Dispatch broke me out of my gaming slump when nothing else could

Part visual novel, part QTE reflex test, and part resource management game, I never expected to love Dispatch as much as I do. In fact, I slept on it for the first three months of its life. But December 5, 2025, marks the day I finally gave it a shot – and I've not used my Steam Deck for anything else since.

That's weird, because Dispatch isn't the kind of game I would have picked out for myself on a whim. I chalk it up to the decidedly police-sounding title and accompanying Steam banner – showing two dudes peeing at a urinal – not doing the best job of telling me what the game is about. Who'd have guessed that hiding behind the "superhero workplace comedy" funnies was precisely the weird and wacky formula I needed to break me out of a weeks-long gaming slump?

Apathy and me

We've all been there. You sit in front of your console or PC and suddenly your eyes glaze over.

You have no desire to reach out and even touch the controller, let alone scroll through a digital store in search of… something. You're both bored and paralyzed, itching for a new adventure while mentally drained of all ability to reach out and find one.

That was me when I finally bought Dispatch on Steam. It had been over a month since I'd played a new game, having resorted instead to countless hours playing Marvel Snap on my phone. As my screentime ticked up by hours each day, I wondered why I'd suddenly found myself so devoted to it.

The short bursts of dopamine offered by Snap were far more compelling to me over the sprawling open worlds and harrowing horror I'd usually opt for in a video game. I've always liked superheroes too, of course, but it was still highly uncharacteristic behavior as far as my dominant tastes go.

The truth is that there's a logic and skill to Marvel Snap that turns off all other senses. The peaceful, almost mock-cerebral playing of cards, counting the numbers in my mind as I tally up a particularly tech-heavy move, sending a polite emoji react to wish my opponent a good next game. Marvel Snap is a simple experience, but it made me forget how otherwise burnt out I'd gotten at the tail end of last year after slogging through so many hefty RPG adventures. Looking back, what I was looking for was distraction instead of total escape; I didn't have the energy for the latter at all.

I still dithered a lot before buying Dispatch. I was so put off playing games in my spare time, so utterly uninspired by any new titles that'd come out at the tail end of 2025, and choice paralysis took hold.

But a well-timed recommendation from our Evergreen Editor, Heather Wald, put me on the right track. Dispatch is a choice-based story, she explained, but it's not super involved to the level of something like Detroit: Become Human. She also mentioned something about a resource management system – and that, of all things, sealed the deal.

Marvel Snap is a resource management game, too. You're playing for cubes as well as building up those in-game numbers, a highly meditative experience that never feels demanding of my waning emotional energy. Maybe Dispatch could offer something similar, something to snap me out of my gaming funk?

We are so back

It was the best decision I made all year. Now on my third playthrough, Dispatch has been nothing short of a miracle cure for my inertia.

The story is simple yet profound, and I quickly found much to love in each and every character while never feeling the weight of a whole in-game world on my shoulders thanks to its episodic framing as an interactive TV show. There are just the right amount of quick-time events for me to feel engaged instead of stressed out, and surprisingly, it all feels smooth as silk on my Steam Deck. Finally, the dispatch calls themselves are something I look forward to in each and every episode.

If the developer wanted to put out a spin-off that centered around just doing dispatch shifts, like the standalone Gwent card game from The Witcher 3, I would buy the everloving hell out of it. Similar to the soothing effects of Marvel Snap, Dispatch's moments of calm logic and number-crunching are exactly what I need on days where my brain gets too loud. The combined effect of story, action, and methodical dispatch sessions makes it a balm for my frazzled neurons, and I can't believe I was so late to Robert Robertson's party.

The good news, however? Maybe in future I'll read a little more into a game before dismissing it from its title and cover art. Although for the record: those things are pretty important.

Dispatch is undoubtedly one of the best games of 2025