Dispatch Review: A Truly Super Experience (PC)

I have a very particular recipe for falling in love with a game. I need a story that grabs me by the collar, mechanics that are easy to grasp but deep enough to chew on, and choices that actually matter. Dispatch doesn’t just check those boxes, it leaps past them in a single bound. From the opening minutes to the final, gut-twisting decisions, I never once felt shortchanged. Every beat landed. Every moment carried weight.

On paper, Dispatch might look like another quirky dispatcher sim in a crowded field. It absolutely isn’t. This is a story first, a workplace drama second, and only incidentally a “sim” at all. Dispatch pulls you into its strange little world with remarkable ease, turning even tiny choices like your snacks, your alliances, and your moral lines into ripples that shape the entire narrative. One moment you’re furious with a character. The next you’re brushing away tears because of what they’ve done. 

Dispatch is available on Steam for $29.99.

Story – The Past Builds Our Future

Dispatch is a story, first and foremost, so I’m going to do my best to not spoil anything major. In a nutshell, you take on the role of Robert Robertson, heir to the lineage of the superhero Mecha Man. Think something like Iron Man, but broke. A mission gone wrong ends with his suit being damaged beyond repair – his financial situation being the main culprit. Turns out it takes a lot of money to operate a mech suit. Who knew? It’s then, at his lowest point that Blonde Blazer, beacon of truth and justice and definitely a romanceable option enters his life and gives him a new path: Dispatch. Work for SDN and they’ll fix the suit.

A whirlwind of super hero antics follows, mixed with office drudgery (in the best possible way!) You become a dispatcher for a literal team of rejects, former villains that are part of a rehabilitation project called the Phoenix Project. Dealing with their hijinks, impressing your boss, and trying to save the city all become a delicate juggling act. Robert tries to gain the team’s respect so he can help them become what he knows they can be. But there’s one thing in Dispatch that that weighs on both them and you: the Past.

The big theme in Dispatch is what your past means. You’re the heir to the Mecha Man lineage, and if SDN – Superhero Dispatch Network – can’t fix your suit, perhaps the final one. The media has roasted you, claiming you’re a disappointment to the name.

A childhood mentor and former teammate of your father, Chase, acts as your guide, but now he stands before you an old man, appearing in his seventies despite barely being forty. It seems his superspeed actually aged him super quickly, meaning all his deeds are now in the past. And finally, your team. Super villains. Some want to be there, some don’t. All have a rap sheet a mile long. And at least one – Invisigal – truly believes her past means she has no hope for a future as a hero.

This could’ve been an email

Impact That’s a Super Punch to the Gut

The deeper you get into Dispatch, the heavier every choice lands. You start out juggling a bunch of Z-Team disasters who are literally taking bets on how quickly you’ll quit, but before long Robert becomes one of them—bound to these weird, wonderful screw-ups whether he wants to be or not.

The decisions you make during dispatch emergencies and the emotional gut-punch cutscenes start carrying real weight. Dispatch piles responsibility onto Robert’s shoulders until you feel it right along with him. It’s not just who gets sent to which mission, but who deserves to stay on the team at all.

And that’s the real question Dispatch forces you to face: what does this team actually mean? You’re staring down a roster of people whose pasts are stained with bad choices, and you’re the one holding the thread that might let them rewrite that history. Even with a mech suit waiting in the wings, that’s a brutal burden. Every member of the Phoenix Project has some infuriating quirk designed to test your patience—but each also has something undeniably human, something worth saving, which makes choosing their fates feel like ripping out your own heart.

Dispatch plays that contrast beautifully. While you’re deciding who deserves a second chance, your own path is quietly changing. SDN rebuilds Robert’s suit piece by piece. Royd—giant teddy bear of a man and surprise genius—works tirelessly to “make the Man Mecha.” But during a booze-soaked confession at Robert’s housewarming party, Chase hits you with the question that sits at the core of Dispatch: does Robert really need the suit to be super? And more importantly… does he owe the world anything more than what he’s already given?

These weirdoes bond with each other and you.

Gameplay – One Part Mayhem, One Part Mastermind

Dispatch is structured episodically, and every episode breaks into two distinct modes: a Telltale-style cinematic sequence with QuickTime Events, and the titular dispatch phase where you assign heroes to calls across the city. They play like two different genres, but your choices flow seamlessly between them, so every decision ripples outward. Dispatch is very good at making you feel the consequences—sometimes immediately, sometimes hours later.

The Story – New Hires and New Heroes

During the narrative segments of Dispatch, you’re treated to stylish, beautifully animated scenes. Imagine watching Invincible, but every few minutes you’re asked to either make a decision or react to prompts on screen to keep Robert from being incinerated. This is where you bond with the Z-Team, untangle their drama, and make decisions that range from heartbreaking to downright absurd. And the QTEs? They sneak up on you. I absolutely missed more than one because I was hypnotized by the animation.

Luckily, Dispatch is forgiving. One missed prompt won’t tank your playthrough. It’s the overall pattern of your decisions that matters.  The real impact for Dispatch comes from the decisions. These run the gamut from deciding which snack in the vending machine you want to who you’re going to fire from the team, and yes, both made me stress out way too much. Quick tip, there’s a timer for each of these decisions and the game is not going to wait for your existential crisis to resolve itself; you have to make your choice quickly. Don’t try to be a smart-aleck like me and refuse to pick, because the game does have default choices in mind.

I don’t think it’s too big a spoiler to let you know there’s romance in this game and this is absolutely where it all happens. Right off the bat, a drunken Robert has the option to kiss a slightly flirty Blonde Blazer and it’s not too long after that that Invisigal sees you naked. Oh, did I mention? This is absolutely a grown-up game. There’s swearing, violence, flirting, and more accidental nudity than you’d expect from a superhero office environment. (All toggleable, don’t worry.)

Royd is strong, but not strong enough to break the sexual tension.

Dispatching – The Man with the Headset

The other half of Dispatch is a shockingly addictive strategy mini-game. You have a city map, a parade of calls, and a team of chaotic gremlins with superpowers. SDN runs as a for-profit service, so you’re not just sending heroes to kaiju attacks. Sometimes you’re sending them to help someone assemble IKEA furniture. 

Every hero has stats, synergies, and quirks; every mission has a spread of challenges; every choice has a time limit. You’re threading needles while the world is on fire. Dispatch keeps you on your toes. Heroes wander off. They refuse to accept missions. They sabotage each other. They get injured. Missions stack up. I’d advise you to “choose wisely” but in the end, with the Z-team, you’re really just choosing which fires you want to put out.

But don’t think that just because you’re the dispatcher you get to rest on your laurels. In this part of Dispatch you also juggle hacking cameras, overriding locks, and running a sub-system puzzle that gets more complex every episode. Sometimes you’re giving tactical advice on the fly—“save the survivors or stop the fire?”—and your answer genuinely affects whether the mission succeeds or someone gets carted off to medical.

The hacking missions add a nice challenge.

Graphics & Audio – An Excellent Performance Review

Because so much of Dispatch plays out like a lost ‘90s-era superhero cartoon, it’s only fitting that the game looks absolutely gorgeous. From Mecha Man’s final fight before joining SDN to Blonde Blazer walking into the lion’s den and glowing like a goddess, every frame feels deliberate and alive. The character models are sharp, the animation is crisp, and the QTEs blend seamlessly into the action—even during the most chaotic combat moments.

Every character pops with a distinct visual identity. Even if you can’t recall every name, there’s no chance you’ll forget who the members of the Z-Team are. And on top of stellar animation and standout character design, each one is brought to life by familiar voices for anyone who prowls YouTube. The half-sized strongman Punch-Up is voiced by Jacksepticeye himself. Sonar, the cocaine-addicted hybrid man-bat, is performed by MoistCr1TiKaL’s Charles White (who you may remember as the unforgettable “District 8 Medic #1” from The Hunger Games).

The list doesn’t stop there.  Matthew Mercer. Travis Willingham. Laura Bailey. THOT SQUAD. Every single actor shows up at full strength. Add in a soundtrack that elevates every moment without ever distracting, and you end up with a cinematic adventure that stands head and shoulders above anything else in the genre right now.