I spent most of the Dispatch trailer trying to figure out what it was. Though there were the telltale signs early on, like dialogue choices and a title card that announced it was from some of the same developers behind The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Tales from the Borderlands, I had a hard time accepting that this TGA highlight was actually a game, and not an incredibly polished animative movie.
AdHoc Studios, which includes veterans of Telltale Games and Oxenfree dev Night School, looks to have made something that actually accomplishes what Telltale Games was always aspiring to: it looks like an interactive movie. Or perhaps more accurately, an interactive and wholly original version of a superhero show like Invincible, as Dispatch follows a former hero reduced to working an office job where he dispatches more capable heroes to actually respond to crimes.
Dispatch Is Fulfilling The Telltale Games Fantasy
This was always the experience I wanted from Telltale, but technical limitations frequently got in the way. When I first played through The Wolf Among Us back in 2017, it was a great way to cap off a long day at my reporting job. When I finally got home at the end of my 45-minute commute after covering a sporting event or going to local events to interview strangers, I wanted something that wasn’t asking too much of me. The Wolf Among Us was simple on a mechanical level, and let me soak up the vibe of its moody neo-noir world while only occasionally making decisions.
The vibes were so good that I was willing to look past its flaws, most of which were present across every single game Telltale had made. The character movement was janky. Their facial expressions were limited. And you could often tell when you were switching from one timeline to another as the game would stutter as it loaded up the next piece of the scene. These weren’t game-ruining issues, but added up to occasionally break the spell the game otherwise cast.
I can’t judge what Dispatch will look like as a final release, and won’t be able to until I get my hands on it next year. But the trailer’s animation looks terrific, and seems to transition seamlessly from moments when you’re playing to moments when you’re just watching. It actually looks a lot like Hi-Fi Rush, which pulled off a similar balancing act.
An Incredibly Polished Take On A Familiar Genre
The details in certain shots are really impressive, too. There are great fire effects, fog, portals, believable light and darkness — including a shadow cast by Venetian blinds on a wood paneled office wall — and translucent reflections in windows. Facial expressions have advanced a long way since the patented Telltale eyebrows-raised-wide-eyes-mouth-open all purpose surprise reaction. The action is clean, and no longer looks like one 3D model colliding with another 3D model. Whether it’s bright fluorescents, deep shadow, or a dimly lit room, the game’s lighting looks great.
All of this is combining to add up to the best-looking game I’ve seen in this particular niche. I thought this year’s Life is Strange: Double Exposure looked great — the best the series had ever looked — but Dispatch is operating on another level. At least, it seems to be in this trailer. We’ll have to wait until next year to see if it’s actually pulling off this superhuman feat.
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