This post contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Dispatch, now available on PlayStation 5 and Windows.
It’s been attempted a few different ways, but nobody has really cracked a legitimate hybrid of scripted TV and video games. Netflix tried with the now-unlisted Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, and studios like Telltale Games have been most successful at interactive visual novels for some time, but now there might be a bona fide contender for the first real playable television series.
Dispatch comes from a studio called AdHoc, comprised of many former members of Telltale. In collaboration with multimedia juggernaut Critical Role, their new project is looking to bring legitimacy to the concept of interactive, choice-driven TV. Rolling out with two roughly hourlong installments weekly from Oct. 22 to Nov. 12, the eight-episode inaugural season of Dispatch (priced at $29.99) is a trial run for what could be a whole new way to engage with storytelling. Based on the first two releases, there’s a lot of potential.
Top-level, Dispatch is a superhero workplace comedy that centers on a disgraced vigilante, Robert Robertson (Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul). In a world where superheroes are very public and normalized, Robert operates as the Iron Man-like Mecha Man, having picked up the mantle from his father and grandfather before him (all also named Robert Robertson).
The first two episodes mostly serve as table setting for the rest of the season, introducing Robert and the various employees of the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN), a subscription service that lets citizens call for help for just about anything (think: Taskrabbit meets 911).
Visually, it resembles a high-end animated series or film more than your basic adult cartoon, but tonally it slips into a neat space somewhere between the theatrics of Invincible (without the cruel streak) and classic workplace comedies like Parks and Recreation. I say Parks rather than The Office because there’s earnestness and whimsy to its characters — despite the dick exposure and drug use — that’s less about cringe humor than it is about flawed people trying their best to do good despite themselves.
It’s essential to note that, although Dispatch is fully scripted, there is an element of decision making that can change the flow of the story for each viewer. Most choices marginally shift bits of dialogue and how scenes play out, although they may have repercussions down the line. In the first batch of episodes, only a handful of choices can meaningfully veer the story’s trajectory. Most of the actual “gameplay” involves tasks that push the plot along on its defined rails.
With that, we’ll be covering this season’s developments weekly, delineating the nuances of how things evolve and whether the threads weave back together into an effective linear narrative.
AdHoc Studio
The pilot opens with Robert Robertson, a.k.a. Mecha Man, although he’s not especially mecha in his sweatsuit. Robert’s hit a rough patch, beating information out of a douchebag grunt named Toxic (Jared Goldstein), who works for this city’s big bad Shroud (Matthew Mercer). Shroud killed Robert’s dad and now the down-and-out hero is on the warpath. It doesn’t go well.
The player gets a couple of key choices throughout the interrogation and battle with Shroud’s forces, although at this juncture, they mostly amount to flavor text. The big issue is that Robert, despite being an exceptionally capable superhero, gets totally overwhelmed in fight against Shrouds goons in the villain’s factory-like lair, losing his suit and the (likely important) power source in the process. After months in a coma, Robert attends a press conference, and players get to decide how well he handles the public statement on his potential retirement and the tarnishing of the Mecha Man legacy.
Wallowing in his sorrows, Robert confronts a group of burglars wearing Skittles-colored masks and proceeds to get his ass beat before being rescued by big-time hero Blonde Blazer (Erin Yvette). Over a couple of drinks (i.e. pints of straight liquor) the sparks begin to fly — at least Robert thinks so. After a quick bar brawl with some hotheaded members of the SDN, their not-date pushes forward into mixed-signal territory as Blazer brings Robert to a billboard overlooking the Hollywood Hills. Here, she hits him with a proposition: Join SDN as a dispatcher to train fledgling heroes in exchange for fixing his suit. The shot at redemption and the notion of getting closer to this blonde goddess are an easy sell.
It’s a breezy setup with only one real interactive segment occurring while Robert takes his VR training exam on his night out with Blazer, but there’s some effective worldbuilding throughout. The next day is when things really pick up.
AdHoc Studio
The sophomore episode dives right into the SDN office and quickly introduces some new faces. Applying for a job is Water Boy (Joel Haver), a perpetually tongue-tied lad who’s a big superhero fanboy. We also see the return of Flambae (Lance Cantstopolis), the fire-wielding jerk who started the bar fight a night earlier. Here, we first get to see some of the impact of players’ choices, with Flambae’s face either pristine or mussed based on how that incident went down.
Blazer briskly drags Robert into a conference room to clear the air about their drunken flirtation and also keys in on the fact that SDN doesn’t want people to know who he really is (yet). Despite her insistence otherwise, there’s clearly chemistry, which is picked up by an initially unseen peeping Tom Invisigal (Critical Role’s Laura Bailey), who really wants to know if they’ve boned after getting a good look at a shirtless Robert.
Invisigal is a problem child for the SDN’s Phoenix program, which rehabilitates villains into heroes, and is routinely at the bottom of the pack in weekly rankings. She also used to call herself Invisibitch, if that’s any indication about her attitude.
AdHoc Studio
Blazer gives Robert a tour of the office, showing off all the super-people — and nonpeople, which is an interesting note. In the world of Dispatch, sentient beings who simply aren’t human by the standard definition aren’t called people. It’s unclear if that odd choice of phrasing will have implications down the line.
Next up is Royd (Tanoai Reed), a hulking tech guy with a chill bro Samoan vibe. He’s already clued in on Robert’s true identity as one of the folks on a need-to-know level. Moving onto his orientation, Robert is reunited with his old friend Chase (Westworld’s Jeffrey Wright), a former hero who worked with his dad, the previous Mecha Man, in the Brave Brigade. Chase is prickly, and for good reason: his Flash-like speedster powers have aged his body, leaving the 39-year-old looking elderly. He takes every opportunity to jab Robert (and everyone else), but firmly takes zero shit from the Phoenix squad, whom he holds with absolute contempt.
Speaking of the Phoenix program, the full roster is revealed ahead of Robert’s first shift on dispatch. He’s dealing with a real motley crew: a half-bat, half-man hybrid with a coke problem named Sonar (Charles White Jr.); lethal assassin Coupé (Mayanna Berrin); three-foot-tall muscleman Punch Up (YouTuber Seán McLoughlin); demonic Malevola (Alanah Pearce); sentient mud monster Golem (rapper Yung Gravy); pop star Prism (rapper Thot Squad); and the previously seen troublemakers Flambae and Invisigal.
AdHoc Studio
The primary playable section (outside of dialogue choices) is Robert’s maiden shift, during which he has to assign heroes to deal with situations ranging from corporate appearances to art heists — all of which can be managed without major plot implications while the team heckle their handler. It’s a shitty first day, literally, with Robert using his hacking skills to fix a client’s bidet. But things pick up toward the end when an armed robbery at a donut shop goes awry.
Invisigal surprisingly volunteers for the gig of stopping the crime, only to end up nearly being choked to death by an electro-powered baddie, needing Robert to step in via CCTV to assist. Despite narrowly avoiding death, she thanklessly ignores orders and creates a mess of things, letting the robber slip away in the process.
In the breakroom, the tension boils over with Robert and Invisigal verbally going blow-for-blow (until the latter makes it physical), leaving the two on rough terms. During his debrief, Robert is given positive feedback, but in his dejected state gives an impassioned speech about how the supervillain group needs a different, tougher approach — they need to respect him, powers or not.
Robert returns to his desk only to find that Invisigal had stolen him a donut as a gesture of good faith, which is now smeared all over his keyboard for the new janitor, Water Boy, to clean by vomiting H20 on the mess.
AdHoc Studio
By the end of its introductory episodes, Dispatch has successfully employed the traditional two-part pilot structure most sitcoms need to lay their groundwork. The animation is stellar, and honestly never really feels like a video game (complimentary). Free of the restrictions of their previous IP work with franchises like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, AdHoc can begin showing audiences what their house style and sensibilities look like.
There’s a sanguine sweetness to the proceedings, and a lackadaisical approach to dry joke delivery that sort of resembles Wes Anderson’s stop-motion work like The Fantastic Mr. Fox (and to a lesser degree his live-action movies). There’s clearly some darkness beneath the surface, but Dispatch doesn’t seem interested in interrogating its premise in the same gratuitous ways shows like Invincible and The Boys are. Tucked in are shades of Bojack Horseman, but overall it’s far less depressing than actor Aaron Paul’s previous foray into animation.
At this point, the stakes are low, but we already see problems on the horizon with Robert smitten for a superpowered bombshell who seems far too perfect. But he’s also got a whole team of supervillains to contend with, some of whom he’s already pissed off. The strength of these early installments is mostly in familiarizing audiences with the show’s cadence, which is snarky but rarely mean-spirited, and getting them comfortable with the occasional inputs required.
As a lead, Robert fits into multiple archetypes, but there’s a refreshing competency to the character off the bat that makes him easy to get behind. He’s at a low point in life, but he’s got a moral compass and conviction that should ground the series moving forward even though his source of power has been stripped away.