Recently Dispatch came out, a game that I had my eyes on since the cast was announce. Within the first week or so, it sold about a million copies and still has overwhelmingly positive reviews; although these are not the statistics I use to judge a game, they are still indicative of its success. I already had a vague impression that it would be a hit and I’m stoked to see that my intuition was right on the money. To be fair, when you have part of the cast from Critical Role (who are becoming more and more important especially considering The Legend of Vox Machina), Aaron Paul, talented animators and writers, the success was pretty much guaranteed.
The game itself functions more or less as a ‘telltale game’, which I would almost indicate as a spiritual successor to the older ‘gamebooks’. I will admit I have always considered videogames as a more interactive form of books in generals; they quintessentially give you the possibility of experiencing a story someone envisioned. The schemes of narration may function a bit differently, but the intention is basically the same.
Dispatch is the story of a superhero who loses his combat suit (imagine something similar to Iron Man’s armor) and starts working for a superhero agency, as a dispatcher, directing a rag-tag group of misfit villains who are in a rehabilitation program. Don’t worry, that is the premise that you learn from the first episode; I will not add anything else regarding the plot in order to avoid spoilers. It is a game that deserves to be played rather than talked about.
The eight episodes that you play focus on the interaction between you and your team; it is heavily story-driven and the various choices that you make also affect the outcomes. The gameplay itself, other than the choices, is fairly simplistic yet quite elegant. It is up to you to understand the missions that pop up and figure out which heroes are best suited for each mission. The heroes then gain experience, level up their stats and are ready to face even more difficult assignments. The gameplay however is not the strong suit of Dispatch, but rather the interactions, banter, jokes between the characters themselves. There is a bit of cynical and sarcastic note in the writing, which personally I appreciated. To quote one particular character and summarize the essence of the script: “We joke. We laugh. We suppress our trauma.”
As you might have understood by now, I enjoyed the game; there were even several parts that had me genuinely bursting out in laughter. However, I do want to be objective (and a bit nitpicky) and discuss some of the minor issues I have noticed – this is not to say the game is bad by any stretch of the imagination. I already said that the gameplay portion is simplistic, to an extent even basic, and this could also be a bit of a downfall. It means that this ‘game’ is not meant for everyone – if you are in it for the story and characters, that works perfectly, if you want a more strategic take and actual game mechanics, then probably you should check elsewhere. I already said I liked the writing, but I do feel that some parts were rushed towards the end; pacing is paramount and I can only feel that the first half was a tad bit better. Also also, I don’t think that the plot itself had too much depth to it, but it was nevertheless serviceable; again, you are in it for the characters and humor.
Finally, one thing I want to discuss is what I would call ‘power ceiling’ effect or power level limitations. This is not a problem related to Dispatch itself but more in general to the superhero tropes. If you have a character that can create portals, for instance, and even literally destroy things or people by closing the portal mid-way, then a final boss shouldn’t be much of a hassle. This could be said for many of the superheroes we are shown. It’s the classic “yeah, but this hero would win this fight if…” scenarios that, while boundless in possibilities, have a limiting effect in a channeled storyline. I will simply call in cause the importance of the suspension of disbelief: just close an eye on the applications and possibilities of some superpowers and you are good to go.
Here is my two cents based on the popularity it received and the quality of the game itself: I am pretty sure that this is not a ‘one and done’ type of deal. From what I gathered, there was a lot of passion that went into creating this world, as well as the talent and care of the voice actors. Furthermore, popularity dictates sales and sales beckon for more games of the same ilk (capitalistic realism at its finest). I think it is safe to assume that they will make others, maybe with some of the same characters, maybe some spinoff or maybe even a franchise. My only problem with this is that usually, in the long run, quality starts to be compromised in favor of quantity – I hope this will not be the case, but we will have to wait and see
P.S.: By the way, I think I haven’t seen someone take such a beating as the main protagonist since the days of Kick-Ass. Just saying.
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