Dispatch Ep1-2 Review: Telltale's (now AdHoc Studio) Heroic Return to Storytelling

 

*Minor Spoilers* 

When Telltale collapsed in 2018, I was gutted. From Vasquez’s epic finger gun fight in Tales from the Borderlands to the emotionally heartbreaking ending between Lee and Clementine in The Walking Dead, they had given me some of the best story experiences in video games. It felt like the end of an era.

But luckily, when Telltale fell, AdHoc Studio was formed in its ashes and is run by the team behind Telltale’s most successful games like Tales from the Borderlands, The Walking Dead, and The Wolf Among Us. Now, seven years later, AdHoc has released its first game: Dispatch and man, was it worth the wait.

 

 

 

Enter Mecha Man 

 

In Dispatch, you play as Robert Robertson, a.k.a. Mecha Man, a superhero who relies on a mechanical suit rather than superpowers. He’s the third generation to wear the suit, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both of whom died in it. When we meet Robert, he’s already a seasoned and well-loved hero in a world where superheroes are as common as McDonald's.

During a raid to find and maybe kill (though it’s unclear if he’d go that far) the ex hero turned villain Shroud, who murdered his father, Robert’s suit is destroyed and he falls into a coma for several months. When he wakes up, he announces his retirement but instead joins the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) as a Dispatcher. His new mission? Turn the worst-performing team made up of rehabilitated supervillains into a fully functioning unit. What can possibly go wrong?

 

 It is an extremely fun premise which AdHoc delivers brilliant with its writing, voice acting and design. The writing is a particular highlight for me which brings back that Telltale magic and creative freedom that made me fall in love with their games. I often found myself laughing and smiling while playing the first two episodes thanks to the constant sarcastic comments Robert makes during the game and the care and love the writers have put into each character. Obviously this being only the first two episodes we are still very much getting introduced to his Phoenix team so maybe the writing and character development may get worse but I highly doubt that.

 

The choices you get to make during dialog as well feel varied enough to really play the character the way you want, if you want to be a complete asshole then that might be a bit difficult so far as the choices aren't completely brutal but they are enough to make you Robert an unlucky guy who has a good heart or an ex superhero who is a bit of a dick with a grudge against the world. It is a nice selection of choices and I am already excited to replay it with different choices. 

 

 

 

The Dream Voice Acting Team 

 

While we are talking about the writing and dialog choices it is only natural to talk about the voice acting and goddamn is it stacked with some A* talent. Robert Robertson is voiced by the incredible actor Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad, Westworld, BoJack Horseman) who so far does a great job of managing to walk the fine line of voicing a character who is very sarcastic without making it too over the top. He makes Robert's emotions sound and feel genuine especially when he is talking about what he has lost and carries the leading role extremely well. 

 

However Aaron doesn't need to worry too hard with carrying the weight of the voice acting in this game as not only is the wonderful Erin Yvette (Hades 2, The Wolf Among Us, Armored Core VI) voice acting Blonde Blazer (which I do think is the standout performance from the first two episodes) as well as the lovable Irish YouTuber Jacksepticeye playing Punch Up (and is really very entertaining as him) but also everyone's video game heartthrob Alanah Pearce plays the demon antihero Malevola (which is casting choice perfection). Now all these are very talented voice actors however AdHoc did the unthinkable and partnered with the ENTIRE CRITICAL ROLE TEAM MEANING THEY ALL VA IN THE GAME.

 

 

Now if you are a critical role mega fan like me then you are also so excited about this that you might pass out due to pure happiness. If you don't know Critical Role then I highly recommend you check them out, they are the leading DnD youtube group and are all extremely talented voice actors who are basically the masters of their craft. So having all of them in Dispatch is a genius move by AdHoc. So far we have only had a taster of the Critical Role team with Laura Bailey as Invisigal (who has already made the character her own and is an absolute blast) and Travis Willingham as Phenomaman which is the perfect character for him. I am so excited to see more of the team get involved as the story progresses and more characters are revealed.

 

One final thing I want to quickly mention is the music in this game, it is absolutely bopping. Especially the song at the end of episode two Pound Cake by Thot Squad (check this banger out here) is an absolute bop of a song and fits perfectly to how the episode ended. Not only that but Thot Squad is also the VA for Prism so it's a very nice touch that her song is in the game.

  

 

 

Classic Telltale gameplay with a fresh twist 

 

 When it comes to gameplay for Dispatch it mixes the classic Telltale formula of dialog choices and quick time events (which you can turn the off and I recommend you do) with a new simple puzzle hacking game and a really fun dispatch worker placement system. With the worker placement system the player will be given a job and has to select one of the heroes in your team to fulfill it. The jobs will have hints of what kind of hero is required as every hero has different stats for different abilities much like an rpg (charisma, mobility, fighting, defense etc.). For example if you get given a job that requires a hero to promote the SDN then a hero with charisma and intelligence is probably the best bet. When the job is complete the game will either automatically say the job is successful if you completely fulfill the requirements or a random generator will determine the outcome, the more you met the requirement the more likely the random generator will fall in your favor and a success is granted. However I did have one job result with an 83% chance of success that failed which was a little frustrating. I do really enjoy the worker placement game and the more jobs you fulfill with a hero the more you can level them up which increases their stats. It is a nice small RPG progression in the game and gives it a nice touch when it comes to seeing your team improve.

 

 The hacking game is so far a simple puzzle game where you have to unlock a route through simple arrow key commands as well as remember commands to complete the puzzle. Some include timers which so far seem very generous but it does feel like the puzzles will get more difficult as the game progress with additional features being added to it. However I don't believe the puzzles or worker placement will ever get too hard as the main purpose in Dispatch is to tell a story instead of making a difficult game.

 

 

Final Thoughts (So Far)

Currently only the first two episodes out of the eight have been released due to them doing a two episode a week release window. This has got a lot of criticism online but I have to admit I think it is a great idea. I would have 100% binged this game over a weekend but this makes me slow down and appreciate every episode while giving me something to look forward for over the next few weeks. The game is not going to be a 20 hour experience due to each episode only taking around 1 hour to complete so forcing the player to play it slow is it a great idea in my opinion.

 

I will do a full story review once every episode is out but for now I can easily say that I am obsessed with this game. It is better than I hoped for and can't wait to see how much fun I can have with Robert and his team. The first two episodes have set up the world and story very nicely and I'm really interested to see what path the story will take us with the twist and turns that is expected from a Telltale game.

 

So AdHoc I can say a massive congratulation on the first two episodes and you have my complete attention for the next few weeks Now show me what makes you the new superheros of the video game scene.