Dispatch was one of the few games from 2025 that I wish I had played at the time. Even though I lost interest in The Walking Dead games from Telltale Games, they were a lot of fun to play. Dispatch is right up my alley. A superhero-focused game that’s light on gameplay. But with an engaging story and a fantastic cast of characters that make the game so special. Yes, I played it on Switch 2, and I have my thoughts on the game’s censorship.
In case you didn’t already know
Dispatch focuses on Robert Robertson III, who was the person behind the famous hero, Mecha Man. Unlike other superheroes, our character doesn’t have any superpowers. Their mech unit is what made them such a pillar of the community. But when the villain Shroud renders the Mecha suit inoperable, it seems like our star’s career as a hero is over.
Along comes the SDN, an organization that needs your help. They need you to help rehabilitate past supervillains who are now heroes with the SDN. They also promise that they can help you get back on the streets as a hero.
These are the undesirables. Yes, they all have interesting talents, but they are also delinquents in their own right. They aren’t quite along the same lines as the characters from the BBC cult classic Misfits, but it’s not too far off. They all have interesting and unique abilities, but they all have baggage. It’s up to Robert to lift them and make them into proper heroes.
Great storytelling, not so great gameplay
The game’s story spans across eight episodes, which gives the game a proper limited tv series feel. Within each episode, the structure is consistent. You’ll have your story branching points where your dialog decisions impact the story. Some are small remarks that don’t impact the story too much. Other times, there are significant moments that impact the rest of the game.
The other part of the game is the dispatching. This is where you send your heroes on calls to help solve different requests. These can be as straightforward as stopping a crime in progress. But then you have quirky scenarios where you need to help a person with their shopping.
When a call comes in, an icon appears on the map. Once engaged, you’ll get a short sequence that explains the scenario and gives you hints on who to send. Depending on what’s happening, you’ll need to decide which hero or heroes to send to the area. Every scenario is different, so it’s important to look at the details and to send the best person. Early on, there is a lot of guesswork since your roster is pretty weak.
A bit of randomization
After a task, a pop-up will appear that first indicates the scenario’s ideal resolution. Then your character’s skills will appear over this to show how well they match. From there, depending on how much your skills overlap, indicates your rate of success. Then a little ball appears and starts to bounce around. Early on, it’s hard to get a high percentage, but later on, it can be pretty easy.
I’ve had scenarios where my rate of success is low, but I still completed the task. But I also had high success scenarios (above 70%) that failed. It can be annoying since this is out of your control unless you have a 100%. I never got to the point of complete failure, so I don’t know if it’s possible to bungle this up completely.
Part of dispatching is dealing with timing. You will have a few calls that you won’t be able to complete because you don’t have enough heroes available. There is a lot of juggling. You will have calls where you recommend sending out more than one. But you might want to take the risk and send only one because you can’t afford to send more.
Yes, the story is fantastic
This is very much a game you spend more time watching than doing. At the start of the game, you even have the option to go for a cinematic approach. This takes away the game’s quicktime prompts. There are other customization options available. These take the gaming aspect away and focuses sole on the story. This makes sense since it is very much the star of the show.
The cast is fantastic. I enjoyed every character, but I wish there were a bit more story building around a few of them. Because of the size of your crew, you don’t get too much back story. The focus is so much on Robert that it’s disappointing that we don’t get any B or C plots to highlight the other members.
Also, I’m curious how different the story is with certain choices we make. There are some notable story deviations, so how does that impact the rest of the game? I could play the game again, but I’m also one of those people that prefers to leave the story as is. This is my adventure, and I don’t want to spoil it by second-guessing some of my earlier decisions.
Let’s talk about the Nintendo Switch version
Yes, I played the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game. I bought it, not knowing the censorship restrictions of the game. For context, the developers included a lot of nudity in the game. While the game does have the option to toggle this for other versions, that’s not available here. Since the release, there has been back-and-forth between Adhoc and Nintendo about this. It’s been a bad look for both, and with better management, it would have never been a story to begin with.
What annoys me is the inconsistency. I understand the censoring of penises and areolas (but only on women, lol). What I don’t get is why the middle finger needs censoring? It doesn’t make sense that a finger gesture gets the same treatment as a penis. What’s strange is that there is a part at the end of the game where you flip the bird, but it doesn’t get the black bar.
The worst part is how they incorporate the censoring. It’s a huge black bar that feels more comical than purposeful. It takes away from the scene and is a distraction. Also, the game loves to show a lot of full frontal male nudity. There is one character who is “naked,” and his dick is out there.
I wish they had done this censoring better. They should have incorporated the Japanese media method of censoring. Pixelate the area instead of using a black bar. Heck, evenThe Sims series has been doing the same thing for over twenty years. This entire debacle makes it seem like Adhoc did this on purpose to drum up easy press. It’s low-hanging fruit that’s become the norm for a lot of developers in this industry.
Still, I loved every moment of Dispatch
If I had played this in 2025, Dispatch would have featured on my favorite games of 2025 list. Even without the censoring and the less-than-fun gameplay, this is an incredible game. Hours after finishing the story, I’m still thinking about the game and curious about what’s next. The story has a proper conclusion, but there is more to explore here. I cannot wait to see what they expand and showcase in season two.
