Game of the Week: Dispatch

Telltale Games wasn’t just the name of a gaming company but an entire style of video game that they pioneered and perfected. For those who haven’t played it, whether they were handling “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Borderlands,” “The Expanse,” “Batman,” or — most famously — “The Walking Dead,” Telltale games were short, eight-to-10-hour-long experiences that were more reminiscent of an animated TV show than a classic video game.There were areas where you directly controlled the character, but these were clunky, and most of the game involved you watching a well-made, well-voiced, well-written TV series of these characters over a series of episodes where you make the choices in various critical decisions and dialogue trees. It’s essentially the modern version of a choose-your-own-adventure game, and their best ones were fantastic.It was disappointing when Telltale Games collapsed in 2018, taking the genre with it. However, a group of former developers has come together to start a new studio, AdHoc Studio, and their first game, “Dispatch,” is not just a welcome return to this genre but also the best version of this style yet. When you’re watching the TV show segment of the game, it is more entertaining and engaging than ever before, but the minigames and sections in between, where you do have direct control, no longer feel like obligatory interludes to add some diversity of experience. They’re generally fun, in and of themselves.Story is still at the center of the experience, though, and here, you play an Iron Man-like superhero who’s defeated by a supervillain who also killed his father. Out of money, out of options, and without a superhero suit, your protagonist takes a job at a superhero corporate office, where you work as the dispatcher for a team of superheroes, telling them where to go and what missions to go on. The game then has three core parts. The spine of the game remains the classic Telltale narrative experience, where you choose how conversations unfold and make various narrative decisions. However, it’s worth noting that while the game does offer dialogue options that appear meaningful, these differences are relatively minor as of this point in the game. When you actually try different dialogue options, they aren’t as significant as they initially seem, though this might change in later episodes. This is punctuated by the dispatching itself and a hacking minigame.When dispatching, you have a top-down view of a city, with various incidents emerging, and you must choose which superheroes to assign to specific tasks based on their unique attributes. There are then some luck mechanics and attribute upgrades to add complexity and interest. This is instantly fun, and you improve at it significantly as you play. This mechanic is so enjoyable that it would be fantastic if — once you’ve completed the story — there were a way to play this mode outside of the time constraints of the episodic storytelling, upgrading the characters and perfecting your form. The most surprising part of “Dispatch” is that the hacking minigame is also fun. You use this to unlock cameras and doors for your characters, and — unlike any other hacking minigame — this is engaging. If you’ve ever played the classic flash game Bloxorz, it’s basically a modernized version of that.“Dispatch” will run for eight episodes, releasing two every week, and I’ve now played the first four. It’s possible that the endings could disappoint, and for the story to drift — but the first four episodes are funny, engaging, really well-voiced, and have great characters. It’s the rare new superhero story that’s neither generic nor ironic and cynical, and it’s neither child-friendly nor over-the-top adult-only, like “The Boys.” The only snag is that there were a couple of moments where the lead character swears excessively, but that’s a niggle, and it’s the rare game writing that has me hooked, and had me laughing multiple times.Dispatch Cover Art. Courtesy of AdHoc StudioIt’s available now on Steam and PlayStation for $29.99 — though Steam currently has it for $26.99 with an introductory discount. It’s not by Telltale Games, but it might be the best Telltale game yet.

Game of the Week: Dispatch

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