Dispatch Review: Who knew superhero office politics could be so fun? 

It’s rare for a game to feel both familiar and unique as Dispatch. This story of a superhero working in a dispatch centre has the Telltale DNA written throughout it, yet its gameplay loop adds much-needed injection of fun and player interaction that games like The Wolf Among Us and The Walking Dead lacked. 

Dispatch is set in a world filled with superheroes and villains. It doesn’t delve into the minutia of its setting or the power sources for each hero, however, as it puts the focus on the mundane aspects of the lives of these exceptional people. The story involves the Superhero Dispatch Network, which sends out capes when they’re needed. 

The Escapist recaps

• Dispatch is available on PC and PlayStation 5, with a Deluxe Edition also available for a higher price, which includes an art book and comics.
• The story of Dispatch is told across eight episodes, with the last one releasing on November 12, 2025. 
• Dispatch is created by AdHoc Studio, featuring writers and directors who have worked on Tales from the Borderlands and The Wolf Among Us. 
• Dispatch features a voice cast comprising industry mainstays and familiar faces from Critical Role. 

Dispatch is a superhero management game wrapped in a visual novel

Dispatch stars Robert Robertson, who is also the superhero known as Mecha Man. Using the robotic suit designed by his grandfather, Robertson sets out on a quest for revenge against Shroud, the former hero who betrayed and murdered his father. Unfortunately, the Mecha Man suit is nearly destroyed in the encounter, forcing Robertson to retire. 

His civilian life is quickly cut short, as he’s tracked down by Blonde Blazer, a famous superhero who asks him to join the SDN as a dispatch agent, sending out heroes to emergencies as they’re needed. In exchange, the SDN will attempt to repair the Mecha Man suit, as well as create a replacement for the Astral Pulse, its former power source lost in the fight with Shroud. 

What Robertson quickly learns is that his squad of heroes isn’t precisely the Avengers. They’re not even Alpha Flight or the Seven Soldiers of Victory. He’s been stuck with The Phoenix Project, also known as Z-Team, consisting of former supervillains who are trying to walk the straight and narrow, and failing. 

So, Robertson has to manage the Z-Team and stop it from tearing itself apart, while also juggling his burgeoning love life. Not only is the perfect Blonde Blazer interested in him, but so is Invisigal, a crook with a mysterious past who is somehow also falling for this shlubby office worker. 

Superhero management is more fun than many actual superhero games

Dispatch is a heavily story-centric game, with the player constantly forced to make choices that alter the story in both major and minor ways. Anyone who has played a Telltale game will be right at home here, even down to the story being broken into episodic chunks. 

What sets Dispatch apart from its contemporaries is its gameplay loop. At its core, Dispatch is a management game where the player is given a map of their designated area of Los Angeles and a roster of available team members. This means quickly understanding Dispatch’s game mechanics is a must. 

Each superhero is broken down into five stats: Charisma, Combat, Intellect, Mobility, and Vigor. They also have unique traits and unlockable abilities through special training. Whenever an emergency arises, the player can send a hero or heroes, and once they arrive, their stats are matched against the size of the emergency, overlaying two shapes. A ball is then fired within the emergency (think a game of Pool from overhead), and if it lands within the hero’s stat area, then it’s a success. 

Victory or defeat in Dispatch is largely determined by random chance. This is due to Dispatch’s game rules, which always keep the player on their toes. The brilliance comes from the player’s ability to increase their odds by sending the right hero for the job. 

Each emergency has flavor text that hints at the stats needed to solve it. So, if a job requires someone to give a speech, then a Charisma hero is needed, but if there’s a prison break involved, then a Combat/Vigor hero is the best person for the job. 

This isn’t to say that the player will always succeed, unless the heroes’ stats are so high that they completely cover the emergency area. The threat of failure is always there, and it’s part of what makes the gameplay loop so much fun. Few games will ever make you swear as much as Dispatch, when you fail a task by a gnat’s wing. 

Another exhilarating aspect of Dispatch’s management gameplay is that heroes need to travel, rest, and recover from injuries. This means there’s always a risk involved when sending out a specific ally, because sending a character out now to help with a case means they might not be around for another emergency that they’re better suited for. 

The Dispatch gameplay loop is one of the best things about the game, and it’s the kind of title that shouldn’t be played with a guide, at least on a first playthrough. Dispatch emulates that feeling of working in a tense position, sweat glistening on your brow, as your choices genuinely matter. 

This isn’t to say that Dispatch is jam-packed with amazing gameplay. There’s also the hacking minigame, which involves a bunch of memorization and movement puzzles. These add nothing to the game and are just a nuisance. There’s an option at the start of the game to give players unlimited time for the hacking minigame, and it should be switched on immediately, as well as the QTEs, which add little to the experience. 

How does Dispatch’s story come together? 

Dispatch beautifully merges gameplay and story elements. It’s just a shame that most of it doesn’t matter. Like the Telltale games it evolved from, Dispatch is full of choices that have no bearing on the story. 

Similarly, while the management system is also enjoyable, it only has a significant impact on gameplay in Episode 8, and even then, it only influences one aspect of the ending, something that players might miss entirely. 

Without getting into spoilers, Dispatch doesn’t stick the landing. The build-up throughout Season 1 is masterfully done, especially when it comes to the romance options. It was the love triangle between Blonde Blazer, Invisigal, and Robertson that helped put the game on the map in the first place. It just doesn’t end on a satisfying note and feels more like sequel bait than anything else. And as we know from Telltale, a sequel isn’t always guaranteed. 

Disappointing ending aside, Dispatch really is a gem of a game, and the fact that it came out of nowhere and grabbed the attention of fans the way it did is even more impressive. Few games manage to merge gameplay and story as well as this, and even if Dispatch Season 2 is a long way off, there’s still a ton of potential for this setting in the meantime. 

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