The fast-paced events, despite all the efforts to spice them up, remain quite beautiful. meh.
When you first start up Dispatch, the new episodic superhero adventure game from AdHoc Studio, you're asked if you'd like to enable quick event hints as an additional gameplay mechanic. It says something that these QTE clues only really appear in the first and last episodes of the eight-part Dispatch series. But if you're concerned that the only input you'll get into Dispatch is pressing a button at the right time or choosing different narrative options that will affect the game's plot, you should know that AdHoc has a more compelling, optional gameplay aspect that deserves as much attention as the game's charming narrative. And it's in the name of the game itself.
Dispatch is set in a fictional version of Los Angeles, California, where superheroes are real. The story centers on Robert Robertson III, a former hero turned SDN dispatcher. It's a private security and service company, except instead of sending out paramedics, SDN (or Superhero Dispatch Network) sends out caped heroes to solve customer problems big and small. This serves as the basis for the main Dispatch minigame, and honestly, it could be a standalone game in itself.
Whether it's rescuing a cat from a tree, destroying a drunken tailgate, or rescuing people from a collapsing dam, there's no job that SDN can't help with if you're a paying customer. And while most of the credit goes to the superheroes in the field, Dispatch's real heroes are the team of behind-the-scenes controllers who match the right heroes to the right crisis, or at least try to.
The actual mechanic of dispatching heroes is a full-fledged mini-game that you play at least once per episode. As Robert sits down at his desk for another day of work, players get a first-person view of the proprietary SDN dispatch program, which shows a map of South Los Angeles, various crimes that appear in real time, and a menu full of heroes waiting to be dispatched.
The key to success is to choose the right hero for the job. For example, if there is If a cat is stuck in a tree, you'd want to send a fast hero who can fly rather than one who solves problems with his fists, who will likely have a lower success rate in rescuing said cat. Likewise, if a gang of grunts robs a bank, you should send a few goons to take care of the business. Each mission's initial description tells you which skills are best suited to the job at hand, and each hero has individual characteristics with strengths and weaknesses – your success will depend on how well you match the heroes' skills to the task at hand. The less overlap between skill set and problem, the less likely your hero is to succeed. But find the right hero to solve a crime, and they'll solve the problem and level up while they're at it.
There are also real emotional stakes in dispatching. Failure is a real possibility, especially during rush hour when heroes become unavailable due to exhaustion. This means you're running against the clock, trying to save as many people as possible, and when you find yourself unable to help everyone, Dispatch makes that emotional burden feel very real and very frustrating thanks to the feedback you get in real time from your team of superheroes. And when Robert doesn't receive criticism from the team, he also screams in frustration if the work isn't going well.
What really surprised me was how this dispatch mini-game fits into the growing sub-genre of work simulators. That is, games that revolve around basic jobs. For example, PowerWash Simulator is designed for cleaning dirty surfaces and is one of the most popular games. Likewise, the control room minigame feels very much like it's part of this micro-genre thanks to some clever design decisions that put you, as Robert, directly into the action.
The entire dispatch minigame takes place directly on Robert's '90s-era workstation, which you interact with in first person. You might as well be sitting in an SDN booth yourself. Also, learn dispatching and you'll find that you can enter a flow state: a very real state where you'll find yourself becoming particularly adept at instantly diagnosing a crime and already knowing the best character for the job. It made me wonder if I could actually become a dispatcher in real life, although I will say that not having a job means I wonder if I could do much of the work in real life these days.
All this means that if you've tried choice-based narrative games before and would like a little more meat on the bones than just quick-time events, one of this year's most popular games has a full-fledged simulator that's worth playing in its own right.
