#POSTAL 2 PS4 PS4#
#POSTAL 2 PS4 PC#

Postal Dude’s basic machine gun has infinite ammo, and with some cautious positioning, it’s more than enough on its own to win every level without trying some of the more fun guns on offer. Though the controls are much more polished, the core gameplay feels unbalanced by today’s standards. As it stands, Postal Dude’s puns and smug one-liners as he mows down everyone before him do make him feel very much the dated and underdeveloped protagonist he is. Perhaps though there’s a missed opportunity here to further explore Postal’s themes though, because there could have been more artworks added with some flashbacks of how or why the Postal Dude ended up descending into madness. Whereas Postal 2 was an entertaining but generally absurd open world title and Postal 3 was a buggy, objectively awful mess, the original Postal was focused enough on the darkness and depravity of its subject matter that it still emotionally cuts through even today. These scenes are even more disturbing with newly remastered music and high definition renderings of the art that eerily pulse and quiver on the screen to the strains of creepy ambient tunes and distorted moans. Between levels there are distorted scenes of monsters walking through fleshy corridors with demented poetry written in blood. It was provocative and particularly shocking because Postal encouraged us to look into the protagonist’s decaying mind from his perspective. In fact, it almost seemed to eerily predict Columbine, with the black trench coat wearing main character shooting up a school in one level of the original Postal (which has been replaced in this redux version as a minor concession to good taste). Way back in 1997, Postal really put its finger on the pulse of a growing phenomenon of mass shooters, and the morbid media interest and spectacle made of them, which culminated in the infamous Columbine high school shooting of 1999. So Postal Redux passes the first hurdle: it is a much more pretty, polished and playable iteration of the original, but does the original feel dated by today’s standards? Since the graphics comprise 3D characters superimposed over 2D hand drawn backgrounds (as was often the style at the time), this allows you to appreciate the lovely illustrations of the original artists without suffering so much of the confusion arising from them. This removes a lot of the uncertainty over whether your shots will actually hit their intended target – which was often a problem as it’s unclear what constitutes a barrier in the hand-drawn backgrounds. There’s also the nice addition of a reticule over foes you’re aiming at, which changes colour as you wear down their health.

#POSTAL 2 PS4 PS4#

I played the PS4 version as well and the twin-stick shooting was so much more precise and enjoyable.

#POSTAL 2 PS4 PC#

Thankfully, along with the graphical improvements, the PC version of Postal Redux has an infinitely more convenient modern system of keyboard moving and mouse aiming. The original Postal had the much reviled “tank controls”, where you’d have to clumsily rotate a ginger-haired lunatic around while moving and shooting, making things much more awkward. The question is whether Postal Redux, the high definition remastering or the 1997 psychopath-simulation classic, still holds up just as well as my own sanity after playing it all those years ago. I would have been about 11 or 12 when I played it for the first time. The first time I let loose with the protagonist’s machine gun and my enemies didn’t simply die but fall to the ground, crawling around in agony, muttering “Oh God, I can’t breathe…” I felt a total sense of captivating fascination and terror. Postal is about a sick, sadistic man who has lost his mind and is looking to kill as many people as possible as he descends further into his warped madness. Unlike most games at the time, Postal was not about a hero or even an anti-hero.

I can still remember vividly popping a now ancient CD into my Dad’s computer and playing a demo of the first Postal.

Postal 2 ps4