Dispatch Steam Charts & Stats

Telltale-likes doesn't get much better than this. A fantastic story, snappy writing, gorgeous animation and graphic style, truly look like a animated tv show. A fantastic cast of colorful characters that all have their unique quirks and personality, brought to life with some stellar voice acting. Heartfelt, heroic, funny as hell, tightly paced like a tv show. There are so many great scenes that I will not mentoion or even explain, to avoid spoilers but damn some hit hard (last scene of chapter 6 for example), others had great action and others where just delightful. Yes, the gameplay is just dialogue choices and the dispatch minigame, but let's not fool ourselves that the walking around was what held the telltale games together. It was the story, the characters the emotional (and sometime humorous) depth. And this has everything the best telltale games had. I really hope we get more stories in the Dispatch universe, becasuse the characters are too good for just one game.

look, the actual gameplay is great, the "dispatching" is SO fun... It's just so annoying to me how tied it is to a narrative that has no real replay value. The decisions are essentially just to choose what jokes you would rather hear, not to actually affect the direction of the narrative. It feels like an okay TV show, with fun gameplay injected sometimes that sadly still gets affected by the episode story. So yeah I think there's tons of potential, I just seriously can't recommend it unless they add an endless mode for the DISPATCHing. I don't think the story alone is good enough to be worth 40$ CAD (reviewed it so early cuz I already have watched people played the game, and played a bit from a different copy, only bought it now cuz the game designer seemed to imply an endless mode will come - in which case I'll alter this review to be positive -, if I learn that's referring to a sequel rather than an update I'm gonna be so mad I wasted money on this tho)

Very overhyped. The dispatching minigame itself is actually pretty good — and yes, minigame, because you only play it for maybe 20% of the game — but everything around it is built on a story that is not exactly bad, just nowhere near strong enough to carry the amount of praise this game gets. It feels like the game wants to be praised as this clever, reactive narrative experience, but most of the drama is driven by very forced choices, and the two romance options are pushed so aggressively that it honestly gets distracting. Basically, you are not really getting a video game. You are getting a romance VN with a decent management minigame stapled onto it, where your only two romance options are "Emo Girl With A Tragic Backstory Who Will Sleep With You Because You Gave Her One Mild Compliment" and "Hot Blonde Lawful Neutral Chick Who Acts Like The Sensible Mature Option Until The Game Also Starts Shoving Her At You With Both Hands." And sure, the writing has moments. Some jokes land, some character scenes are fun, and the premise is strong enough that I understand why people got attached to it. But for me, the game kept mistaking "characters constantly flirting with you" for emotional depth, and "making you choose between two obviously telegraphed options" for meaningful agency. The worst part is that the dispatching side of the game is where it actually feels most unique. I wanted more of that: more pressure, more difficult calls, more consequences, more of the actual superhero-dispatch workplace concept. Instead, the game keeps pulling you away from its best mechanic so it can focus on romance drama and character writing that, while not terrible, is nowhere near as sharp or mature as it seems to think it is. So yeah, I do not think Dispatch is bad. I just think it is massively overpraised. It has a great concept, a fun core mechanic, and some decent character moments, but it also feels like half the actual game is missing and replaced with a romance-heavy story that tries way too hard to make you care.

While the gameplay loop was fun the story had me frustrated at many turns. I have played free visual novels with more choices and branching paths.

Dispatch is a great choice-based game, with extremely captivating characters, a touch of management, and plenty of good jokes. Another strong point is its soundtrack, which perfectly fits the scenes. At times, the game is reminiscent of scenes from The Office. The only weak point (but I still recommend the game) is that many choices marked as important in the corner of the screen make little difference, and this is only noticeable when replaying. The game has an issue with small black flickering on the screen. There are currently no updates to fix this.

I really wanted to like this game. Things it has going for it: - Great concept - Fun art style - Fun character designs - Occasionally fun gameplay Things it doesn't: - Writing that falls somewhere between "a little trite" and "unreflective mid white dude fantasy" - Shoehorning what could have been a legitimately great game in around a mediocre superhero anime - A game that wants to be a "choices matter" game when very few of them actually do For context, I am not someone who reviews a story-based game and complains about it being a story-based game. I love a point and click adventure and I love a game that's a glorified decision tree. I have played and enjoyed most of Telltale's past games. This game wanted to be a good story-based game, but either should have had a better story or dropped the story-based part entirely. Honestly, if it totally dropped the anime and fully fleshed out the dispatch part of the game as a storytelling device in and of itself, I think it could have been great. It didn't and it wasn't. There were some fun parts, play it if you want, but definitely wait for a sale. You're also not really missing anything by not playing. More spoilery notes below: [spoiler] I do really think the dispatch game itself had potential. It was fun, but fell a little short in terms of complexity/interesting gameplay. If there were a few more mechanics and a little more thought given to making hero powers actually fun/useful it would have been a good game by itself. The hacking minigame was...okay. I like puzzles but my brain struggles with left/right, so failed most of the levels with antiviruses. Story wise, maybe I missed this, but is there any justification as to why Robert Robertson knows how to hack ♥♥♥♥?? The writing...you know when you're reading or watching something that's a little iffy, and you're waiting for the writers to say "ha! gotcha! don't worry, we don't ACTUALLY think that." Well, the other shoe never dropped here. The main character really is a mediocre white dude who's great at failing upwards, appropriately performing masculinity, being The Hero, avenging your father, and having the ladies falling over themselves to commit HR violations with you. Let's get into it. - The main character is really good at everything despite being presented as washed up. He is also frequently described as "skinny" despite being pretty muscular (and often shirtless). He reads like an outlet for writers' insecurities - which could be interesting if it felt in any way conscious or reflective (it doesn't). - The main storyline is I Have To Avenge My Father. This relationship is never shown on screen or really explored in any way. Again, feels like the writing decision was: "What is an appropriate goal for A Man to have? Avenging his father? Cool." - The main villain is boring and inconsistently written. His main goal is getting the chaos emerald/elf crystal to become strong because he would like to be strong. Totally on par for the course in a superhero genre but boring all the same. - It is clear that the game wants you to be an Assertive Guy who shows other characters Tough Love. Frequently, dialogue options that involved listening to others (ex: following the team's consensus that they didn't want Invisigal there) or de-escalation (ex: offering to leave the villain bar when the arms guy starts giving you ♥♥♥♥) are punished. - The game's "romance" reads like an uncomfortable incel fantasy. Your first "romance option" is the busty blond babe that shows up to offer you a job and proceeds to get drunk and flirt with you. I naively assumed the writers would have her working an angle here. Nope, She's Just That Into You because obviously you're that sexy and irresistible. She proceeds to break up with her boyfriend like a day after meeting you, and becomes your boss. Even if you decline her amorous advances, you two will still merrily commit a string of weird HR violations/sexual harassment/borderline SA together. Fun. - The other romance option is better, right? Well. Besides busty blond babe, the other option is edgy bad girl. Just like busty blond babe, she wants you carnally from the get go. One of her early scenes is her having a sex dream about you. She comes into work (!) where you are her manager (!!) and tells you about it (!!!). You two also continue a fun back-and-forth game of HR violations. I should mention that she's in a superhero version of work-release and will go back to jail or some other similar fate if you decide to cut her from your team. Totally normal and good power dynamics for a romanceable character. A note: I do want to make it clear that my problems with this game's writing don't come from a standpoint of, like, moral purity. Obviously I think that "problematic" people and relationships can and should be represented in media, and I think it could actually have been really interesting if workplace relationships and uneven power dynamics were thoughtfully explored. Unfortunately it reads more like the writers never even considered it, instead blissfully ignoring all of that nuance to ask "what an interesting game decision! which hot lady will you pick as your love interest? :)" What can I say about the writing that I liked....? I don't know. The Z-Team characters were fun enough. There were some jokes that did make me laugh. The quicktime events. Ok. I know that there's an option to turn them off, and I probably should have but I wanted to give them a shot. I'm not usually a fan of them in general but they CAN be fun when the scene is intentionally designed around them. That's not the case here - they felt lazy and distracting. They rarely seemed to match up with the direction and timing of action happening in the shot, and the animation doesn't actually react to failing a quicktime event. It felt like it was just there to hold your attention with clicking. I feel like for a game as cutscene/cinematic heavy as this game is, if you're going to have quicktime events, you should spend time doing them right and not as an afterthought sprinkled on top of your super cool anime. [/spoiler]

Great game, great story, great atmosphere. AdHoc has created a masterpiece. I'm sure I won't stop at just one playthrough.

100% completed, great game. Wish they add a endless mode or make the dispatch segments like a roguelike as a extra mode.

Dispatch is a fantastic and an easy to recommend game. The story and comedy within is Brilliant. The voice acting is top notch. I have zero complaints for Dispatch, and am definitely going to be watching for more to come, as a new game or DLC for this one.

Dispatch is a wonderful, well-rounded game. The story is well written, and the art and voice acting are top-tier as well. The hacking sections provide a satisfying challenge in the later levels. My only criticism is that the dialogue window timer could be a bit longer.