A high-end experience… and a massive internal conflict.

Dispatch left me genuinely torn. On one hand, the final product is fantastic, dripping with production value in every frame. The worldbuilding is rich, the characters are overflowing with personality, and the animations are top-tier. The voice acting shines mostly thanks to an excellent cast. There are moments where the whole thing feels like a Disney movie—if Disney made adult content filled with profanity, sexual references, and uncensored visuals (all of which can be toggled off in the settings).

The humor swings between juvenile and clever, but it works. It manages a surprisingly delicate balance between seriousness and silliness, which is an achievement in itself. The sound design and music are solid, and the option to replace copyrighted tracks with copyright-free ones is a very welcome touch.
And the writing—that’s the crown jewel. The narrative is sharp, entertaining, emotional when it needs to be, and by the end of the story you truly feel like a badass new member of the team. It's a world you want more of.

But here comes the conflict: there’s barely a game here. For the consumer, this is closer to an expensive animated series than an actual videogame. Granted, the price is justified by the level of quality and the amount of branching animation footage… but I’m not entirely sure this is the direction I want the videogame industry to move toward. Maybe this format belongs more to something like an interactive Netflix show. I’m not saying it’s bad—just that it divides me.

And for how little gameplay there is, the bugs sting even more: character powers triggering erratically, calls being flagged as “missed” for no reason (only noticed because Phenomaman goes randomly into Depressed mode), duos losing reference of their preferred partner, etc. Playing with a controller also feels inferior—I even lost calls because of input issues.

AdHoc Studios markets themselves as “the writers & directors of Tales from the Borderlands and The Wolf Among Us,” and it shows—especially in the illusion of choice. They promise “shape your story,” but there’s not much to shape. The core narrative never changes; only minor details or small cutscene variations do. There's not even the option to stay silent; if you don't reply in time, the game chooses for you. Same with the quick-time events: fail them and nothing changes, disable them and the animation still plays as if you had pressed the buttons. It’s all smoke and mirrors.

Still, Dispatch delivers a very particular type of narrative experience. Whether it “belongs” in gaming is up for debate, but it’s undeniably unique, somewhat polished, and enjoyable. And despite all my criticisms, yes—I would recommend it. Dispatch is rare: brilliant, conflicted, bold, and absolutely memorable.