AdHoc Studios came out of the gate swinging with the release of Dispatch, an episodic narrative-driven game not unlike the Telltale Studios’ games that the studio’s members came from. First announced during The Game Awards 2024, Dispatch released to critical acclaim on October 22nd of this year.
Dispatch is described as a superhero workplace dramedy following the disgraced superhero Mecha Man, Robert Robertson III, after an incident involving the destruction of his robotic suit. Robert joins the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) as a dispatcher for a team of reformed supervillains called the Z-Team.
Normally this is the kind of game that would fly under the radar for me, but with an interest in superheroes and a love of Aaron Paul, the actor that voices lead character Robert Robertson, Dispatch caught my interest when it was announced at the Game Awards and it did not disappoint on release.
The gameplay of Dispatch is very simple, mostly like the Telltale Studios’ games that AdHoc used to be a part of developing before becoming their own studio. Characters talk and cutscenes play, and occasionally a quick-time event or a dialogue option will pop up and change the scene depending on the outcome. However, Dispatch has a secondary game mode. The more gameplay-focused sections put the player in charge of selecting, managing, and dispatching the members of the Z-Team to deal with threats and calls around the Torrance area of Los Angeles. This section is usually separated into two shifts per episode, with the previously described cinematic gameplay making up the rest of the time.
Dispatch follows a game formula that is make-or-break depending on the story it tries to tell. Luckily, the story is excellently written, acted, and played out with a wide variety of options that actually feel like they make a difference, which is something that other narrative choice based games struggle to achieve at times. Previous experiences with those other games is what drove me away from the genre before, but Dispatch feels like a shining example of what they can really be, and how they can hook an audience.
AdHoc as a studio was first born as a small amalgam of developers that came from Telltale, Ubisoft, and Night School Studios. Upset with the creative bounds and limitations of the industry, they began work on Dispatch in 2018, but were stalled by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Struggling with publishers and funds, the game was announced at the Game Awards to drum up hype and support, and in July of 2025 AdHoc partnered with Critical Role to start their next project and finalize the release of Dispatch.
Dispatch has been nominated for the award of Best Debut Indie Game at the 2025 Game Awards, but it has some tough competition. Whether it receives that place or not, Dispatch has still received a place in my heart, and deserves to be in many others, as an example of indie studio grit and toughness as well as the stories games can tell.
