u/Sad_Editor455

As a lifelong fan of telltale games, I’ve been with them from their initial rise to success, all the way to the day they closed the studio. And I’m still here rooting for them to achieve what they once had. I still haven’t given up on the wolf among us 2, despite multiple cancellations and announcements.

Unfortunately, the wolf among us plays a role in this more than I thought it would. The team who wrote the script for the wolf among us 2 had their work completely erased and they restarted the script from scratch. That was already devastating and discouraging enough to hear, as it means the wolf among us 2 is still balls deep in development hell with no exit in sight, but after seeing how well written dispatch is, it only adds more salt into the wound because I whole heartedly believe that the whatever script they had written was absolutely going to do the series justice, and I would’ve trusted this team with my life to deliver a sequel that was worth the wait.

As for dispatch, it became immediately successful and it’s no surprise why. For starters, the animation and art style is absolutely gorgeous. It feels like a mixture of comic book outlines mixed with 3D animation that’s fluid and smooth. The sound design and voice acting is absolutely top notch. The protagonist is voiced by Aaron Paul, who is a man who possesses more talent than one person should ever be trusted of having. My two favorites shows in the world both have Aaron Paul in it. That being Bojack Horseman, and Breaking Bad. Both of which he delivers unbelievable performances in. Everybody else is carrying their own weight as well, there’s not a single bad performance in this game. Blonde Blazer, Invisigal, and especially Trackstar, all give stellar performances. The dialogue is so incredibly dense and well written and the actors deliver these lines with perfection. The protagonist Robert immediately shows exhaustion and depression, as he’s just recently failed to avenge his father’s legacy. He spent his entire inheritance on the suit, which was life changing money, and he failed to achieve greatness. And nobody is shy about reminding him of this. They kick him while he’s down. His personality is already very defined and layered, he’s showing so much individualism and pouring nuance into his role and within minutes you feel like you already know what kind of guy Robert is. He’s got a bleak and pessimistic sense of humor, mildly self deprecating, but he pulls it off perfectly. His dialogue fits like a glove. Coming right off of his retirement, blonde blazer approaches him and offers to give him a job as a dispatcher in exchange for them funding the recreation of his suit. It’s quick with establishing character motivations and wastes no time getting into the meat and potatoes. The dispatching process is pretty creative and a well crafted mini game. Surprisingly enough, my favorite part of this episode has been the character introductions. This is usually such a slog, and it’s almost always my least favorite part of any piece of media. Exposition dumps are often just a necessary evil and an obstacle that you need to subject yourself to it to get it over with as quickly as possible. But not here, invisigal’s introduction is amazing, her dialogue is witty and quick to the punch, and her lines and line deliveries are hilarious. Then you meet Royd, who’s fucking hilarious, and his exchange with Robert was pure gold. From him piecing together why he’s called Roy’d, to him justifying his sanitary practices, it’s so unhinged and genuinely funny. What a fantastic and entertaining interaction.
Then immediately we get to Track Star, who we learn is a retired superhero who was cursed with aging faster while using his powers. Not only is that a really fascinating piece of lore and a solid chunk of worth building, but the way he explains his situation and the way him and Robert talk to each other is also hilarious. Everybody says the most unhinged shit and I’m so here for it. This script is so tightly written. You can’t trim any fat off of it, whatsoever. I really appreciate good writing and this is such a breath of fresh air. Comparing this to the final season of the walking dead, having to get introduced to Louis, Violet, Tenn, Marlon, and the rest of the forgettable cast completely tanked the pacing, nobody stood out, the dialogue was extremely contrived and all of the dialogue came across as lore and exposition dumps for the player to hear instead of normal conversation between two people. Dispatch strikes the perfect balance of making the dialogue sound completely natural and realistic, while also giving context and exposition to the player in a way that’s enjoyable and doesn’t come across as cheap or contrived. As depressing as it is to say, I think the team made the right decision to abandon ship to create Adhoc. It’s clear that they know what they’re doing, and they don’t have to comply with a massive studios approval and filter out all creativity to make their property a corporate slop “safe” and “accessible” script. If it isn’t obvious enough in the last decade, indie studios are succeeding and winning because they know what people want to see and they haven’t lost the plot. That concludes episode one, but I cannot WAIT to see what the rest of the episodes have in store.

Coming out of absolutely nowhere, this small indie game is completely dominating the market and is the topic of every conversation, and for good reason. It’s incredibly unique and leaks passion in every frame. For starters, it’s adopting the all too successful art style of the spider verse movies, with low frame rates that complement the visuals wonderfully. I’m happy to see it being used more and more, with the likes of Puss in Boots the last wish being one of the most recent examples of it, and to much success, I might add. In my personal opinion I feel that art direction over graphics is the name of the game, and will help your creation stand the test of time and age much more gracefully in this ever changing medium. The use of this art style is paired well with the vibrant colors and almost claymation-like character models.
The story isn’t trying to do anything ground breaking, it comes and goes as quickly as a feature length film and just asks you to go along for the ride, and take a trip down memory lane with our three main characters. Cass is your average rebellious teen archeotype, she’s the daughter of a very strict police chief who has high expectations for her, which only adds fuels to the fire of her rebellious nature, of course.
Stacey is the passionate music lover, with big dreams of moving to New York to pursue her passions. She’s very laid back and chill, but takes music very seriously and has an obsession with pairing each moment with just the right song, declaring that it’s her life’s purpose. And throughout the game, she’ll narrate the soundtrack with each and every song that encapsulates the moment. And might I say, she’s damn good at it. At the best of times, at the worst of times, fast paced, slow paced, happy, sad, angry, melancholic, each song fits perfectly and she’s certainly got a gift for it. I love that when she’s declaring a song, she’ll add little facts and lore behind the track, the attention to detail is great and these moments have such a unique vibe to them.
Slater is the final lead, and he’s the skater stoner archetype, but he does not come across as dumb or unintelligent. Most of my favorite dialogue in the game comes out of his mouth. He’s very philosophical and introspective, but delivers it in a loose way that doesn’t sound pretentious or preachy. I would say he’s the glue of the group.

This game is being overwhelmingly praised but I’ve seen a lot of the negative backlash this game has been getting as well, and it’s mostly from two key complaints. And they are that the story doesn’t have a good message and there’s not enough gameplay.
As for the message, I would argue that this game doesn’t really need to have a deep introspective meaning, and that’s not what it’s setting out to achieve. This is a very quick and brief experience. It’s absolutely impactful, but in the way that it’s a trip down memory lane and asks you to get drunk on nostalgia for a couple hours, that’s what it set out to do and that’s what it achieved. It’s not trying to create the narrative complexity of the last of us. They say this because at the end, Cass’ dad accepts her threats and essentially allows her to get away with crime and condoned her rebellion. Should he have stopped her? Probably. Is the choice he made problematic? Probably. But I don’t think the game has a bad story for it. It’s a man who’s recognizing that he’s been too hard on his daughter, and chooses to let her live for a single night and not rob her of her future. It’s not objectively the correct option, but I don’t see an issue with it. We’re rooting for our leads to run from the cops while being dumb teen delinquents for the whole game anyways, that’s simply just the atmosphere and that ending feels right at home. Would you feel more fulfilled if the game flashes forward to Cass being in a jail cell after getting charged with arson? Or Stacey not getting to go to New York because she got charged as well? The game isn’t telling you that what they did was okay, the game just asks you to go along for the ride and enjoy the story. There’s no philosophical message to pull out of it from the characters actions in the story. The philosophical message comes from the appreciation of making memories and the melancholic nostalgia that comes from the end of an era, and the complicated feelings that arise when we know we’re doing something for the last time. The fear of the unknown, the uncertainty about the future, and mourning the loss of their current lifestyle as they know it’s coming to an end, and they’re striving to go out with a bang. That’s the message. The game isn’t trying to say that they’re all politically correct, or that you should view them as role models and strive to be just like them, or repeat their actions.
The other complaint being the lack of gameplay, I think it would be valid if it were any other game except this one. When the storytelling plays this critical of a role in the game, I feel like it’s not necessary to pad out sections with walking and button mashing when it’s not required. The game doesn’t have extremely long stretches of cutscenes or anything like that, and the interactivity is just spread out enough that I don’t see it as a problem or a flaw. This game is meant to be enjoyed as an interactive movie. And as someone who’s favorite games include Elden Ring, and Telltale, I’ve been on both ends of the spectrum when it comes to interactivity in games and it’s involvement or lack thereof has never been enough for me to develop a worse opinion on it as a result. It can be factored in to your enjoyment of it, but it’s a very petty and minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. And going back to what I said earlier, this game is succeeding at what it set out to do, and it did not set out to be a highly interactive gameplay experience. It’s a much slower paced visually interactive experience. It did not set out to be the last of us, and it did not set out to be Elden ring. And if you prefer games that align with that sort of criteria, that’s perfectly fine, I just think mixtape is not the game for you. But you cannot say that it’s a bad game because it isn’t your preferred genre. That would be like saying that Stanley Parable is a bad game because there’s no enemies to fight. It’s just simply not applicable or relevant.

I think for what it is, mixtape is phenomenal and well worth the praise. However, my
only complaint would probably be the pricing. With just a two hour runtime with absolutely no replay value, twenty dollars does seem a bit too steep. Personally I would have priced it at the cost of a movie ticket, since that’s essentially what you’re getting. I think $14.99 or $12.99 would have been much more reasonable. But it’s a small indie studio who most likely needs all the support they can get, so it’s frankly a very tiny nitpick to complain about that.