AdHoc Studio, the creative masterminds behind The Wolf Among Us, Tales From the Borderlands, and The Walking Dead, have finally begun the episodic release of their first original title, Dispatch.
And, from the first two episodes that are currently available, I have to say the studio hasn’t changed a bit, still retaining the godlike writing quality we’ve come to expect from it, which now comes sprinkled with quirky and fun gameplay mechanics that are markedly different than its previous games.
Here is our review-in-progress, focusing on what is currently available, as we’re going to reserve our final score for when all 10 episodes are released.
Peak fiction
Dispatch, described as a superhero workplace drama, places you in the shoes of Robert Robertson the Third, i.e. Mecha Man, a hero with no powers of his own who finds himself down on his luck and on the verge of quitting the business altogether. With some favorable happenstance and the intervention of old pals, he is brought to be a superhero dispatcher, controlling Team Z, a “hero” unit comprised of semi-rehabilitated supervillains that need to be reigned in.
It unfolds in much of the same manner as AdHoc’s previous games, with emphasis placed on storytelling and narrative rather than gameplay, though you can still opt in for quicktime events, which invite you to take part in the otherwise cinematic experience unfolding before you.
Where Dispatch diverges from past AdHoc games is its addition of the, well, dispatching mechanic, which sees you manage heroes, send them on assignments, upgrade them and take care that they don’t suddenly call to their inner villain and start blasting people all over the place. Which, FYI, they probably will.
Dispatch features an impeccable animation style, which is far removed from just about anything else AdHoc has ever done, with the game standing as probably one of the best-animated shows you’ve ever experienced. It’s 3D with comic-inspired shading and is very reminiscent of Invincible, which shares a lot of art direction with Dispatch. Or is it the other way around? Doesn’t matter, really.
And with this animation style comes the best video game voice acting and writing in a long time. Every scene feels realistic, the dialogue choices range from funny to outright Oscar-worthy, while non-player characters themselves never feel out of place, weird, or unrelatable.
Everyone has depth, intrigue, and layers; all the characters come together nicely and blend into a cohesive cast where each member appears like a person, motivated, driven, flawed, and emotional.
And the voice acting itself helps to highlight and illustrate and elevate all of these characteristics and the people carrying them, with professional VAs like Aaron Paul (Jessie from Breaking Bad), who are as perfect in their role as the newcomers like Charlie White (MoistCritikal), though this last is a well-known actor from Hunger Games, but you get my drift.
Of course, none of the above would matter if it weren’t for AdHoc’s trademark choices-and-consequences approach, with everything you decide to do in the game coming back to haunt, bite, or bless you down the line. A lot is at stake every time that dialogue or decision box pops up, and you’d better think fast lest time runs out and you’re forced to make a decision you perhaps did not want to.
You drive the story, you decide how it unfolds, and though it’s lighter on gameplay than most games, the amount of agency you do have is off the charts, much like how it is in AdHoc’s other games.
Though these first two episodes are some two hours long, I cannot say that they did not provide a fulfilling, whole experience which, despite leaving things at the table in anticipation of further releases, is nevertheless the pinnacle of storytelling and yet another proof that AdHoc are the best in the business, making it a crying shame that their The Wolf Among Us 2 never manifested.
Perhaps Dispatch will change that because, as it stands, it’s one of the best pieces of interactive fiction to have ever graced Gabe’s digital kingdom, and I cannot wait to see what’s to come in the week ahead.
The post Dispatch Review-in-Progress – Absolute Cinema appeared first on Destructoid.
