Dispatch

An improved Telltale game set in a discount #[tv:95557:INVINCIBLE (2021)] world. They've done away with the boring Telltale "walk around and click on random objects" sections in favor of a much more streamlined experience. It's much more like a playable tv show this time around, which is for the better in my opinion. Thankfully there's still gameplay and I found it surprisingly engaging. The interactable cutscenes are occasionally interrupted by the Dispatching mini game, in which we're tasked with managing our roster of villains in rehab. You're present with a map of the city and receive calls for help, you then need to intuit which stats are required for that call and choose the appropriate "hero" to handle it. This aspect of the game is very fun and serves as and effective, cheap, but also immersive way of building chemistry between the main cast. I would play this as a standalone game, maybe not on my pc but I definitely would if it were a phone game. The game looks great, it's probably the best example of the "actually 3D but made to look like it's 2D" animation technique artists have been struggling to get right for a decade. The main cast of characters is also fantastic. Most of them don't get enough time to get proper depth and development, but that's made up for with some extremely witty and charming dialogue. It's also helped by the fantastic voice performances, it's a varied cast including A listers like Aaron Paul and Jeffrey Wright, but also Youtubers and musicians like Thot Squad and Cr1tikal. I have to say that hearing familiar voices of Youtubers I've been aware of for most my life did not take me out of the game at all, which was unexpected. Perhaps they've done a good job or had some great direction. These games are always marketed as "your choices matter" types of games but there's a VERY obvious line that the writers intended you to follow. Between the two potential love interests one gets a lot more to work with for example. Other choices you'll make almost exclusively matter for the finale. What is cool is that there's a couple of things that can happen as a result of poor or good performance during the mini game. I really think they could've leaned into that more, maybe in season 2. Unfortunately, the main story doesn't quite stick the landing, and aside from the character interactions the writing is a bit too basic. As I was following the episodes weekly I was quite invested, but now that it's finished I just don't think it will stick in my mind for too long. There's a real lack of balls or grit that was present in The Walking Dead games for example. Overall a great foundation for the future of this studio, but I hope they can turn up the edge a bit. At the moment it's "Marvel but horny" and that's a bit disappointing.