New Dispatch Seasons Might Come With a Very Important Catch

Few narrative-driven games have caused as much of a buzz as Dispatch, with its design allowing players to truly craft a personal story based on their choices. The praise this game has gathered has almost guaranteed future content, likely in the form of new “Seasons” that continue the game forward from where it left off. With its unique episodic approach and freedom in storytelling, there are unfortunate restrictions that might hinder Dispatch the more it continues.

Nearly entirely crafted by its dialogue, Dispatch takes a Telltale-approach to its story, with brief moments of gameplay helping you coordinate a team of reformed supervillains to solve various problems. The relationships you form, the success of your squad, and other important decisions form branching narrative paths, making your journey different from everyone else’s. Depending on how you played, your ending to Dispatch can vary in a large number of ways.

Dispatch May Have Multiple Future Seasons Due To Its Popularity

Dispatch was a breakout game for developer AdHoc Studios, who released the game in association with Critical Role, the TTRPG live-play group featuring well-known voice actors like Matthew Mercer and Laura Bailey. Both actors star in Dispatch as well, but the narrative game has many of its own merits beyond just its star-studded cast. Selling nearly 2 million copies in just three months, word of mouth has helped skyrocket this game into a top-selling title in short order.

Part of the reason why Dispatch is so acclaimed is how it blends its narrative design with strategic gameplay, alongside memorable characters. The way the story was presented with week-long breaks between episodes also helped, as it made the game’s story feel like a hit TV show that rewarded players for their patience. Cliffhangers in video games are usually never resolved for multiple years, but quick resolutions helped craft one of the most unique stories seen since Telltale Studios’ landmark titles, such as The Walking Dead series.

Fans aren’t satisfied with just eight episodes though, to the surprise of AdHoc Studios. Many players are clamoring for more, begging for a Season 2, 3, or even 4 from the developer. This is likely possible, as Dispatch still has around a 96% rating of positive reviews on Steam, blowing past expectations with high peak player counts as well. Given its modest $30 pricing and faster potential turn-around for future content, there are few reasons why new Seasons wouldn’t happen.

Every Choice Creating Your Personal Story Might Be Hard To Maintain

The only problem with a Season 2 for Dispatch is how every player’s personal story can continue. The easy answer is that the game keeps your save data from Season 1, picking up where you left off with every major choice intact. For example, choosing to romance Invisigal or Blonde Blazer, or choosing to recruit Phenomaman or Waterboy to Z-Team. This combination of decisions, especially regarding Episode 8’s ending, will leave tons of unique starting points for Season 2 for all players.

This is already difficult to implement into the game, but it will only get harder if there is a Season 3 or 4. Too many branching decisions will force all future content to narrow into what a player said or did, forcing development to create more and more outcomes for every little choice. Despite player individuality being a major part of why Dispatch was successful, continuing the same story without starting over might be a herculean task for AdHoc to do the farther its narrative goes.

Season 2 already has to factor in a number of key choices to make sure your personal story continues authentically. If there were 4 or 5 major decisions that craft a theoretical Season 2, that number increases to 10 or 11 for Season 3 if there are the same number of path-breaking routes for a series of sequel episodes. Much like a time travel movie, new directions only add to the story’s complexity, creating more work for development to keep things fresh.

Some “Canon” Events Might Take Away Some Agency In Later Seasons

If AdHoc Studios want to continue the story of Dispatch for a long time without resetting the narrative, there may be some tough choices of their own they’ll have to make. It may be inevitable to narrow player choices somewhat, ensuring some paths stick to the same direction. Some “canon” events where fans wish they could change an outcome might be necessary to keep the workload reasonable for future Seasons to exist.

This might remove player agency, frustrating some fans eager to make the most personalized version of their story possible. Character deaths, choices for love interests, and more may have to be determined by the removal of player options to just maintain the scope of the game itself. To AdHoc’s credit, this already exists somewhat in Dispatch, mainly regarding who you can romance or cut from Z-Team. That being said, these parts of the story are already criticized, and something fans don’t want to be presented as narrowly in any potential Dispatch 2 or future content.

Thankfully, a simple Season 2 will likely be able to maintain every big player choice easily, as there isn’t too much of the story folding in upon itself yet. However, if fans want Dispatch to continue for a long time, they may have to understand that some sacrifices need to be made for a cohesive story to move forward.

How do you think future Dispatch Seasons might develop? Leave a comment below or join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!