Dispatch Final Review – Game Of The Year Contender!?

After 4 weeks since release, we finally have all episodes of Dispatch out, and man, have they been an absolute blast. I have laughed, cried, cheered, and most importantly, fallen in love with all the characters this game has to offer. Dispatch is not only the best Telltale-style game that I have played, but it is truly a contender for my game of the year. If you want to play a masterpiece of storytelling and scriptwriting, then play Dispatch. I also recommend playing this game as blind as possible to get the best experience, so if that's all you need, then get playing and come back once you are finished — I promise you won't be disappointed.

*Warning - Minor Spoilers!*

A superhero doesn't need powers.

The story follows Robert Robertson a.k.a Mecha Man as he hunts for revenge against the killer of his father, a superhero-turned-supervillain called Shroud. During a failed attempt to defeat him, Robert's Mecha suit gets damaged beyond repair and, most importantly, his astral pulse (a reactor-like device that powers the suit — think the Arc Reactor for Iron Man) is stolen and lost. Robert, not being a master engineer like his father, is unable to repair the suit and definitely not able to build an astral pulse, so he announces his retirement as Mecha Man, ending a generational family tradition.

However, all is not lost, as while drinking away his sorrows, Robert is introduced to Blonde Blazer, who recruits him for a company called SDN (Superhero Dispatch Network) as the head Dispatcher for Z Team, with the promise to not only pay him but also fix his suit and turn him back into Mecha Man. Seems too good to be true, right? Well, it is, because Z Team is an experimental unit filled with criminals turned superheroes (mostly not through choice) and is the worst-ranking team at SDN.

So begins the long journey of turning this team from an absolute shitshow into not only the best team in SDN, but also a fucked-up loving family.

The Z Team: From being punched in the balls to gifting lamps

This is one of those rare situations where I’m certain the characters were created before the story was formed. I don’t mean that in a negative way — every character is so full of life and history that everyone you meet seems to have their own story, and I absolutely love that. It never felt like the characters acted differently from how they were introduced, and their interactions always felt genuine instead of out of character.

The team is made up of Invisigal (VA: Laura Bailey), Malevola (Alanah Pearce), Flambae (Lance Cantstopolis), Prism (Thot Squad), Golem (Yung Gravy), Coupe (Mayanna Berrin), Punch Up (Sean McLoughlin), and Sonar (Charles White Jr.), with Robert (Aaron Paul) being their dispatcher and Beef being one of the best doggos in gaming. Just talking about the core team, the VA from all of them is probably one of the best performances I have ever heard — not just in gaming but across all industries. It felt like each VA fit so perfectly into their character’s role, and that honestly really impressed me. For Aaron Paul and the masterful Laura Bailey, this is expected, but I have to admit even they seemed to up their game, and the chemistry between them was nothing short of electric. They showed the best and worst of their characters, and their emotions came through so strongly and raw — it was something special.

The ones who really surprised me were the influencers voice acting in the game. Alanah Pearce has done some light VA (and I will happily admit I am a massive fan of hers — I think every gamer is), but all of them did such amazing jobs with their characters that you quickly stopped hearing “the influencer” and just heard the character. I especially want to shout out Lance Cantstopolis as Flambae. I hated this guy at the beginning (the game very much wants you to dislike him), and by the end he became one of my, if not my, favourite Z Team member. He was so funny and witty that I enjoyed every second of his screen time. All of the influencers really became one with their characters, and for many of them it being their VA debut, you have to stand up and applaud them.

We also have to mention the important characters who aren’t Z Team. Blonde Blazer (Erin Yvette), Phenomaman (Travis Willingham), Waterboy (Joel Haver), Royd (Tanoai Reed), Chase (Jeffrey Wright), and the menacing Shroud (Matthew Mercer, of course) are all delightful to listen to. Erin Yvette steals the show out of this group though. Yes, she had the biggest part out of them, but she is just as electric as Laura Bailey, providing an incredible performance that makes you fall in love with Blonde Blazer (although not as much as Invisigal). We also have to talk about the incredible actor Jeffrey Wright playing Chase. He was so fun, bringing this bubbly yet aggressive energy to the role. And with VA legends Matthew Mercer and Travis Willingham in the mix, you have to respect how many talented people were involved in this game.

A quick shout-out as well to Tanoai Reed. He’s actually The Rock’s stunt double in the Fast and Furious movies, so it’s wild that he ended up doing VA in a video game — but hell yeah, he smashed it. I absolutely loved Royd from the second we fist-bumped while peeing, and it was definitely thanks to the positive vibes Tanoai Reed brought to the performance. I really hope we see more of him in the future because he was so much fun.

As I mentioned, the performances in this game are special, and this is massively influenced by the directors. Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart, and Pierre Shorette did an amazing job guiding the less experienced actors to deliver great performances. They did a fantastic job as every performance is fun and entertaining to listen to and most importantly didn't feel out of place. Really shows just how great they are as directors.

The Real Superheroes: The Writers

I feel like video game writers often get lost in the background, and I will be honest — I am one of the gamers who doesn’t often think about them. But they are normally the reason you fall in love with games. It’s through them that you get swept into incredible adventures, fall in love with characters, or get your heart broken by them. But with Dispatch, it really felt like the writers are front and centre, and I absolutely love that.

Dispatch was originally pitched as a TV show, so the writing feels a lot less like “video game writing” and more like something you sit back and enjoy. This is highlighted if you play in cinematic mode (which I did), which removes Quick Time Events and makes everything an automatic success. I was super happy about this mode since I hate QTEs, so being able to relax and enjoy the show with some gameplay was perfect. The writers made Dispatch feel like an adult office comedy — with constant swearing, nudity, sex, and lots of violence — but it never felt overwhelming. It brought a fresh energy to the video game world. And the biggest reason this game is so good is that you can tell they loved writing it.

Mayanna Berrin, Chris Rebbert, Chad Rhiness, and Pierre Shorette all poured a bit of themselves into this story, which makes it so easy to connect to. Because while it is a story about superheroes and supervillains, it feels incredibly human. It’s a story about a man who is completely lost, not just finding his way forward but becoming a better person because of it — and finding a family in a group of misfits who also need help. I personally really connect to this, as it relates to how my last year has been. Recovering from emotional trauma is painful, but it can also be full of fun, laughter, and most importantly, belonging — which this game captures beautifully.

All the writers crafted a story that didn’t just make me laugh way more than any other game this year, but also made me fall in love with every character and the world itself. So yes, the writers are the true superheroes of Dispatch.

Aiming for the perfect shift

Gameplay-wise, there are two main focuses other than the multiple dialogue choices: dispatching and hacking.

For dispatching, you assign team members to a job. Depending on how compatible they are, they will receive a success rate percentage, which is then decided by a random factor. If a member is 100% compatible, it’s an instant success. However, even when they are 90%, it doesn’t guarantee success — I had an 87% success chance fail, which was painful to see. What’s nice though is that the more successes your team has, the more they level up, unlocking special abilities they can use. My personal highlight was Prism, who can create another version of a team member to help with a job — I used this all the time and it constantly saved my arse.

Story elements also affect dispatching. Sometimes a dispatch will evolve into the overall story, or if you argue with a team member, they won’t appear the next day, making your job harder. I was also surprised how difficult dispatching can get— especially the final dispatch in episode 8 —  with you constantly juggling deploying, resting and levelling up your team all within a tight time frame. It does mean though that getting that perfect run is incredibly satisfying.

The hacking is something I was not as big a fan of. It requires solving puzzles within a time limit while avoiding or destroying viruses or creating electric currents. While it could be entertaining, most of the time I found it more frustrating than enjoyable, and features like scanning wavelengths felt completely broken. Some friends also told me certain hacks were literally unsolvable for them, though it never happened to me. I did see in the event highlights where I succeeded on a hack that 0% of players had succeeded on, which would explain why — apparently I’m just lucky. Hacking never reached the point of me hating it, but yeah, I didn’t particularly enjoy it as well.

As mentioned, I had Quick Time Events disabled, so I can’t say how good they were, but since they’re QTEs, I doubt they were anything special. I do highly recommend cinematic mode for the best experience though.

Different Player, Different Story

This is the best part of the game. No spoilers, but based on the options I could have had, it seems like I got the best ending: I got with the girl I was romancing, and everything finished as positively as possible. It wrapped the game up nicely. But my mate’s ending was completely different for a number of reasons and finished like a sequel will occur, which shows how different your journeys can be. When we were talking about our playthroughs, there were whole sections I played that he didn’t and vice versa. That’s a huge achievement for AdHoc, because the biggest question in these games is whether your choices matter. In Dispatch, they absolutely do.

The choices vary from what kind of liquid you throw at someone to how you respond in life-or-death situations, making it completely tailored to you. Every choice carried weight — even the small ones — and I often had to stop and think before deciding, especially near the end. 

While a few defining moments shape the final outcome, the game constantly references smaller choices, like what donut you picked or drink you chose, in extremely entertaining ways. This is the kind of love and care I’ve been waiting for in narrative games. I think the best way to describe Dispatch is that it's not a game made to please the masses — it’s a game made to be customised for you.

Best soundtrack of 2025!?

Okay, the soundtrack in this game is booming... like goddamn, this shit is fire.

Not only is the synthetic score an absolute masterpiece — with songs like “Shift” giving everyday office vibes and “Granny’s” giving a 90s rave feel — but the licensed soundtrack might be the best in a video game this year.

From the moment the credits rolled at the end of episode 2, you knew it was something special. “Pound Cake” by THOT SQUAD hit me so hard I thought I had whiplash, and it completely set the tone of the music in this game.

From the intro song “Kissing Someone Else” by Caroline Kingsbury, to the epic fight song “Hoes Depressed” by THOT SQUAD, “Savage” by Ben Khan, and the final perfect ending song “6am” by Channel Tres — it is just a constant stream of sweet caramel hitting your ears with good vibes. I found myself constantly dancing at my desk to these absolute tunes.

However, while they are all bangers, nothing compares to the “Bitch” cover by Flambae. I won’t spoil it, but it is easily in my top 3 video game moments of the year. I haven’t laughed that hard in a single-player game in a long time.

And using THOT SQUAD tracks throughout the game was a stroke of genius — a perfect personal touch and I'm also now a huge fan.

A game that stole my heart and will never give it back

Dispatch — what a game. I understand why it’s not a contender for Game of the Year at The Game Awards due to episodic release rules (but how none of them were nominated for VA performance is absolutely criminal). That’s the flaw of The Game Awards though, not this game. Because Dispatch deserves to be a Game of the Year. It could even be a Game of the Decade.

For me, this is one of the closest versions of a perfect game we got this year. It is full of love and heart, and you can tell every single person working on it had an absolute blast. This is AdHoc’s first game, and all I can say is: we are in for a wild, incredible future with this studio.

I loved this game a lot, and am actually gutted it is now over. While I’m not sure if I want a sequel or not (just cause of the mistakes TellTale have done in the past), what I can say is whatever happens next for Dispatch and AdHoc, I will be fully invested. Well done, AdHoc — you created a masterpiece.

Cuppa's Rating : 9.5/10

Cuppa