode features a bunch of actual dispatch gameplay where you manage the heroes and send them out on missions, which is probably the most fun part about the game. It’s actually so addicting that I wouldn’t be opposed to AdHoc releasing a standalone experience that’s just that.
Overall, these two episodes take the foundations laid by the previous two and do nothing but build, improve, and develop on them, offering a deep and insightful and very mature (and I mean 18+) take on superheroes and, more importantly, the people behind the masks.
I love everyone in the cast, even the bat dude voiced by Charlie White of Hunger Games fame, and I am ecstatic to see what next week has in store for us.
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