Dispatch

 I have a love for watching pop culture essay videos, or talking videos on certain events going on. I love watching them as they can inform me on important events or problems like on TikTok! But today I wanted to talk about Dispatch, a video game centered around superheroes. It is a choice based game, which means people choose responses that will change the story! I have a big love for games, and this is one. However I think it needs some critique.

I have seen a couple videos discussing the romance subplot in the game. The player is given two choices, both women. One is Invisigal, who is in the process of being a reformed villain. Her growth is messy and involves a lot of hard work on her part, along with the main character Robert. He is the third in line of the Mecha Man story, and his father was killed in action. He failed in his last mission and has since been thinking of retiring. The second love interest is Blonde Blazer, who is a very influential hero and gets Robert his job as a dispatcher to help heroes do their jobs. His assignment is the Z team, the reformed villains. Invisigal is on it.

Something people note is the insane favoritism of invisigal by the story, which I thought was also important to note. The game was very strongly leaning the player towards her, as a lot of plots involve her and her mishaps, especially her relationship with Robert. Something to note is that choice is important, but not really in the romance plot. A lot of options hinder on making Visi like you, and choose being a hero. While the options with Blazer are lacking and very average. She was most likely put as a second option and isn't very important once you lock into her romance. She stops having many interactions and honestly I don't think it's very fair! While both stories are interesting as Invisigal has her own problems, how she reacts with Robert is not fun. She harassed him at work with sexual comments and even forces a kiss on him later when things are tense. It is up to the player how Robert reacts but there is a skewed power dynamic with her. If anything she is the mentee while the player is her Mentor and boss! Blonde Blazer may have a power dynamic with Robert, but they have more even ground as she helps with dispatches too and is not very juvenile in character! Spoilers, but the ending of the game hinders on how you treat Invisigal. If she isn't coddled enough or given more chances, she turns evil. If she is, then she is good and it is treated as the good ending. In a game about choice, I feel that Robert should be given more autonomy! I feel if the roles were reversed, many would be upset about a woman being harassed by her coworker and the hindrance on plot.

I thought this would be a very interesting conversation to have, or at least inform on. What are your thoughts? Have you seen the game? Did you like it?