Developer: Running With Scissors
Publisher: Running With Scissors
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Postal 4 No Regerts – Preview
Who remembers the Postal franchise? These ultra-violent videogames saw bans worldwide and the original games became the staple of virtual violence. While some people disliked the ability to murder and mutilate each person in the game, others claimed you could finish it without spilling a drop of blood. Postal 2 was the most popular and most loved title from the three, getting worldwide coverage. Original physical copies became rare due to its large ban and even the Black Eyed Peas used gameplay of it in their video clip “Where is the love?”. Thanks to the loyal fanbase, Running With Scissors decided to make a DLC for Postal 2, twelve years after its initial release, which is certainly an oddity. It’s sad that the series never saw a true sequel over the years, except for Postal 3, which wasn’t developed by or published by Running With Scissors. The third game didn’t hit it off like the previous titles and was actually considered the death of the franchise.
Running With Scissors is a developer that takes pride in their work and kept the series alive by all sorts of means: releasing their games on Steam, offering the physical ‘Fudge Pack’ for the collectors, selling merchandise and interacting with their fanbase. Because their old-school approach meant that finding finances for creating the next game should be done the old-fashioned way. They considered reaching out to studios but were met with a firm ‘NO’. The thoughts of a Kickstarter did float around but selling a paper pitch to the crowd is not the way RWS goes. That is why Postal 4 is 100% self-funded through the royalties received from Steam sales. This means that the community who supported and bought the game and merchandise from the developer helped to fund the new title and to thank the people, RWS has announced to fully hear out the community, let them help and pitch ideas for the game.
Postal 4 is seen as the true successor to Postal 2 and this is immediately noticed in many factors. The game is nearly identical, from the original, but updated assets to the highly loose and arcade-ish but fun gameplay. The version that we tested is the ‘Janky’ Alpha Build, which means that the game doesn’t have much content yet. There are many issues and bugs, but it is (kind of) playable.
Postal 4’s story picks up after the events of Postal 2 where Postal Dude got fired from his job at RWS, saved the day, killed some terrorists and got sick of his wife. After deciding to leave Paradise and go for a vacation, he and his dog Champ go on a camping trip. Unfortunately, his ride gets stolen and he is stranded at Edensin Arizona. Suffering from the desert heat, Dude sets out to find a job, since he is hungry and homeless. Just like Postal 2, each day has a certain number of objectives that have to be met in order to complete it. Dude needs to gather some information and after some friendly advice from the loveable people in Edensin, he finds an opportunity to get a few jobs. The version that we tested only contained Monday and in true Postal fashion the full game will have a Monday to Friday week (since dude takes the weekends off).
The long-lasting fans will notice that the voice of Dude is slightly different. The original voice actor Rick Hunter sadly had no time to voice our most favorite game character so RWS decided to hire another classic hero from the past, John St. John. While for some this voice may not ring a bell, if we mention Duke Nukem in the same phrase, you’ll immediately hear the sound of his voice in your head. While both the community and the developer wished to work with the original voice actor, we can state that this new approach is also a very solid one. The citizens are not all voiced yet but those who are sound like they mean business.
Controlling the game is just like in 2003, your quick inventory is still available but now you also have a normal inventory list. Due to the janky state of the alpha and the game not being fully optimized, movement bugs can occur and you might want to fiddle around a bit in the menus to make it run as smooth as possible. Graphically it looks a bit fresher than sixteen years ago, yet the overall feel takes you back to the better days. Assets are as square and simple as then but the text is very clear and nicely readable.
Being Postal Dude means that nothing goes your way and sometimes a little violence is needed to get you out of a sticky situation. In the beginning, people will see you as an outsider and while some will try to pick a bone with you, others will defend you. When an unfortunate accident happens to the attacker, people either don’t mind or try to have revenge at a later stage. When you make more bodies than a doll factory, people will try to avoid you, run away, or dispose of you. For the latter, you must be able to fend for yourself. Postal 4 is said to include many weapons and for the moment, we already have a nice selection of weapons from the classic shovel to various ranged guns such as revolvers, pistols, shotguns and assault rifles. It is certain that the goofy and insane items from Postal 2 will see a return because the first special weapon we found is a birdcage with aggressive pigeons. When you get hurt you can always heal by eating some pizza or smoking from the health pipe (warning, isn’t really that good for your health).
There is no police for the moment so you can just rain hell down on the map. Speaking about the map, this is just a little preview of things to come. As older games were also large and having to walk from point A to point B would take a long time (including many loading screens), this time you can just steal a mobility scooter and scoot your way across the streets and dirt roads of Edensin. The developers promised us that the map will greatly expand as further development goes on, so expect for an open world map without loading times.
Conclusion
The fanbase goes wild with the revival of the Postal franchise, especially after the flopped Postal 3 made many followers of the series sad. After Paradise Lost got released in 2015, we got a sudden sugar rush for the nostalgic gameplay of Postal 2 and now, only a few years later, we see the birth of Postal 4, the true successor. While the gameplay is far from optimized in this “Janky” Alpha as they call it, the project has been made public so that the community can help the developers turn Postal 4 into a true Postal experience. Graphics are made as nostalgic as possible and after comparing Postal 2 with Postal 4 you only see small changes, as the developers decided to respect the source material. It’s clear that RWS is keeping the opinion of the community in high regard, and while some alterations have been made to the voice acting, the game looks promising.
Related Items
2 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
[…] fit a meme game so well. POSTAL is known for its absurd action, and when we previewed the game (click here to see) we found that POSTAL 4: No Regerts is definitely no different. Get ready for over-the-top […]
[…] have been the one chance for the series to come back alive, and while we were quite positive in our preview over 2 years ago, we now found that the game is, again, […]