When the Dispatch trailer first debuted at the Game Awards last year, I thought a new superhero animated series was in the works. My excitement multiplied when I read AdHoc Studio’s name and realized Dispatch is going to be an interactive narrative. A first look at the game was made available as a 30 minute demo during June’s Steam Next Fest, and initial reactions are overwhelmingly positive. Dispatch topped Next Fest’s charts and was wishlisted over 500,000 times. Superhero media is back on the rise after an awkward and dull period following last decade’s golden era. Dispatch is shaping up to be an impactful installment in superhero stories and is well equipped with an all star team to make it happen.

The All Star Team of Dispatch

The AdHoc Studio Crew

After Telltale abruptly shut down, its alumni and other veteran developers from Ubisoft and Night School Studio banded together to form AdHoc Studio. This is the same team that brought us critically acclaimed titles like The Wolf Among Us, The Walking Dead, and Tales from the Borderlands. AdHoc Studio is releasing Dispatch as their first original title by combining their own incredibly skilled and talented pool with a diverse cast of voice actors from across the entertainment industry.

Dispatch Cast and Characters

Aaron Paul – Robert Robertson / Mecha Man

Aaron Paul stars as Robert Robertson, publicly known as Mecha Man. He’s a powerless hero who drives a versatile mech suit designed by his father. He’s forced into retirement and disappears into the public after his suit is destroyed. He gets a second chance to support heroism as a dispatcher for SDN, a superhero emergency dispatch service. The suit’s lore parallels Peni Parker’s SP//dr Suit inherited from her father, but it’s design and features are more bulky like Iron Man’s Hulkbuster.

Aaron Paul is most well known for award winning role as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad (2008). His voice acting career includes Todd Chavez and other voices in BoJack Horseman (2014), and most recently Powerplex in Invincible (2025).

Erin Yvette – Blonde Blazer

Erin Yvette stars as the Blonde Blazer, the friendly and optimistic boss of SDN and quintessential superhero. She’s smart, muscular, tall, and beautiful. She wears a brightly colored outfit with a cape. And of course, she can fly! BB appears to fill the Superman or Wonder Woman trope of the hero’s hero. She offers Robert a job at SDN as another way to continue protecting the city.

Erin Yvette is a veteran voice actor for Telltale Games. She was nominated for her role as Snow White in The Wolf Among Us (2013) and Vicki Vale in Batman: The Telltale Series (2016). She won an award for her portrayal of Sasha in Tales from the Borderlands (2014). Her voice has appeared in many other projects, including Dora and Scylla in Hades II (2024).

Jeffrey Wright – Chase / Trackstar

Jeffrey Wright plays Chase, a retired speedster called Trackstar. The side effect of his super speed aged him just as fast, causing him to retire. He continued his service to superheroes by becoming a dispatcher for SDN. He’s sarcastic, direct, and unafraid to speak his mind. Although he can’t get things done as fast as before, he makes sure everyone knows he doesn’t have a time for BS.

Jeffrey Wright is a prolific TV, movie, and voice actor. He won multiple awards for his role as Monk Ellison in American Fiction (2023). He recently appeared in the superhero genre as Jim Gordon in The Batman (2022), and voiced Batman in the radio drama Batman: The Audio Adventures (2021).

Tanoai Reed – Royd

Tanoai Reed voices Royd, an endearing agent helping SDN’s management alongside Blonde Blazer. He’s endearing, very friendly, and at times optimistically naive. Royd is one of the few people aware of Robert’s true identity and might help him restore his mech suit. Royd’s powers, if any, are unrevealed, but his sheer size and brawler attitude suggest he fills the gentle giant role like Colossus or the Thing.

Tanoai Reed is an award winning stuntman who regularly doubles for his first cousin Dwayne Johnson. He’s performed stunt work in many movies including installments of the Jumanji and Fast & Furious franchises, and Black Adam (2022). Dispatch is Reed’s first voice acting role.

Charles White (MoistCr1TiKaL) – Sonar

Charles White plays Sonar, a hyper-intelligent human-bat hybrid with a sweet tooth for Twinkies. He periodically transforms into a bat monster with enhanced strength, speed, wings, and a glass shattering screech. Born in San Francisco, Sonar is a hilarious parody of the Silicon Valley tech bro. He regularly brings up his Harvard Education, is addicted to controlled substances, and was booked for financial and cyber crimes.

Charles White, more commonly known as MoistCr1TiKaL, is an award winning streamer and content creator. Cr1TiKaL livestreams and makes commentary videos about media, social trends, and other topics on his Youtube Channel. He is also the co-creator of comic series GodSlap and Plague Seeker. Cr1TiKaL has voiced multiple videogame characters and most recently appeared in World of Warships (2014) as Chuck Blast.

Fahim Anwar (Lance Cantstopolis) – Flambae

Fahim Anwar voices Flambae, a hot-headed firebender who relieves stress by setting things on fire. He channels flames through his entire body and uses them like jets to fly. Flambae has all the powers and pride of Human Torch without the heroism. He even designed his own suit with vibrant flames and a wide V-cut revealing his chest. Despite his destructive power and outward confidence, he gets hilariously defensive whenever someone brings up his loss to the powerless Mecha Man.

Fahim Anwar is a stand up comedian, actor, and writer based in Los Angeles. He starred in GoatFace (2018), a sketch comedy film that debuted on Comedy Central and skyrocketed his comic career. Anwar’s flamboyant stand up character, Lance Cantstopolis, inspires his comedic portrayal of Flambae. Anwar has appeared in comedy TV movies, including Neighbors (2014), Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (2016), and Big Bruh (2023).

Laura Bailey – Invisigal

Laura Bailey plays Invisigal, a sassy thief who can turn invisible by holding her breath. Ironically, Invisigal is an asthmatic smoker despite her power’s need for good cardiovascular health. She mysteriously turned herself to join SDN, yet she hates authority and company. Her lone wolf personality keeps her distant from others and makes her butt heads with Robert.

Laura Bailey is a prolific voice actress in the videogame and animation industries. She’s won awards for voicing Abby from The Last of Us II (2020), Mary Jane in Spiderman (2018), and Catwoman in Batman: The Telltale Series (2016). She’s also a founding member of Critical Role and voiced her D&D character in The Legend of Vox Machina (2022).

Mayanna Berrin – Coupé

Mayanna Berrin voices Coupé, a shadowy assassin with sharp metal wings and even sharper knives. She throws her knives with pinpoint accuracy while gliding through the air or controlling the shadows. Coupé began her murder career as a mob assassin, then flew solo as a mercenary until she was captured. Her background remains largely unknown.

Mayanna Berrin is an actress, writer, and producer. She voiced Embla in Fire Emblem Heroes (2017) and appears in the StoryQuest as an avid and experienced TTRPG player. She recently appeared as Serif in Vampire: The Masquerade – New York by Night (2022) and produced TV installments in the Polly Pocket franchise.

Seán McLoughlin (jacksepticeye) – Punch Up

Seán McLoughlin plays Punch Up, an Irish carnival strongman who magically gained the strength of 10 men at the cost of half his size. He is incredibly strong and durable, and immune to pain. He embodies a Popeye-esque brawler with an Antman size to strength ratio. His nickname seems to come from his fighting strategy against taller opponents, which is all of them.

Seán McLoughlin, more commonly known as jacksepticeye, is an Irish gaming content creator and award winning streamer. His channel amassed 31 million subscribers over 12 years and cemented him as one of the most influential gaming creators on YouTube. He voiced Pirate Jack in Sonic Prime (2022), and most recently voiced other characters in Fears to Fathom – Ironbark Lookout (2023), Poppy Playtime (2022), and River City Girls 2 (2022).

Alanah Pearce – Malevola

Alanah Pearce voices Malevola, a 6’6.6″ transdimensional half-demon with a giant magical sword and love of true crime. She’s a spinoff of Magik, possessing the power to create portals into other worlds to hop across space. Nothing about her demonic origins are really known, but she does identify as an atheist, so perhaps she isn’t actually from hell.

Alanah Pearce is an Australian content creator, game writer and journalist. She supported development as a writer for Sony’s Santa Monica for games including God of War Ragnarök (2022), and was a producer for The IGN Show (2017). She voiced Lana Prince in Cyberpunk 2077 (2020) and also appeared in Gears 5 (2019).

Matthew Hauri (Yung Gravy) – Golem

Matthew Hauri plays Golem, a giant mass of dirt and mud brought to life by magic. Golem is identical to Clayface apart from originally being human. His body can morph into any form and completely regenerates damage. He’s also a basketball enjoyer and most likely dominates the court with his abilities and massive size.

Matthew Hauri is a Minnesota rapper who goes by Yung Gravy. He’s most well known for his creative sampling of songs from the 80s and 90s into comedic hip hop and trap songs. His single Mr. Clean went viral in 2017 and ignited his career. Golem is his voice acting debut.

THOT SQUAD (Blvck Bunnie) – Prism

THOT SQUAD voices Prism, a Michigan pop star with 1.3 million followers and light based powers. She’s a total diva, glamorous and dramatic, with a side of snobbishness for music. Her photokinesis seems to manipulate light and shape it into various constructs. She creates masterful illusions to wield light as a weapon and use it as a stage device to put on vibrant shows. Expect something similar to Green Lantern, but more colorful in shades of blue and pink.

THOT SQUAD is a Michigan rapper whose singles POUND CAKE and HOES DEPRESSED went viral in 2024. She’s known for her creative instrumentals, lyrics, and expressive and energetic vocals. Prism is her voice acting debut.

Dispatch Demo Gameplay Synopsis

Dispatch takes place in the city of Torrance, modeled after the streets and culture of Los Angeles. You’re placed in Robert Robertson’s shoes on his first day at SDN, some unknown time after he retires the mantle of Mecha Man. Blonde Blazer, Chase, and Royd help him get situated into his role as a dispatcher for the Z-team of the Phoenix Program. Not much is revealed about SDN or its programs, but term ‘phoenix’ seems to suggest a rebirth for its participants, a group of reformed villains. Things get worse for Robert because if teams are labelled in alphabetical order, Z-team is the bottom of the barrel. This ragtag group of lunatics and sociopaths consists of Sonar, Flambae, Invisigal, Punch Up, Malevola, Golem, Prism, and Coupé.

The Familiar Choose Your Own Adventure

Dispatch implements the classic interactive story system the AdHoc Crew is skilled in creating. The game progresses through a series of cutscenes with timed dialogue and action choices that shape the narrative. There is an emphasis on building character relationships and branching story lines typical of the interactive narrative genre. You are more than just a dispatcher for Z-team. You’re also a team leader and former superhero. If anyone is going to convince these villains to switch sides, it’s gotta be you.

SDN, what’s your emergency?

Dispatch reconstructs the interactive narrative structure into a timely resource management game which feels fresh and engaging. This new gameplay element makes you dispatch villains heroes to respond to emergencies around Torrance. However, these emergencies aren’t always simplistically heroic like stopping a robbery or saving people from a burning building. Some need a soft touch, like getting a kid’s balloon out of a tree. Others are nuanced, like discouraging a 12 year old from the criminal life. A few get ridiculous, like remotely hacking a malfunctioning bidet to stop it from spewing backflow everywhere… yuck!

Each hero has a stat map with different levels of points across 5 attributes: combat, vigor, mobility, charisma, and intellect. These 5 points enclose an area that represents the hero’s effectiveness in situations. Emergency scenarios have a similar but hidden stat map based on which attributes can successfully resolve them. You must use context clues and some given hints to quickly decide who to send before the call expires. Foiling armed gunmen at a bank probably needs combat and vigor, while helping kids cross the road is a job for charisma and mobility.

Successful responses are done by overlapping the scenario and hero stat maps above a certain threshold. Some characters also have synergies which boost their stats and grant certain advantages like dialogue or action options. Z-team will rush to the scene to help, then report back after a short duration. Sometimes, additional prompts will pop up as you command team’s strategy and guide their decisions towards victory. Furthermore, heroes can only be assigned one task at a time and have a rest period after completion.

Remote Tech Support

While your heroes are out in the real world, you can resolve remote emergencies through a series of minigames on the terminal. These are pretty basic puzzles involving some clicks and pattern recognition. It’s nothing too fancy, but serves as a nice break from the otherwise visually intense dispatch map.

Dispatch’s Promising Superhero Subversion

The past decade has brought us some of the greatest superhero media ever made in terms of videogames, TV, and film. However, with the ramp up in release quantity without significantly increase in quality, the enjoyment of superhero media became a coin flip for a lot of fans. Reviews and commentators often screamed “superheroes are oversaturated” in response to DC’s misses in film and Marvel’s projection of 10-15 projects per year. Superheroes appeared to be on the decline until a recent resurgence due to genre subversion. TV shows like Umbrella Academy, The Boys, and Invincible have garnered millions of views and praise for their unique twists on the typical superhero stories. Atypical hero movies like the Deadpool and Suicide Squad made a huge impact on dark comedic tropes used in later films. Dispatch draws inspiration from these titles to subvert its narrative into a fresh take on the superhero genre.

Dispatch’s comedic narrative of a hero mentoring a group of villains embodies the chaos of Suicide Squad. AdHoc Studio’s witty writing and the office setting gives it a sitcom vibe. The animation and vibrant art style are so polished and the visuals pop out like a well illustrated comic book. A lot of reactions have compared it to Invincible, but I felt like it more closely resembles X Men ’97 and What If…? in its composition and 3D animation. Nevertheless, Dispatch has a lot of great superhero media to pull inspiration from and it seems like AdHoc Studio’s vision is lining up to be another great installment in the superhero subversion genre.

Final Thoughts

As a huge fan of interactive story games and the superhero genre, I cannot wait for Dispatch to release later this year. The art style is so vibrant and the writing is thoughtful and hilarious. The demo immediately sucked me into the world and I wish AdHoc Studio gave us more. I’ve already wishlisted the game, and I’m definitely getting in line for the merch drop. If you’re a fan of superhero media, TV, movies, or games, you need to check out Dispatch!

Dispatch’s demo was part of Steam Next Fest: June 2025 and is still available to play. The game is set to release late 2025. Retail price has not been set at this time.