Dispatch is a 2025 episodic adventure game developed and published by the American developer AdHoc Studio. Described as a superhero workplace comedy, the game has the player take the role of Robert Robertson III, formerly the superhero Mecha Man, who has to take a job as a dispatcher for villains-turned-superheroes after his mecha suit is destroyed in battle. Its cast includes the voices of Aaron Paul, Jeffrey Wright, Erin Yvette, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, and Matthew Mercer, as well as content creators jacksepticeye, MoistCr1tikal, Joel Haver, Alanah Pearce, and rappers Yung Gravy and Thot Squad.
Dispatch consists of eight episodes released on PlayStation 5 and Windows throughout October and November 2025. Versions for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 were released in January 2026, and Xbox Series X/S in July 2026. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics and sold over 4 million copies.
Gameplay
Dispatch is an adventure game, where the player's choices affect the story via the use of dialogue trees in conversations with other characters. A large form of the gameplay consists of navigating a superhero team across the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) map to crimes and events, where the player must strategically decide which hero or heroes best fit the activity based on their stats and character traits, while also managing their cooldowns. In the hacking minigame, the player must navigate pathways and complete quick time events.
Synopsis
Setting Dispatch is set in an alternate Los Angeles where superpowers, and consequently superheroes and supervillains, are commonplace, dividing society between "supers" (those born with powers such as flight and invisibility or born with a different appearance) and "normies" (those devoid of superpowers). While there are independent superheroes, most of them work for the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN), which provides services and protection for their subscribers.
Plot
Robert Robertson III, who followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather to pilot the mech suit built by the latter and become the superhero Mecha Man, attempts to locate his father's killer, the supervillain Elliot Connors / Shroud, but is lured into a trap by Shroud's gang, the Red Ring. Robert narrowly escapes and realizes a bomb has been placed on his mech suit. He survives, but due to the suit being extensively damaged and having already heavily indebted himself trying to maintain it, he announces his retirement to the press. After failing to stop a robbery on his own, Robert is approached by the superhero Mandy / Blonde Blazer, who proposes he works at the local branch of the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) as a dispatcher in exchange for help repairing his suit, and Robert accepts.
On his first day, he encounters his old friend Chase / Track Star, a retired speedster hero who, due to a side effect of his powers, appears 80-years-old at 39. Robert is assigned to the Z-Team, a group of supervillains that SDN is working to reform via their Phoenix Program. Its members are at the bottom of the branch's leader boards due to poor performance and are unruly. They do not take Robert seriously and have driven away previous dispatchers in the past. He gets into an argument with one of the Z-Team's members, Courtney / Invisigal, after she disobeys a direct order and allows a supervillain to escape. Blazer tasks Robert with cutting one of the Z-Team's members, Sonar or Coupé, to discourage further poor performances and replace them with either SDN janitor Waterboy or Phenomaman, a former top hero and Blazer's ex-boyfriend.
As Robert grows closer to either Blazer or Invisigal and builds a rapport with the Z-Team, he rebuilds the Mecha Man suit with help from SDN technical specialist Royd, but fails to replicate its missing power source, the Astral Pulse. Invisigal and Royd locate it, but she and Blazer disagree over how to retrieve it before Shroud and the Red Ring can. Chase berates Invisigal for her criminal past, causing her to leave in an attempt to retrieve the Astral Pulse alone. With Robert's assistance, she evades the Red Ring and reaches the Astral Pulse, but is intercepted by Shroud, who seemingly steals it and incapacitates her. Chase uses his speed to rescue her before collapsing.
With Chase hospitalized, the majority of the Z-Team votes to cut Invisigal. She admits to Robert that she was the one who planted the bomb on Robert's mech suit, having previously worked for Shroud and the Red Ring before joining the Phoenix Program. Robert is captured by Shroud and the cut Z-Team member. Shroud reveals Invisigal hid the Astral Pulse from both of them and tortures Robert in a failed attempt at locating it. Blazer rescues Robert, but the Red Ring retaliates by launching an assault on Los Angeles.
As the Z-Team and SDN fight back, Shroud leads a Red Ring detachment in attacking SDN's call center. Royd captures Invisigal and retrieves the Astral Pulse, allowing Robert to join the fight as Mecha Man while Blazer gives her amulet, the source of her powers, to Chase to revive him and help them further. Robert, Chase, Blazer, and the Z-Team defeat the Red Ring, but Shroud takes Robert's dog Beef hostage, forcing Robert to surrender.
If the player decided to trust Invisigal throughout the series despite her actions, she will take a bullet for Robert, who beats Shroud into submission before either killing or sparing him. Invisigal is subsequently welcomed back into the Z-Team. If Robert killed Shroud, he is suspended pending an investigation, though Blazer and Chase do not hold it against him. If the player repeatedly chose not to trust Invisigal however, she will kill Shroud, take his mask, and abandon Robert and the Z-Team.
Regardless of the choices made, the game ends with the Red Ring getting defeated and arrested, the cut Z-Team member being either forgiven or sent to prison, and the Z-Team hailed as heroes while the SDN branch undergoes repairs.
Cast and characters Main
Aaron Paul as Robert Robertson III / Mecha Man – A third-generation superhero who lacks powers but possesses a mechanical suit with various weaponry originally built by his grandfather. After the destruction of his suit and being forced into retirement, he secures a job at SDN as a dispatcher to earn finances to repair it. Rahul Kohli was originally in consideration for the role by the studio. Billy Cristos Jr. as Young Robert Laura Bailey as Courtney / Invisigal – A rebellious former villain formerly known as Invisibitch and the lowest-ranking member of the Z-Team who can turn invisible while holding her breath. Erin Yvette as Mandy / Blonde Blazer – A corporate superhero for hire, the manager of SDN's Los Angeles division, and Phenomaman's ex-girlfriend who wears an amulet that grants her the power of flight, super-strength, energy blasts, and a resistance to toxins. Without it, she loses her superhuman physique and becomes a brunette. Fahim Anwar as Chad / Flambae – An Afghan former supervillain turned hero, former nemesis of Mecha Man, and member of the Z-Team who possesses pyrokinesis and flameproof skin. MoistCr1tikal as Victor / Sonar – A highly intelligent man/bat hybrid, Harvard graduate, recovering cocaine addict, and member of the Z-Team who can transform into a large monstrous bat. Alanah Pearce as Malevola Gibb – A broadsword wielding half-demoness, Sonar's Narcotics Anonymous (NA) sponsor, and member of the Z-Team who can create portals. jacksepticeye as Colm / Punch Up – An Irish former carnival strongman, Coupé's ex-boyfriend, and member of the Z-Team who acquired the strength of ten men and an immunity to pain from a sorceress in exchange for half of his height. Thot Squad as Alice / Prism – A pop star influencer and member of the Z-Team who possesses photokinesis, the ability to generate and manipulate light. Mayanna Berrin as Janelle / Coupé – A former assassin and ballerina, Punch Up's ex-girlfriend, and member of the Z-Team who can fly and possesses umbrakinesis, the ability to generate and manipulate shadows, and an assortment of daggers. Yung Gravy as Bruno / Golem – A magical construct made of dirt and clay and member of the Z-Team. Travis Willingham as Katon-Ur / Phenomaman – A once highly-regarded hero-for-hire from a distant planet, public face for SDN, Blonde Blazer's ex-boyfriend, and member of the Z-Team who can fly, possesses super-strength, and suffers from bouts of depression. Joel Haver as Herman "Herm" / Waterboy – An insecure SDN janitor who can produce water from his mouth and body. Tanoai Reed as Roy / Royd – A muscular member of the Phoenix Program who was arrested by Robert's father, became a mechanic for SDN, and helps repair Robert's Mecha Man suit. Matthew Mercer as Elliot Connors / Shroud – A former member of the Brave Brigade who became a supervillain and leader of the Red Ring who killed Robert's father and possesses a mask that grants predictive abilities and various cybernetic augmentations. Jeffrey Wright as Chase / Track Star / Starblazer – A speedster, former member of the Brave Brigade, old friend of Robert's father, and Robert's dispatching mentor who recommends him for the job. Due to his powers causing him to age 50 times faster than normal while in use, leading him to appear 80-years-old at 39, he is forced to retire and work at SDN as part of their hero records database and a dispatcher. Elijah Wright as Young Chase
Recurring Nimesh Patel as Galen – An experienced SDN dispatcher who possesses super hearing. Jared Goldstein as Toxic – A high-ranking member of the Red Ring who possesses the power of acidity, flight, and self-healing. Liam O'Brien as Kellen Sebastian / Lightningstruck – A minor villain and member of the Red Ring with electroshock blasters. Frankie Quiñones as Armstrong – A high-ranking member of the Red Ring who possesses a cybernetic second pair of arms. Ashley Johnson as Ashley Rhiness – A reporter for San Pedro Daily who often reports on SDN.
Jenn An, Brian Dobson, Liv Hamilton, Taliesin Jaffe, Isaac Jay, Marisha Ray, Sam Riegel, Kelly Sheridan, Vincent Tong, and Sam Vincent all provide additional voices.
Episodes Dispatch is separated into eight episodes.
Development After their time with Telltale Games, then Ubisoft and Night School Studio, AdHoc Studio was formed in 2018 by Michael Choung, Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart, and Pierre Shorette. All four began development on their first project, Dispatch. Originally it was envisioned to be live-action, inspired by This Is SportsCenter commercials from ESPN, and was initially planned to start production in March 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, development was shut down.
Around this time, the new incarnation of Telltale approached AdHoc to co-develop a sequel to The Wolf Among Us. Following the cancellation under the original Telltale, The Wolf Among Us 2 was announced in development in 2019. Both parties ran into creative differences; AdHoc in particular were frustrated of being treated like "work for hire" and lacking creative control over the project. Without direction from Telltale, AdHoc left and worked on a game idea for a few months before scrapping it and returned back to Dispatch. This time, they repurposed the project as animated instead of live-action, and shopped said project to multiple game studios until they landed a deal with an unnamed publisher for a year until they left mid-way development.
Seeking more funding, AdHoc announced a worldwide reveal of Dispatch with a trailer on December 12, 2024, during the Game Awards, alongside its ensemble cast. The game was developed using Unreal Engine 4.