Superhero Dramedy Dispatch Gets Release Details

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We are less than a month away from the launch of AdHoc Studio‘s debut game, Dispatch. This superhero workplace comedy-drama is being developed in partnership with Critical Role and features characters voiced by several members of the group. As we get closer to the release date, AdHoc Studio are gradually revealing more details about how the game will be structured, when it will be available, and announcing further characters and their voices. Let’s have a look at the recently divulged info.

Get Ready For Weekly Superhero Action

The most important piece of information to come out over the past couple of weeks is of course the release date. Dispatch will debut on PC and PS5 from 3pm (BST) October 22nd. The first drop will be for episodes 1 and 2 out of the 8 total that make up the full game. 2 more episodes will be released each week on October 29th, November 5th, and November 12th.

Graphic with Dispatch's episodic release schedule detailed. Week 1, October 22nd, Episode 1: Pivot and Episode 2: Onboard.
Week 2, October 29th, Episode 3: Turnover and Episode 4: Restructure.
Week 3, November 5th, Episode 5: Team Building and Episode 6: Moving Parts.
Week 4, November 12th, Episode 7: Retrospective and Episode 8: Synergy. — I can’t wait to experience these episodes.

Despite the whole game being ready for the initial launch date, the team have opted for a staggered release of content. They had a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, the story has been developed for there to be natural breaks and cliffhangers, similar to episodic TV shows. Also, fans will be able to speculate and build a community between episodes, and the game can exist in players’ lives longer than a weekend binge. Telltale Games were never able to attempt such a compact episode schedule due to developing the game episode to episode, so it will be interesting to see how this works in practice.

Chief Antagonist

In the demo, we learn that main character Robert is starting work at SDN because his mech-suit was destroyed in a fight. The latest trailer reveals more about this incident. Robert, as Mecha Man, was lured into a trap by Shroud, leader of the Red Ring; a group of super criminals. There, Shroud destroyed the suit and left Robert in a coma. This leads Robert to eventually work as SDN as a way to rehabilitate and rebuild his suit while planning his revenge against Shroud.

AdHoc Studio recently announced that Shroud will be voiced by Critical Role‘s Matthew Mercer. With this, the member’s of CR involved in Dispatch all have their character’s revealed, save for Travis Willingham. Perhaps he’ll voice PhenomaMan, who we’ve seen brief flashes of in promo materials.

Screenshot from Dispatch. Mecha Man's suit flies backwards through the air through a fire-lit, smokey, building lobby. — You’ve got to pack a serious punch to move a Mech Suit through the air like that.

Going Deluxe

Dispatch launches in two flavours, standard ($29.99) and deluxe ($39.99), with regional pricing to be revealed on release. The extra cost of the deluxe version will net you a digital art-book with over 100 pages and 4 digital comics containing 6 stories which are mostly canon to the main game. The developers have said they’re looking into options to produce these 2 items physically in the future, and have not ruled out a physical version of the game too. Of course, both options unlock the full-game, with the episodes becoming available as they release on the schedule above.

You’ve Got Questions? AdHoc Has Answers

On the 25th September, AdHoc hosted a Q&A session via their Discord, where some burning questions from fans were addressed. It was a short 30-minute call, which you can watch in full here or read a handy text-summary here. Below are some highlights.

Will the game come to other platforms? There are plans to bring the game to other platforms if it is successful.
Can choice time be extended? No, but the team are working hard to give each choice the maximum time possible.
How long is the full game? Up to around 10 hours total.
Can I pre-order? No.
Are there trophies/achievements? Yes, the team has put a lot of thought into these. You will need to replay at least various scenes to earn them all.
Is there chapter select post-game? Yes. Episodes have been broken down for replayability.
Will the game run on Steam Deck? Yes, but it might not be officially verified at launch.
Will there be choice summaries? Yes. Summaries of choices and performance appear at the end of episodes and will be accessible from the main menu too.

Screenshot from Dispatch. Robert, in a superhero suit and cowl, stood on a podium at a press conference considering his response to a question. 3 options are displayed at the bottom of the screen; “That sums it up.”, “What was the question?”, and “My superhero days are over.”. — The press are being extra tough this morning.

The team said they want to do another Q&A session in the same way, but have not given a concrete date for that at this time. That’s understandable, given they are hard at work finishing the game before it launches on October 22nd. Make sure you wishlist the game on the Steam and PlayStation stores to help with visibility for the devs. Hopefully we can bring you more news in the run-up to the release of Dispatch.