I have been looking for an excuse to replay Dispatch since I marathoned it on PlayStation 5 when the last chapter launched (I know my limits, I would have gone mad waiting for each of the original releases) and reviewing this Xbox port was all the reason I needed to finally get back in!
Dispatch is a narrative game, in the style of those classic Telltale titles, with light management and hacking puzzle elements also involved. These are three very distinct elements in a very distinct game, and they deserve breaking apart bit by bit. I’m going to assume you’re an Xbox player approaching this for the first time, as opposed to a returning player like me by the way, just for context.
The bulk of the gameplay is watching cutscenes. This is your narrative element. The writing and animation are absolutely superb, telling a stunning superhero story that isn’t really about being a hero. It’s about being a person, and how you interact with and judge others. I’m loath to say anything more because I think the less you know here the better. If you like superheroes, or Critical Role, or honestly any form of story with slightly fantastical elements, just give the screenshots a peruse and see if the vibes fit you.
The way this actually plays out in the minute to minute experience of Dispatch is conversation choices and quick time events. Both are timed, but the latter can be turned off if you want a more hands-off experience. The choices you make (and the pass or fail of QTEs) will determine the shape of the story as you go, and the ending you get. As do the hacking and management parts of the game, but I’ll get on to those later. There are some obvious branching points, as well as some not so obvious ones. A lot of the discourse surrounding this games final chapters were a lot of angry players not realising exactly how interconnected every system of the game is, and that’s the key point here. Sure, it’s frustrating if you go in clearly wanting a certain ending, but when you just want a naturally evolving plot line? It feels like a living story then a coded response. Even if this means my normal curse follows me and I ended up doing an accidental dateless run yet again.
Hacking is the first interruption to your watching experience beyond what I’ve previously mentioned. Like all great hacking mini games, it has jingly slightly techno music, and is presented in wireframe. You manoeuvre around a grid and collect data packets, and then reach the exit. The levels introduce complications pretty quickly, including switches with button inputs (some presented, some you have to memorise), roaming enemies, and more. Once again, the pass and fail of these influences the story both directly and subtly, so when the difficulty ratchets up in later chapters, you really will begin to sweat.
Lastly, the management sim aspect. The story pretty quickly pulls you out of your superhero life and dumps you behind a desk at the dispatch agency. It’s your job to answer distress calls by sending relevant heroes to help. This quickly becomes a game of spinning plates, trying to decipher the clues given to you by the calls to decide what heroes to send (based on stats or context clues) and then eventually making choices to level up each hero’s stats and abilities, unlocking team ups and more. Realistically, there is no way to ensure you will successfully complete every call. The hero (or multiple, depending) you send on the mission has their stat spread compared against the goal spread of the mission. These spreads are overlaid, and the area in which they overlap is used to generate a percentage chance of success. You get a stress inducing animation of a ball bouncing in and out of this area and if it lands inside, you win. Sometimes you also have to make narrative decisions mid-call as well, and these can vastly change the outcome of individual challenges.
Failure is a part of life, and a part of Dispatch, but once again each choice matters. The story never stops measuring what you’re doing whether it’s your pass/fails, who you send where, how you respond to a cutscene, every metric is meticulously tracked and it bends the story in varying degrees of severity. Sure, you’ll often get the classic “X will remember that” message pop up, but not always, and the guides in order to get certain results are long and complex. I see this as a positive personally, but I’m very much the kind of guy who plays these games to naturally see what result he gets and leaves it at that. I know a lot of people who wanted specific results who had to pull their hair out to get them.
Dispatch is not a light and breezy game, oddly enough, neither in tone or gameplay. It’s incredibly funny, and then in the next breath had me in tears. It earns these highs and lows though, just as much as it earns the 18+ rating that it’s been saddled with. If you’re particularly sensitive to blood, swears and nudity, there are options to disable them, but I’m always one to recommend the uh… full frontal experience.
Now the Deluxe edition we were provided (although I did already own on PlayStation) comes with a digital art book and digital issues of comics. I despise digital versions of these that are tied to a game application on a console. I do not want to look at these things on a TV screen. At a push, I will read them on a tablet, but when they’re tied to a menu in the game it hurts me (or Persona 5 Scramble style where it’s a separate app but still on the console? Insulting). However, I cannot deny the quality of these extras. They are tied to game progression, meaning you cannot spoiler yourself, but honestly worth a dip in when you’re done. Really cool art and solid writing (as is consistent with the game itself).
I’ve tried to make sure that I only include screen grabs and information from the first episode of the game, whilst still giving you enough to make an informed purchase. I do wish I could just grab you through the screen and shake you until you buy the game though. I understand that narrative games aren’t for everyone, it’s a hard sell to give an FPS die-hard a controller and tell them to just hold it whilst watching a movie and hope you need to press a button at some point, but I honestly believe Dispatch strikes a very good balance in interactivity and just letting the story itself shine.
As a closing comment, I’ll just say this. If you have the stomach for watching episodic TV, and you don’t mind super heroics as a genre, I can’t stress how much I’d recommend you try this game out. At least check out the store page and see what you think.
Dispatch was reviewed on Xbox Series X, but is also available on Playstation 5, Nintendo Switch (1 & 2) and Steam.