The Postal games

What are your opinions on the Postal trilogy? My thoughts are as follows.



Postal 1: I really, really like the extremely dark and psychotic theme of the game, I felt it was perfect and that they should've kept it. Enemies seemed to be much more desperate when you were killing them, complaining about their injuries and slowly crawling across the ground bleeding. Only problem in my opinion was that it was 2D. Sure, they probably didn't have the budget to do a full 3D engine, but it would've been nice. Seemed much faster paced than Postal 2, as well.


Postal 2: One thing I don't like what they did with the theme was that they made it feel much more lighthearted, and mostly removed the psychotic, schizophrenic feel. It's still somewhat there, but it's much subtler. I can tell that they wanted to make things feel much bigger and more complex, having created a huge, hub-based world, with a lot to do. Problem is, is that things were so slow paced in this one, that going and doing all the tasks and visiting all the areas of the world got somewhat boring, so players usually stuck to the main path and didn't bother much with anything else.

If it had just been tweaked, it could've been more fun. I did like the mission system though, having to go out and do chores and approach them in many different ways.


Apocalypse Weekend: They clearly tried addressing the too-big-world problem by making things smaller and more linear, having something more like a true hub instead of just a huge, open world. They made the humor feel even less dark.


Postal 3: Oh dear. 5 years of development, and them ending up outsourcing it to some shitty Russian studio in the end. It keeps crashing on me as well, and there's framerate issues even on the lowest settings, though my card is able to handle every other Source game on the highest settings.

They seemed to return to Postal 1's formula, but adding branching paths. I'm not sure that going back to the old formula was such a good thing, it just doesn't feel as interesting as Postal 2. Just feels so much more closed off and undynamic. Not to mention, the dark and schizo feel has been entirely eliminated at this point.

I think this review of Postal 2 from a PC gaming magazine [EDIT: Computer Gaming World] that I subscribed to eons ago said it best:

"no"

You should look up what schizophrenia is.

I'm a big fan of the Postal series. I still need to pick up 3.

Sodaholic said:

Postal 3: Oh dear. 5 years of development, and them ending up outsourcing it to some shitty Russian studio in the end. It keeps crashing on me as well, and there's framerate issues even on the lowest settings, though my card is able to handle every other Source game on the highest settings.

Many, many of today's top studios outsource when making games.

No Postal game has ran smooth on release. None. Make do and it'll be worked out.

I've always seen the Postal games as trying too hard to gain negative publicity to care about actually being any fun. The only thing I ever really did in Postal 2 was set a doghouse on fire and then pee on it, and then went on a shooting spree, where I found that the guns all really felt flimsy and cheap with lame stock sounds and unconvincing animations. Load times took way too long, graphics sucked even at max settings on a computer that could handle them, and generally it didn't seem at all like it was worth my time.

Judging from what I've been hearing about this third game...I think I'm better off sticking to Saints Row: The Third for my random shooting sprees. =P

Postal² was fun with AW7 mod.

WildWeasel said:

I've always seen the Postal games as trying too hard to gain negative publicity to care about actually being any fun.

Pretty much this. I found the first game to be pretty fun as a straight up shooter (despite being a little messy and buggy), and the second game to an extent, but it's just not all that great anymore.

At least the first game seemed to stir up some negative publicity, but everything afterward seemed to not even try to make it dark and truly "hateable" by the public after they removed the psychotic and dark feel.

Never played Postal 1, but I loved the hell out of Postal 2. Even with it's.. "quirks", it was still fun to play. It was a great stress releaser for me back then.
AW, meh could have been better.

Postal 1 was a really cool game. I played it when it first came out around '97, and I always meant to pick up Postal 2 but never did. Now that the third one is out I just might get both 2 and 3 and blast through them.

Postal 2 was great. Haven't played the other ones.

Postal 1 and 2 are awesome as fuck, Postal 3 looks pretty shitty

I keep meaning to play Postal 2 again. I got it for free bundled with the Blu-Ray of the movie.

Haven't played 1 or 3 and have no desire to do so, but I had endless hours of fun with Postal 2. It's one of these games those of us with inner sociopathic tendencies can have a blast with while leaving other people who are just looking for a regular video game with some crude humor (which IMHO is missing the whole point here :P) puzzled.

I also forgot to mention that Postal 3 strongly encourages the player to play the "good" path instead of the "evil" path of the game. That is, playing as a cop and using only non-lethal force.

NPCs don't even beg for their lives anymore (except for occasionally shouting out "don't kill me!" while still standing). The only time they're ever on the ground is when they're dead, not also when they're alive and injured, moaning and crying like in the first two games. Especially the first, they actually moaned in pain, and sounded so much more desperate when being killed, whereas Postal 2 kind of lightened it up and didn't have them moan anymore, or sound like they're in very much pain at all.

Sodaholic said:

whereas Postal 2 kind of lightened it up and didn't have them moan anymore, or sound like they're in very much pain at all.

Did you ever actually play it? The beg for their lives, piss on themselves and whimper just "fine". What could you want?

Maes said:

Did you ever actually play it? The beg for their lives, piss on themselves and whimper just "fine". What could you want?

Yes. I know they still beg for their lives, but it just didn't sound as dark or convincing as the first game.

Sodaholic said:

stuff about npcs begging for their lives

If that's your problem with Postal 2 and the reason you like Postal 1, you're one sick fuck.

Jodwin said:

you're one sick fuck.

Heh, that I am. :P

Postal 1 was too dated by the time I played it. Didn't like it.

Postal 2 I played first. I enjoyed it when I was sixteen. Probably wouldn't like it now. Watching iJustine try and escape the library was fucking frustrating.

Postal 3 I am yet to play, but I'm willing to try it.

I have Postal 1, but never played it. However, I want to get Postal 2 and do a pacifist run of all the levels that have you do things like run errands just for the hell of it.

Jodwin said:

If that's your problem with Postal 2 and the reason you like Postal 1, you're one sick fuck.

...says the person who called Postal 2 great. Liking any of the Postal games requires a person to be a bit twisted.

Vordakk said:

...says the person who called Postal 2 great. Liking any of the Postal games requires a person to be a bit twisted.

Depends on why one likes those games. Apparently Sodaholic likes them because he wants to torture innocent civilians, I like Postal 2 because exploring the maps and doing weird stuff is fun. I had a lot more fun in the game when trying to play as a good guy who just gets screwed big time, rather than playing a mad mass murderer.

I enjoyed doing pacifist runs of Postal 2 where I would simply piss on other people and watch the ensuing shitstorm as people overreacted and turned it into a massacre.