POSTAL

Postal is a 1997 isometric / top down shooter where you play as the "Postal Dude," a man evicted from his home on a quest to kill all those he believes have been driven to insanity. He is the only sane person left. Believing the source of this illness comes from the nearest Air Force base, you play through 20 levels that culminate in Postal Dude attempting to shoot up an elementary school. The children are entirely unaffected by his weapons, and he falls to the ground, soon captured and put into a mental facility, where it is heavily implied that all of this conspiracy thinking was just paranoid delusion. (For what are likely obvious sensitivity reasons, the ending in the 2016 redux was changed to something about watching a decaying grave. I played the original 1997 version, so that's what we're talking about here.) The game is free to play on Steam, though all sequels cost money.

I picked up this game on a whim after coming across it multiple times, seemingly out of nowhere. Free on Steam, so why not? Wound up having a LOT of fun. I wouldn't dare to call it some kind of masterpiece or anything, but it IS fun as hell. I blew through the game in one day- playing on the default difficulty is extremely easy.

I think this game could be polarizing. Not just because of the darker tone (not unusual for shooters to be dark, but specifically themes of mass shooting and then school shooting at the end), but even purely gameplay and aesthetics-wise. I could see people finding this boring or ugly or something, but it just feels like dumb fun for me. Despite being light on lore, I do love the small fragments of visible story. Journal entries show up between levels, briefly detailing aspects of Postal Dude's delusions relating to the level you're about to play. The music really works to build a fucked up atmosphere as well.

There IS a sense of humor here as well. Postal Dude has some ""badass"" voicelines, but things really amp up in the far sillier "Special Delivery" expansion. Special Delivery almost seems like the true bridge from the angst of Postal to the wacky shit of Postal 2.

As I said previously- this game is piss easy on the default difficulty. As far as I've heard, amping up the difficulty just means that the Hostiles will have better weapons and unlimited ammo. I'll be real, that just doesn't feel that intriguing to me. I found the fun in just trying to achievement hunt. There are, however, a variety of things to do here (including a gauntlet mode), so there is enough to keep one occupied. Especially for something free!!

I am currently playing through Postal 2 as well- I'd like to come back and update when I'm finished or at least way further in. They are... VERY different games to say the least. :D