Dispatch

Dispatch is interesting in that it's combining the gameplay of "This is the Police" with the narrative structure of Telltale titles. Comparatively, it has much less going on in its gameplay as "This is the Police" as the latter has much more depth put into the moment to moment storytelling and there's a steeper failure curve. But it also came into the issue of overestimating the quality of its gameplay, where the gameplay is the main bulk of everything it does and after a certain point it overstays its welcome. Dispatch avoids this by leaning into its Telltale structure more heavily, where the gameplay loop is more a result of those scenes than reliant entirely on the core gameplay. While the way the gameplay can be used to do storytelling is neat, I think a lot of that is undermined by how there's virtually no failure states to be concerned with and how easy it is to land on solutions on most runs. It doesn't help that none of the situations you deal with have any beef to them, they're as superficially presented as possible to the degree you rarely care what's occurring at any specific situation. I get that a lot of the shit the heroes do is laughably mundane but it makes it hard to care for the moment to moment when so much of it feels so unimportant and run of the mill, which I think undermines the core conceit about how important heroism is. Ultimately this title is carried more by how it does its narrative outside the gameplay and the way that narrative affects gameplay than vice versa.

I’m someone who’s invested themselves in superhero fiction for decades and in my view Dispatch is something that’s conceptually unique but pretty standard narratively and tonally. The idea of the main character being a superhero dispatcher is novel, but it still lands on the conventions of stuff like Suicide Squad (comic) and Tiger & Bunny in terms of how it handles itself tonally and dramatically. But I don’t think this is a bad thing. It hits the right spot for fans of the genre in that it gets the soap opera appeal and it knows when to let its dramatic scenes speak for itself in between all the office humor and banter.

I do think it does suffer from being a team story, however. When it comes to superhero teams, this comes in the flavor of something like Thunderbolts or X-Men in terms of how it’s about misfits learning to become heroic. In these narratives; conventionally, each member would have a “arc” or specific narrative focusing on them but Dispatch never has this since the only Z-Team member that matters individually is Invisigal and maybe Phenomeman and Flambae to a lesser extent. Given that this is narratively about villains trying to redeem themselves it’s weirdly devoid of baggage for each of the members, while they can act dysfunctional you wouldn’t be able to discern most of them were villains or trying to live a life moving on from that. I’ve consumed plenty of superhero fiction where the “heroes” act far worse. The most morally ambiguous thing the Z-Team does is act extremely petty and short-tempered. I’m not demanding every character has to have a history marking them worse than Hitler but moreso that the narrative gives weight to their villainous past and makes something of that with their character. Someone like Golem is going to have a different perspective of that than Coupe and I view it as a missed opportunity to not play into that. Even disregarding this, while everyone in the main cast is effectively characterized, they STILL lack any narrative hook for them that can’t be applied collectively.

But despite that, where it lands with this is that the group dynamic works. The chemistry between characters is solid and the camaraderie is what I think is appealing to most people. The narrative does a great job of selling the dysfunction of the group and how much they bond together over time, but I feel it does suffer from only ever viewing this from Robert's perspective since the degree he can observe this is limited.

Invisigal’s focus is obnoxious but also vital to what Dispatch is. It’s salvaged by the fact that she’s a genuinely flawed character that underlines so much of the narrative’s conceit effectively, both in its themes about redemption and camaraderie. But where it gets grating is that the narrative INSISTS that you have a romance with her and that becomes such a major focal point to her arc and characterization that it undermines her baggage at times. Too many interactions can be tied down to “do you accept her sexual advances or not?” Which can be super lame when these instances are attached to emotional moments where just being an ear for her to listen to would be more effective. It makes it seem like these things were written to dramatize the romance rather than lean on the story’s conceit that she relates to. The fact that she literally fantasizes about having sex with Robert so early on is telling of how much they insist on her romance, especially since it practically guilt trips you to choosing her over Blazer in certain scenes. I’ll grant the narrative isn’t judgemental towards you if you decide to go with Blazer instead of Invisigal but Blazer’s romance comparatively feels like an after thought and whatever drama that’s baked into the romance is almost entirely contained within Invisigal’s baggage than making an attempt at a love triangle. Blazer has great moments and she functions well as the "ideal", but as a romance option I think she isn't given much reason to exist other than being a positive contrast to Invisigal.

I think Invisigal would be less polarizing if other characters didn’t feel undermined to justify her presence. Phenomaman has a great hook for a Superman expy, asking the question of “what if Superman never became Clark Kent?” But while the scenes of him coping over the break up are great and he has fun banter with the party, he ends up being forgotten about by the halfway point and ends up bleeding into the background. This is such a weird decision given how much he’s propped up as the “ideal hero” around the start, yet the narrative doesn’t think it’s important to play with this or explore the consequences of his depression? Flambae's beef with Robert is mostly satisfactory but I can't help but feel that they weren't invested in giving much payoff to it. I do think it succeeds in showing his growth and learning to forgive Robert for being a hero but a lot of this process happens offscreen and the payoff is... Flambae just punching him? I guess it's a satisfying scene but kinda underwhelming given the buildup. Everyone else gets virtually nothing and while mostly likable, fun characters it feels there was little interest in exploring anything about them.

I do think that the big decisions the game wants you to make are good, though. Who to cut is one I like a lot, especially since how the specific character takes it will vary and I do like how they get fixed into the climax as a result. The climax is when the gameplay gets mildly interesting since there's an actual fail state now and there's a cool balance between resolving the core threat and dealing with the smaller incidents. The small choices you make throughout regarding your relationship to Invisigal do make sense in building her into what she becomes at the end.

For as critical as I've been with this title I do think it's worth noting this is likely not the end. There's already plans for another season and I feel like this is what's needed to expand things in a way the base title didn't aim to. I hope the next season gives more weight to failure and leans more on broadening itself, but I do think there is a fear on how little your choices matter in the next season they need to be cognizant of. And where the game's strengths are; its personality, pacing, dramatic moments, banter, characterization, the bombastic climax, etc are good. But while I recommend this, I do think it could do A LOT more than what it does in practice.