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| Dispatch often puts its characters front and centre, even in everyday situations away from the action. |
By Jon Scarr
Dispatch is an episodic, story-driven game from AdHoc Studio where the focus stays on people, decisions, and what comes after. Now that all eight episodes are available, it’s easier to play it like a complete season and see how the bigger arcs connect instead of judging it episode by episode.
You play as Robert Robertson III, a former superhero who’s moved off the front lines and into a dispatcher role. From behind a desk, you manage a volatile team of heroes and ex-villains, making calls, dealing with office politics, and living with the consequences when your choices don’t land the way you hoped.
Played straight through, Dispatch feels more deliberate. The game takes its time building relationships, letting conflicts simmer, and then forcing you to pick a direction when things get messy. That slower approach works best when you’re invested in the team dynamics, even if the broader plot doesn’t always get the same amount of attention.
It’s not a game you play for constant action. It’s a game you play to see how people handle pressure, how decisions change the room, and how a group that barely functions can still pull together when it matters.
Dispatch Details
Platforms: PS5, PC
Reviewed on: PS5
Developer: AdHoc Studio
Publisher: AdHoc Studio
Genre: Action, Adventure, Casual, Indie, Strategy
Available game modes: Single-player
Running a Team That Keeps Making Things Harder
Dispatch’s story is less about saving the city and more about keeping a superhero team from falling apart. Robert isn’t just reacting to crime calls. He’s dealing with clashing personalities, bruised egos, old grudges, and the kind of workplace pressure that makes every decision feel like it’s being judged by the entire room.
The Z-Team is a crew of heroes and reformed villains who don’t always act like they want the same thing. That’s where a lot of the story’s energy comes from. Conversations are often loaded, and the game regularly forces you to pick a direction when two people are clearly never going to agree. It makes leadership feel like a job, not a title.
The episodic structure works well here because the conflicts don’t need to be solved immediately. Choices and comments can linger, and later episodes often feel shaped by how relationships have been handled up to that point. Some decisions shift things, while others come back in more visible ways later on.
The broader season plot is more uneven than the character drama. It’s there, it gives the story a spine, but it doesn’t always get the same level of attention as the team dynamics. By the end, the season still holds together, but parts of the bigger conflict feel like they could have used more time on screen.
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| Story moments occasionally shift away from the office to show the consequences of the team’s work in the field. |
Running the Desk While Everyone Else Runs Into Trouble
Gameplay in Dispatch revolves around decision-making rather than direct control. You spend most of your time at Robert’s desk, reacting to incoming calls and choosing which heroes are best suited for each job. There’s no running around the city or diving into combat arenas. The pressure comes from timing, limited availability, and the consequences of sending the wrong people into the wrong situation.
The core loop centers on dispatching your team. Each hero comes with different strengths, weaknesses, and personality baggage, and those traits affect how calls play out. Picking the right combination improves your odds, while careless decisions can lead to injuries, failed outcomes, or more drama waiting back at the office. As you move through the season, heroes level up, unlock traits, and build synergy with specific teammates, adding a light planning layer without turning the game into a full management sim.
Outside of dispatching, interaction mainly comes through dialogue choices and quick-time events. Dialogue does most of the work, shaping relationships and determining how people respond to Robert. Quick-time events show up during key moments and add a little input, but they stay simple, and the option to turn them off is there if you’d rather focus entirely on the story.
There are also short hacking sequences that ask you to plan routes, avoid hazards, and react quickly. They don’t appear often, but they break up the routine and demand more attention than the dispatch screen. Once the gameplay loop clicks, it can start to feel familiar across longer stretches, but it still ties back into the story well because outcomes and reactions carry forward.
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| Gameplay often revolves around dialogue choices during team meetings rather than direct control. |
Style and Animation Carry the Experience
Dispatch has a stylized visual identity that fits its superhero setting without crowding the screen. Because so much of the season takes place in offices and control rooms, character animation and facial expressions end up carrying most scenes. Small reactions, posture shifts, and timing in dialogue help sell discomfort, disagreement, and shifting relationships without needing big location changes.
The look stays steady across all eight episodes, which helps when you play the season in one stretch. Action scenes have more movement, but most of the time the focus is on conversations, reactions, and how characters respond to each other. The presentation keeps attention on those interactions instead of trying to win you over with scale.
Voice acting is a big reason these scenes work. Conversations sound natural, especially when characters talk over each other or push back against Robert’s decisions in real time. The sarcasm and frustration come through clearly, which helps the workplace side of the game feel believable.
I played on PS5 and the game ran smoothly from start to finish. Scene changes are quick, performance stays stable, and nothing technical pulled focus away from what was happening on screen.
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| Much of Dispatch’s presentation comes through character expressions and dialogue scenes like this. |
Dispatch Comes Together Once You’ve Experienced It All
Dispatch works best when you sit down and see the whole thing through. Taken one episode at a time, it can feel small. Played as a complete season, the focus on characters, relationships, and long-term decisions starts to click in a way that’s easier to appreciate. The story isn’t driven by big action beats. It’s driven by people, disagreements, and the choices you keep having to live with.
Sending heroes out, dealing with the fallout back at the office, and trying to keep the team functional gives the experience its shape. The gameplay stays fairly contained, and that won’t be for everyone, but it does enough to support what the story is doing. If you’re looking for a narrative game that takes its time, lets situations build, and rewards sticking with it, Dispatch is worth seeing all the way to the end.
Dispatch Review Summary
Liked
- Character work stays strong across the full season.
- Decisions and relationships carry forward in believable ways.
- Dispatching calls adds structure and pressure without becoming overly complex.
- Voice acting and animation keep conversation-heavy scenes engaging.
- Stable performance on PS5 from start to finish.
Didn't Like
- The broader season plot feels uneven compared to the team drama.
- The core loop can feel familiar once you understand how it works.
- Hacking sections don’t evolve much over time.
Overall Assessment of Dispatch
Gameplay: ⭐⭐⭐☆☆ (3.0 / 5)
Presentation: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4.0 / 5)
Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ (4.5 / 5)
Story: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4.0 / 5)
Fun Factor: ⭐⭐⭐½☆ (3.5 / 5)
Overall Value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ (4.0 / 5)
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