QCF: Dispatch

tory-telling is such a powerful method of expression, and is something that can really make the difference in a piece of media, like a film where the production quality isn’t great, or a book where the writing is banal, or for a video game that doesn’t have the best gameplay. An immersive story can save any one of these experiences, but unlike film or literature, a video game has the strength of being designed around a well-crafted story, thanks to the ability to interact with the content diegetically.

All of those moments you found yourself yelling at the characters on screen to discover the  Machiavellian identity of someone close to them, or when you clicked with the hidden message that was woven throughout the progression of the plot—all of these micro-expressions seem to hit even stronger when you had a hand in making it happen. One specific studio has earned its Butter Brickle out of delivering those experiences at a premium, and after being out of the game for the last couple of years, the former development house,  Telltale Games, is now under a new banner, Adhoc Studio, and their reentry to the scene is accompanied by an exciting collaboration as well.

In partnership with the Tabletop gaming fanatics, Critical Role, Adhoc Studio has unveiled their debut, Dispatch, a brand new original story that takes inspiration from the cape-intensive ambience of a Superhero-centric Universe. The world of Dispatch wears its comic book inspiration proudly on its sleeve, and has embroidered that stitch in the thread of Telltale’s previous hits like The Walking Dead or The Wolves Among Us, only with a statistical twist that was built with the spirit of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign under the guise of a 911-like dispatch work simulator. Now, the juxtaposition of choice-driven comment and dice roll-fueled action may initially come off as a dissonant formula, especially when broken down to an episodic format no less, but y’all—they done did it.

The ambitious alliance between Adhoc Studio and Critical Roll proves to be more than just a dap-up for the clicks, as Dispatch arguably stands to be the best choice-driven narrative game the team has ever made.

Click to read more ...

QCF: Republique

This Review was Freelanced by Rob Rich; you can find his other work here.

eorge Orwell’s ‘1984’ and the bleak, oppressive image of the future it paints, is a theme that’s been adapted many times over throughout many forms of media ever since 1949. It’s referenced in other novels and movies, comics and cartoons, and of course video games. The latest piece of interactive fiction to give a nod to the Orwellian classic is Camouflaj’s Republique - Episode 1: Exordium; a surprisingly compelling stealth adventure game with some serious talent behind it.

Hope is a young girl living in some kind of super-swanky “we’re just kidding ourselves it’s totally a prison” compound, and the powers that be just found out she’s been reading something she shouldn’t have. It quickly becomes apparent that her would-be protectors have some rather nefarious plans for her, but there’s not much she can do about it locked in a cell. That’s where you come in.

Click to read more ...