Dispatch (video game)

• 1. Introduction

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  Robert Robertson III has no superpowers, a heap of debt, and a hero's suit that no longer works. That is where Dispatch begins. Dispatch is a 2025 episodic adventure game from the American developer AdHoc Studio, and it calls itself a superhero workplace comedy. Robert, once the hero Mecha Man, swaps the cockpit for a desk. His new job is sending villains-turned-superheroes out to deal with the city's emergencies. The player speaks for him through every awkward conversation and every judgment call.

  A game built around assigning other people to dangerous jobs raises odd questions. How does a dispatcher's desk produce suspense? Who are the misfits Robert is supposed to manage, and why do they distrust him? How did a studio of 30 people end up on the edge of closure while making it? And why did a port in January 2026 send players looking for refunds?

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• 2. The Dispatch Desk

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  The Superhero Dispatch Network, shortened to SDN, appears in the game as a map. Crimes and events show up across it, and the player moves a team toward each one. Choosing who goes matters. Each hero has stats and character traits, and the player has to match them to the job while watching cooldowns on their abilities.

  Conversation is the other half of the game. Dialogue trees let the player's choices bend the story. A hacking mini-game adds a faster pace, asking the player to steer quickly along pathways and complete quick time events.

  The world around the desk is an alternate Los Angeles where superpowers are everywhere. Society has split into two groups. "Supers" are born with powers such as flight or invisibility, or born looking different. "Normies" have no powers at all. Some heroes work independently, but several belong to SDN, which sells services and protection to its subscribers.

  Robert's posting is the Torrance branch. Its most troublesome team has a name of its own: the Z-Team.

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• 3. The Z-Team

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  Nobody on the Z-Team takes Robert seriously at first. They are supervillains whom SDN is trying to reform through its Phoenix Program, and Robert is the newcomer assigned to direct them.

  Courtney, known as Invisigal and formerly as Invisibitch, is the lowest-ranking member. She is asthmatic and rebellious, and she turns invisible only while holding her breath. Victor, called Sonar, is a Harvard graduate and recovering cocaine addict who becomes a large monstrous bat. Malevola Gibb is a broadsword-wielding half-demoness who serves as his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor and can create portals.

  Colm, called Punch Up, is an Irish former carnival strongman. A sorceress gave him the strength of ten men and an immunity to pain, and she took half his height in payment. His ex-girlfriend Janelle, called Coupe, is a former assassin and ballerina who can fly and shape shadows. Alice, called Prism, is a pop star influencer who controls light. Bruno, called Golem, is a construct of dirt and clay. Chad, called Flambae, is an Afghan former supervillain with pyrokinesis and flameproof skin, and he once fought Mecha Man.

  Two more figures sit near the top of the team. Katon-Ur, called Phenomaman, is a former top hero from a distant planet who struggles with bouts of depression. Herman, called Waterboy, is an insecure SDN janitor who produces water from his mouth and body.

  Robert's bosses are just as colorful. Mandy, called Blonde Blazer, manages SDN's Los Angeles division. An amulet gives her flight, super-strength and energy blasts. Without it she loses her physique and becomes a brunette. His mentor is Chase, the speedster Track Star. His powers make him age 50 times faster than normal while in use, so at 39 he looks 80.

  The voices behind them are a draw of their own. Aaron Paul plays Robert, and Rahul Kohli was originally considered for the part. Jeffrey Wright voices Chase, Laura Bailey voices Invisigal, Erin Yvette voices Blazer, and Matthew Mercer voices the villain Shroud. Content creators fill out the Z-Team: MoistCr1TiKaL as Sonar, Alanah Pearce as Malevola, jacksepticeye as Punch Up, and Joel Haver as Waterboy. The rapper Yung Gravy plays Golem, and Thot Squad plays Prism.

  One member of that cast, Invisigal, carries a secret that turns the story.

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• 4. Choices And Betrayal

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  Elliot Connors, who goes by Shroud, killed Robert's father. Robert was hunting him when Shroud's gang, the Red Ring, lured him into a trap. Robert escaped, but a bomb had been planted on his suit. The damage, plus the debt he had piled up keeping the suit running, pushed him to announce his retirement to the press.

  Mandy then offers him a deal. He can work as a dispatcher at the Torrance branch, and she will help repair the suit. Along the way, the player makes choices that reshape the team. Robert must cut either Sonar or Coupe, with Waterboy or Phenomaman as the replacement. He also grows closer to either Blazer or Invisigal.

  The suit needs a missing power source called the Astral Pulse. Robert rebuilds the suit with SDN technical specialist Royd, a muscular Phoenix Program member whom Robert's father once arrested. Invisigal and Royd locate the Pulse, but she and Blazer disagree on how to retrieve it. After Chase berates her for her criminal past, she goes alone. Shroud intercepts her, and Chase uses his speed to save her before he collapses.

  With Chase in the hospital, most of the Z-Team votes to cut Invisigal. She admits to Robert that she planted the bomb, having worked for Shroud before joining the Phoenix Program. Shroud later captures and tortures Robert, and Blazer rescues him. The Red Ring then attacks Los Angeles and SDN's Torrance call center. Blazer hands her amulet to Chase to revive him.

  The finale turns on a dog. Shroud takes Robert's dog Beef hostage, forcing Robert to surrender. If the player trusted Invisigal throughout, she takes a bullet for Robert. Robert then beats Shroud into submission and either kills or spares him. If he kills Shroud, he is suspended pending an investigation. If the player never trusted her, Invisigal kills Shroud, takes his mask, and abandons the team.

  Either way, the Red Ring is arrested, and the Z-Team is hailed as heroes.

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• 5. Studio On The Brink

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  AdHoc Studio was formed in 2018 by Michael Choung, Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart and Pierre Shorette, who had worked at Telltale Games, Ubisoft and Night School Studio. Dispatch was their first project. It began as a live-action idea inspired by ESPN's This Is SportsCenter commercials, with production planned for March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic shut it down.

  Soon after, the new incarnation of Telltale asked AdHoc to co-develop a sequel to The Wolf Among Us. The two sides ran into creative differences, and AdHoc felt treated as "work for hire" with little control. The team left, spent a few months on another idea, scrapped it, and returned to Dispatch as an animated project. They shopped it around and signed with an unnamed publisher, but left after about a year, midway through development.

  The game was revealed with a trailer at the Game Awards on the 12th of December 2024, alongside its ensemble cast. It was built in Unreal Engine 4. A demo followed on the 29th of May 2025 and drew overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews. It also played at the 2025 Tribeca Festival.

  The money was still running out. The studio had 30 employees and faced closure, and the founders went six months without paychecks to keep staff paid. On the 21st of July 2025, Critical Role Productions announced a partnership with AdHoc that would fund the final stages of development.

  The release schedule came next. On the 16th of September 2025, AdHoc announced weekly episodes from the 22nd of October to the 12th of November 2025. A deluxe edition added a digital artbook and four digital comics. Versions for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 followed on the 28th of January 2026. The Switch release has all eight episodes from the start and runs at 720p and 30 frames per second. The free Switch 2 upgrade reaches 1440p and 60 frames per second. An Xbox Series X/S version is planned for the second or third quarter of 2026.

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• 6. Critics And Sales

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  On Metacritic, Dispatch holds a rating of "generally favorable." OpenCritic reported that 97% of critics recommended it. Individual reviewers agreed on the writing and the cast, and split on the mechanics.

  Ben Reeves of Game Informer praised the narrative and the choices. Sarah Thwaites of IGN praised the writing and cast but felt the hacking mini-games lacked thrill. Fraser Brown of PC Gamer lauded the characters and writing and wished for more interactivity. Jordan Ramee of GameSpot enjoyed the writing, visuals, acting and challenge, though he noted a lack of narrative consequence. Robert Ramsey of Push Square liked the writing, characters, choices and soundtrack but found the quick time events lacking. The Gamekult reviewer enjoyed the art, gameplay, writing and cast, but thought the jokes were wearing thin. Jim Norman of Nintendo Life, reviewing the Switch 2 port, praised the writing, acting and animation, but called the gameplay lacking and the port's censorship strange.

  Audiences were warmer still. Dispatch sold over one million copies in its first ten days and two million in its first month. AdHoc said it was on course to beat its three-year sales target in just three months. It has now sold over four million copies.

  The awards lists are long. Dispatch appears among the nominees and honorees at The Game Awards 2025, the Steam Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, the Game Developers Choice Awards, the Golden Reel Awards, the NAVGTR Awards, and the British Academy Games Awards. It was also considered for a Nebula Award for game writing and a Hugo Award.

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• 7. Two Controversies

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  In December 2025, players noticed that the Nintendo eShop artwork for the Digital Deluxe Edition looked different from the PlayStation 5 and Windows versions. The characters' swimsuits had been altered to look more modest. AdHoc said it "could not comment on the topic at (that) time."

  The worry proved justified. When the game launched on the eShop on the 28th of January 2026, players reported that scenes with nudity, sexual references and crude gestures were censored by default. On PlayStation 5 and Windows that had been an optional toggle, and on Switch it could not be turned off. AdHoc blamed "Nintendo's content criteria." Nintendo replied later that it requires third-party games to carry independent ratings and meet its platform guidelines, but does not change the games themselves.

  Many players demanded refunds, and some said the censorship was never disclosed to people who pre-ordered. AdHoc apologized, saying people had "a right to be pissed" and that it "had lots to learn." It said it had not meant to hide the censorship, and had assumed the game would be allowed uncensored, as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 were. On the 2nd of February 2026, AdHoc confirmed that an uncensored physical release on Nintendo systems was not possible. On the 15th of February it reportedly reverted one censored element. In March 2026 it said it was still working with Nintendo, and that the Xbox Series X/S version would be uncensored like the original.

  A different dispute followed the release of episodes 7 and 8 on the 12th of November 2025. In a key scene in episode 7, Invisigal kisses Robert without his consent. Some players, especially those who preferred a romance with Blonde Blazer, compared it to a forced romance, according to Game Rant.

  On the 19th of November 2025, AdHoc released patch 1.0.16409, whose notes mentioned "conditional outcome tuning to balance character relationships in episodes 7 & 8." Unless certain criteria are met, the kiss now does not play for most players. Players welcomed the change.

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• 8. What Comes Next

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  In July 2025, the same month Critical Role Productions funded the last stretch of development, the company also agreed to work with AdHoc on Dispatch merchandise, tabletop gaming and an animated series.

  A second season has been discussed. In November 2025, co-founders Nick Herman and Pierre Shorette said they were considering one, given the game's sales and reception. Aaron Paul told his co-star Charles White, who voices MoistCr1TiKaL's character, that he was keen to do more seasons.

  In a May 2026 interview with the Brazilian outlet Voxel at Gamescom Latam, Herman spoke about the future. He said the team was interested in "developing characters and stories from the game's universe" and planned to take the franchise further. "There is a lot of opportunity and many characters that we want to continue exploring," he said. That is where the Z-Team's story, and the Torrance branch's phones, stand for now.

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