New game: "Dispatch"!

New game!

I've heard so many good things about Dispatch, but even if I hadn't, I was definitely going to play this game. I'm a Marvel fan, and Dispatch is basically an interactive animated superhero series. Just a couple of seconds into the trailer I knew this would be great, and preferably to be played on a big screen, so cinematic are the scenes.

This guy's in for a beating!

And two hours into it, having finished two of eight episodes or chapters, the game has proven itself. I just love it. Can you really call it a game? Well, there's definitely gameplay to it, though most of it feels more like a visual novel. You play as Robert Robertson, former superhero Mecha Man, who has retired after losing a fight with a villain which led to his suit to be destroyed, and who gets recruited by the SDN, the Superhero Dispatch Network, where he becomes the man in the chair, dividing up heroic jobs amongst the available superheroes and sending them around the city, sometimes needing to hack something to help them out of a bend.

I'm calling bullshit!

During the cutscenes, you also have to make dialogue choices, which shapes Robert's personality and steers the narrative into a certain direction, and perform QTE's during action scenes which give the game a bit more interactivity (though you can choose to simply watch those scenes without needing any player input). 

My hero!

Of course there's an obvious love interest in the form of one Blonde Blazer, who actually recruits you for the SDN. But this isn't the only relationship which is fun to watch develop. There are also Roberts co-workers, and of course all the villains-turned-heroes he needs to get on his side so they'll listen to him better and successfully complete their missions.

The dispatching part will take some getting used to...

Personally I have a hard time looking at Dispatch as a real game, let alone a point 'n click game (I've actually traded in the mouse for a controller, since it still required the WASD-keys for some sequences, which are counter-intuitive on my Azerty-keyboard) but I'm simply enjoying the heck out of this animated series. And so far, the dispatching sections (I've only done two of them at this point, though) are less difficult than I had imagined. So far there aren't any real puzzles: there's the hacking mini-game, and of course which hero is best suited for which job. It's more about the story, and with each episode about an hour long, is a great chance from passively watching some television show.

On to episode three, now!