The opening episodes of Dispatch blew me away (as you can read in this review in progress), and now the following two episodes are available to all, let me tell you – it only gets better.
I’ll keep these updated impressions brief as there’ll be a longer final review for episode 8, but you should also be wary of mild spoilers going forward from here. If you’ve not played the first two episodes yet, stop here and go do that. I’ll not ruin the big stuff of course, but it’s going to be tough to avoid all details so bear that in mind.
With that out of the way…
Episode three deals with the Z Squad’s performance. After some disastrous outings last time round, they are sitting soundly at the bottom of the performance leaderboards. Blazer calls a meeting with Robert and informs him that if things don’t improve, he’ll have to cut someone from the team, partly as punishment, and partly as a kick up the ass to the rest of the crew to buck up their ideas.
We won’t say who is on the chopping block, but it is safe to say Blazer, Chase et all have a strong contender in mind to start with. So it falls to Robert to break the news to the team and ultimately choose who will get let go if it comes to that.
The writing is once again stellar, with Paul’s Robert proving to be a fantastically performed character in this episode. Whether he’s laying into the team with harsh digs, or sarcastically retorting to one of the crew after an earlier confrontation, he never fails to be entertaining in this episode. The Z Squad hold up their end of the bargain as well, and one thing I noticed more of here than before is the in-mission banter between all of the players. Some genuinely stinging barbs are thrown, as well as plenty of hilarious jabs and comments.
There are some tough choices to be had, and a lot of story shaping will be completed by the final scene. I’m already planning my next playthrough, hoping to get my wife to watch along and choose other options to see what is different. But no matter what, things with the Z Squad at the very least will not be the same when we meet them again.
Onto episode 4, and once again the writing is fantastic. A returning character gets far more screen time than they have so far, and has quickly proven to be a firm favourite of mine thanks to some dry humour and dead pan, unintentional comedy. We also get to deal with the fallout of episode 3, and suffice to say, it’s not all rose and joy when we meet the Z Squad for our shift.
We also get to see Royd’s progress on Mecha Man’s new and improved suit, and he’s come a long way since refusing to wash his hands after using the bathroom when we first met.
This episode is far harder to write about without giving too much away, but just know that if you’re invested with what has happened so far, know ep.4 will only pull you in further and make the wait for ep.5 even more agonising.
I really am enjoying Dispatch, and it almost feels a shame that we’re halfway through the story already while at the same time GIVE ME MORE NOW I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS… I don’t doubt ADHOC can keep the good time rolling, and I cannot wait to see more in the coming weeks.
This game was tested and reviewed on PC (via Steam). All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by the publisher.Want to keep up to date with the latest Xt reviews, Xt opinions and Xt content? Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
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