I bought a bunch of games at this latest Steam winter sale; Dispatch was the first I finished.
When I saw the first trailer for Dispatch, I dismissed it as a 911 Operator, but with superheroes. And that comparison is fair still, I think. The basic concept is that you are a dispatcher for a team of misfit ex-supervillains, the Z Team, who are trying to rehabilitate and stay out of prison. Your basic job is to take calls and dispatch the most appropriate heroes to handle the call.
This, by the way, would be a great premise for a game by itself, but it wouldn’t be taking much advantage of the talent involved. The ex-Telltale devs worked on legendary visual novels such as The Walking Dead and Tales from the Borderlands; the Critical Role talent are known for the long-running web series that hauled Dungeons & Dragons back into the public consciousness, as well as providing voices for a wide range of animations and video games, including this one.
The game itself is about half animations, details of which depend upon choices you make that will influence which heroes you will have when the chapter moves on to your dispatching shift. Heroes can have moods and preferences for which jobs they can take on, again largely depending upon choices you make during the animated portions. Heroes take a certain amount of time to get to the job, take a certain time to do the job, to return to HQ, and to rest, so there is every chance the hero you need will not be available.
Success or failure on each job depends upon bringing the correct mix of hero abilities; each has stats from 1-10 in Vigor, Combat, Mobility, Charisma and IQ, and each job requires some mix of the same to improve chances of success. You’re meant to glean what is needed from the short message from the caller. Heroes will gain new abilities through the game that can make this somewhat easier.
The main character, Robert Robertson III, AKA Mecha Man, through his long experience with his power armor, can hack security cameras, doors and other electronic stuff in a hacking minigame which can get a little frustrating toward the end.
At the end of each chapter, you’re told how your choices and performance matched with other players worldwide; in my worst chapter, I only did better at my shift than 1% of the world’s other players. My best shift was 80% better. That said, your shift performance doesn’t appear to have a large effect on the game plot, with some clear exceptions.
It wouldn’t be a visual novel without romance options; Robert has two: Renowned Super Hero Blonde Blazer, or punk ex-villain (well, perhaps ex) Invisigal. Or, he can chart the narrow course between them and just be friends. These are the sorts of choices that lead to Dispatch’s estimated ten endings (I have seen estimates of up to 28, and as few as 6, but there’s considerable overlap).
The game is eight episodes long, and was released two episodes at a time. Even though all the episodes were released when I bought it, I took the hint and played the game in short sessions over three days. You can replay starting at any chapter; I failed one shift so spectacularly I immediately played it over. (Again, your shift performance seems to have little relation to the plot, although it does make a difference in which Steam achievements you get).
As expected, the voice acting is top notch. Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul voices Robert Robertson III/Mecha Man. The Last of Us Part II’s Abby, Laura Bailey, voices Invisigal. Erin Yvette voices Blonde Blazer, and Jeffrey Wright (of Westworld and a million other things) voices Chase, fellow dispatcher and old friend to Robert and his dad, the second Mecha Man.
I was wrong to dismiss this game before I’d played it; I’m glad I gave it a second chance. It was a short but fun experience that I can definitely see myself replaying.