Is Dispatch Season 2 happening? Here's what Aaron Paul and AdHoc have to say as Season 1 finale sends player counts soaring

I have to admit, Dispatch wasn't on my radar until this past weekend. Sure I'd seen clips of Malevola (obviously), and heard rumblings of a game that featured Seán 'Jacksepticeye' McLoughlin and Charles 'MoistCr1TiKaL' White Jr, but that was about it. Then my partner, who isn't exactly renowned for his love of narrative-heavy games, decided that it was going to be our chill weekend game. Initially, I rolled my eyes - 'superheroes again, really?' But it proves that Marvel hasn't killed the medium: instead, I think I might be back in my comicbook era. I'm not alone in my new-found love for Dispatch, either. With the release of Episodes 7 and 8, the conclusion of its first season has just seen it break its own peak player count record on Steam. The only question remaining now is when we'll see Dispatch Season 2.

If you haven't heard of Dispatch, it's a new, episodic superhero game from AdHoc Studio, a team comprised of some Telltale Games veterans. It's been in the works for a while, but it finally landed with the first of its weekly episode drops last month. With a star-studded cast and Critical Role's backing (myriad members of Matt Mercer's merry band of misfits appear throughout), it's quickly become one of my favorite games of this year, perhaps second only to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

Part management sim, part choice-driven RPG, you're thrust into the rather scruffy shoes of Robert Robertson, a former hero tasked with rehabilitating a group of villains. As a hero dispatcher (hence the name), you send them on various missions from behind your computer, where you'll have to learn their synergies, level up their attributes, and hack into different systems to make their lives easier.

Rolled out two episodes at a time, reminiscent of modern TV series (including Hazbin Hotel - I'm not recovering from that cliffhanger), its finale just arrived on November 12. As the Z Team readied themselves for the inevitable fight against tyrannical supervillain Shroud (not voiced by Michael 'Shroud' Grzesiek, which would've been funny), I was on the edge of my seat. I'm not going to spoil what happens, but it doesn't disappoint.

And it seems like a lot of people agree with me. Dispatch continued to grow on Steam every week as new episodes arrived, peaking yesterday at a whopping 220,060 concurrents. At the time of writing, there are over 48k active players, which isn't too bad for a random Thursday morning, and it's sitting in the highly coveted 'overwhelmingly positive' category on Steam, too. I'd say that's pretty successful.

But now that Season 1 is over, we all just want a Season 2. AdHoc has already hinted at it, with CEO Nick Herman telling the Friends Per Second podcast that "we're going to have to at least think about a Season 2. That was a question mark three weeks ago, so that's great. It's a very cool problem to have."

That's been compounded by Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul (who plays Robert Robertson), who told Variety that "the door is definitely slightly ajar for more [Dispatch]." With good storytelling, there's always room."

I'm intrigued to see what that would look like. You make a lot of decisions in Season 1, after all, so how would those impact your Season 2? Would it be more of a Dragon Age-style 'here's how the world changed,' or would our choices actually carry through? If anyone can nail it, though, I suspect it's AdHoc.

Dispatch Episodes 7 and 8 are available now. You can pick it up for $29.99 / £25.99 over on Steam, and I promise you it's worth every penny.