Dispatch, and the Decade Long Voyage

Anyway let’s cut to the Chase

I am not funny

Telltale’s final years were ones of deflation, an unnerving death march that started the moment the realization the golden goose had run its course and nothing could be done about it. The studio had found comfort in passivity, an irony more would have found funny if they weren’t fed up by that point; a one-trick pony can only go so far if sometimes the pony fucks up the trick completely to begin with, which in Telltale’s terms means having not-so good writting. Even if they nailed the fall every time, the writing was on the wall; the studio’s mantra of property adaptation through re-invention was always gonna break someone’s back when they themselves struggled with that same process, the loop of decisions and sparse interaction feeling tired at best and actively clunky at worst.

The Walking Dead’s S1 is consistently praised as their first real go at the interactive series specialty, and a sound one at that, which makes the fact Jurassic Park: The Game came out just before it like some sort of unknown herald of darkness from before the days of oversaturation: sloppy, narratively confused, riddled with bugs and fail states except when it decides that ‘’no you missing this quick time event matters this time actually’’. The result of a group of creatives grappling with newborn ideas that will later solidify till the point of calcification… and also the first Telltale game I ever interacted with.

Passive enjoyment feels like a pretty big and pedantic term when talking a dinosaur loving kid watching his dad play through the new Jurassic Park game and getting mesmerized at the movie-like aspect of it all, as if an animation series was happening before his very ass while his dad made decisions that seemed grander that life, and sometimes he’d even ask you to pick one. That kid was me, and as long as I was there, watching that thing that wasn’t quite a game or a series, the illusion was real, and that was Telltale’s stronghold. Even as a participant that barely interacted with the experience ( a role in cases filled by the one who watches AND the one who plays), the façade was difficult to not fall for; at its best, Telltale Games knew how to give even the most inconsequential, completely useless decision some heaviness in the moment-to-moment. Some would call it deception, but I prefer the term grace.

In many ways, Dispatch isn’t too different. In others, it’s the culmination of every single dev and creative that made the past studio’s outings possible bringing their A game, and then some.

For games that ultimately played themselves, Telltale’s games were somewhat characterized by its jagged animations and stilted movements, a necessity to combat the madness going on in the backdrop. I cannot even conceive the kind of scripting madness making one of these things must be; even when all decisions lead to the same outcome, you gotta make sure every scene leads into one another as seamlessly as possible, nevermind the decisions that do alter the whole game or may have ripple events felt as things begin to wrap up, and if you fail that, you lose the entire suspension of disbelief, the illusion broken. Dispatch makes it looks like child’s play.

The animation and scripting are beyond unreal, a perfection of motion that nearly borders on wizardry: the flow and timings are all pitch perfect, the pauses and conversations flowing with a naturality that smoothes out its own rough edges, interruptions or interjections that connect with no jittering and sometimes even REACT to a phrase a character was already saying, which cannot happen entirely if you press the decision before they start talking or after. On a plotline (plotgraph? plotdiagram?) that has to juggle between 8 different major decisions at all times while making sure all make sense and feel satisfying as the story plays out it MAD impressive, that alone would have made it the most ambitious game of its ilk, but the superb art design and real time movement carry it a step BEYOND.

*Dispatch* isn’t playing on the same level of impressiveness that CRPGs or Immerssive Sims do, and that comparison definitely hurts it more than anything, but I don’t think it’s a fair one to begin with… but if its only objective was to be another attempt at the interactive-TV series concept, I wouldn't be praising it as much.

But it all leads to the dispatch system.

Don’t talk to me while I’m on the cabin, Coupe’s is off the shits, Golem is drunk, and I’m maxing the fuck out of Puch Up’s stats; dispatching is a fairly simple and autonomous system, and it makes a strength out of it. It’s a pseudo strategy game entirely based on resource and stat management with a whole life breathed into it, each mission is giving its own characters, its own text and explanations, some which can even spiral into further missions that connect back to it and have a whole mini-villain which you can decide to play along with or deal with on your terms. In later episodes, and SPECIALLY at the finally, there’s barely any time to take a rest; you are constantly having to jump between Z Team members, searching whenevers synergies you can find or sending it and throwing a tank character to a charisma mission, while others to which you sent four different heroes turn out to have been instantly solvable if you sent one, so you gotta spend that coffee and it HURTS, and I LOVE IT. Even the fucking hacking minigame is good, doubly so when it’s an optional path you can take within a mission instead of asking a group of heroes that may or may nor have the stats to deal with a problem head on.The active moments that in another context where relegated to quick time events are now almost entirely centralized on here, and it **works**, I love this system, and every fuck up hurts on a personal level, despite the fact you are merely looking at a work screen with portraits day after day.

And YET, if it was only that, I still don’t think it would have felt enough. What seals the deal then, is this lovable bunch of very stupid people.

In this lovable turd of a world

The snarks and quips during missions had me rolling my eyes so much they made a whole loop and it began to grow on me; every character already has pretty good distinctions and abilities that fill very specific roles and niches, but the interactions between all the members are the main reason dispatching works. Some will get depressed or low on morale depending if a mission goes wrong or after you take a certain choice, some will jump on a mission or reject going to another and COMPLETELY fuck up your planning. One day they screw each other up so they don’t get last place, while on another you’ll have to send someone to go get another because they got hammered, events that, by all accounts, are annoyances… but they are special annoyances. They happen not because of luck, even if they absolutely do, but because of the kind of people your team members are: every line and special event is contextualized and elevated, and that’s why it hurts so much to fail them and to see them fail you, and it makes you jump to the heavens when they clutch up and make amends, and those feelings translate back to the off-shift segments.

This ain’t even mentioning the two biggest choices in the entire game on a playable level, that even episode’s 3 and 4 who to cut and who to add decisions. These two alone would make a replay more than warranted, but the first time experience of getting to make them and seeing their consequences is top notch stuff, a gut punch and a warm hug that feel perfectly timed, with no real ‘’wrong’’ answer. With all that said I adore Phenomaman’s route, barely anything may change on a narrative level but the scenes with him are both incredibly funny and sweet to infinity and beyond. That hug on episode 6’s party healed me and the fact the ability of one of the strongest characters in the game is getting sad and a handicap actually is genius, Slaking Truant type shit and I love that. Bottom line is this game has the guts to inconvenience you over and over and I LOVE it for it.

The fact decisions hold more immediate weight is a huge plus, an obvious one in some ways, but the result of pairing that illusion with actual meat and playable friction gos boundaries more than being a simple spectator could ever achieve… and also not enough time to fully realize its potential.

I don’t think the fact Dispatch’s narrative has clicked immediately with many is an accident; it’s not gonna be everyone's predilection in story-telling, and I for one am only willing to overlook some of its aspects and lack of thematic exploration —very weird and at times gross how the corporatization of supers and social dynamics are so overlooked or ‘’wholesome-ized’’ imo— so far, but when such an interesting premise is paired with this strong of a character roster, there’s no much space to wonder. I’ve praised the Z team, but everyone on the office should be of equal worth to mention. Chase is my goddam GOAT and the actual character moments in the downtime are so strong, so touching at times, I don’t think many would have complained if the game was only composed by them. Things like the party scene in episode 6, the aftermath of the bar fight or the progression of meeting room scenes are perfect studies of character interaction, lil’ steps that make a fist bump carry the power of an entire story, the kinds of absurdity and sweet hugs that make dick jokes actually endearing somewhatkinda. Invisigal’s arc is, in plenty of ways, ground that has been more treaded than an abandoned backyard, and yet I wouldn’t call any of the scenes with her anything that didn’t include the word ‘’delight’’.

That is why I wished it had more time, to the point I’m baffled this didn’t have another batch of episodes before the finale; the villains end up getting the VERY short end of the stick, Shroud specially bearing a really cool design and excellent mech, but acting more of a roadblock than an actual interesting thread, and the reason why I don’t seem to be the only one that thinks Chapter 8 flounders a bit isn’t only because of that. So much is resolved or brought to the table that not even the context of a missed route can even fill that void; Invisigal’s resolution, while compelling while way or another, has so much to take into account that the lead up to it feels very, VERY strange, not to mention the rest of the main cast besides Chase and Blonde Blazer (and maybe Royd) get kinda shafted and thrown to the side. Sonar/Coupé get more compelling stuff than Prism, which was the hero I deployed the most by a WIDE margin, which feels like a mistake, and despite all of these being problems that’d get solved with more time or a continuation… The idea of a season 2 doesn’t necessarily thrill me.

Robert and the Z team’s story isn’t one you can continue in the same ways of old; Telltale’s seasons were emblematic of its rot, and now that the people behind it are born anew, rising and bringing new, exciting ideas, to plum again to the expected golden goose wouldn't be ideal. They don’t have something perfect, but they have something wonderful, something I do not wish to get tired of again.

Right now, it’s hard to feel grumpy; season 2 is on the cards, but only if it carries something worth exploring and more out there, and that thrill to not just keep pressing the play button, but actively make stuff that can surpass what *Dispatch* just set up for these people… that is what excites me.

That is what makes a kid watching a JP game’s illusion real.

My biggest thanks to Jason, aka Blazing Waters, for gifting me the game's copy and making this review even possible, and be sure to check out his website!: Jason's Export Feed

Thank you so much for reaching this point.