Postal²

The Good
Controversy in video games is a rather dodgy subject. I stand on both ends, I believe that we need to crack down on the sales of violent video games to the youths and that a little censorship at times isn't such a bad idea. Yet on the other end, the idea of banning games seems stupid and the lengths some of the people go to to fight violent video games is ridiculous. Postal 2 is highly controversial and with good reason. There's a phrase being slung around by politicians, and that is "Murder Simulator." I normally don't agree with this word, but Postal 2 is just that: A murder simulator. That means the game is something of a black sheep. Politicians assault it as if it came from the bowels of Hades, and gamers often avoid it like a plague because the games sick concept often makes one look bad. Even I'll admit I have a hard time admitting to liking the game because for once questioning the morality of someone who plays a game like this is warranted.

Yet if you can beat your way through the controversy, and you are mature enough to handle the concept and remember that there is a difference between human flesh and pixels, Postal 2 is pure catharsis in a box. In a strange way, being a murder simulator makes Postal 2 a game to play if you want to prevent violence. There have been times I've been so pissed at someone I've wanted to shove my boot up their arse, but instead gone home, played Postal 2, and let all the hate go away. As strange as it sounds, as hateful and sick as the game is, its perfect for taking away your stress.

The game has a variety of weapons, some realistic some very strange. The games perception of reality is very skewed, and its acidic and spiteful take on Suburbia is interesting in some ways even if its not seen to its full potential. The various tools you will find range from your standard guns, to anthrax. With the help of the expansion pack and the AWP mod, the game has much more variety and is a bit more fun as it expands the arsenal and other elements. You will always find a tool that tickles your darkest fantasy somewhere in this game.

Although not exactly a 'likable' character for obvious reasons, The Postal Dude has a good voice actor and he does have some funny lines. The game isn't particularly funny (more on that later) but it does have some funny moments, and even if its not as realized as it should be, the game does slip in some clever and well thought out parodies of our American way in a surreal and dark manner that will please fans of South Park.

The graphics are decent. Nothing special even for their time, but they get the job done and there is some good modeling and characters faces are relatively detailed, and there are also some great physics for ragdolls, blood, fire, and... erm, a couple other bodily fluids. Liquids realistically drip, pool, and smear and fire realistically catches and it is impressive to pour gasoline and an elaborate, almost domino-esque trailer and then light it on fire and watch the fire spread and follow your trail.

Multiplayer matches are... erm, interesting to say the least and fairly fun (There is no multiplayer support out of the box if you own the vanilla package, but it was re-released as Share the Pain with multiplayer and you can download the upgrade for free online) with some good maps.

Cats! I know the game is most infamous for using cats as silencers, but what I think its more fun to use the cats as weapons. I love gathering up as many cats as possible (Seriously, one time I had 100 cats in my inventory... that most be one huge coat) and then dropping them, because when you drop a cat they go dervish and start spinning around like the Tazmanian devil, and god help you if you get in the way of those cats because they will shred and eat civilians.. then of course sit down, take a bath, and start purring as you pick them back up. xD Any game that lets you massacre people with a horde of evil kitties deserves credit.

The Bad
The game can be fun, but very repetitive. Although its great for blowing off steam you wouldn't want to play it for long periods of time.

The game is buggy, buggy, buggy, buggy. Its buggy enough to be an insect zoo. The game is poorly optimized, and even on a monster machine the game will sometimes go apeshit and your framerate will drop to practically unplayable rates. There are tons and tons of things that will crash the game, and sometimes you will collide and become stuck in objects for the weirdest reasons. One time in a convenience store, I knocked over a jar of pickles and the jar of pickles rolled over to my feet and I got stick in it. That's an epic failure in the collision/physics department. The only time I'll admit this bug was funny was when a roaming civilian got stuck in me, and then when the game decided to unstick him from me he exploded. That was kinda funny. The game also has ridiculously long load times, and trust me you will run into long load times A LOT because each section of the map has a loadtime between them. Maybe the Unreal Engine simply wasn't made for sandbox games.

The AI isn't the brightest in the world. Sometimes they act really weird and will cause most of the bugs that will piss you off. The civilian AI is so stupid that you can sometimes find it on top of a power line, throwing up while trying to shoot you with an empty pistol. I'm not joking, Ive seen the AI do that. Sometimes the AI is placed in strange places, and one time the game decided to spawn a civilian on my spawn point and ended up telefragging us both.

While there are a couple funny moments and jokes, most of the jokes are more offensive then they are truly funny. An arcade game called "Fag Hunter?" Is that supposed to be funny? There are several offensive jokes, and other jokes that aren't offensive are often stupid and lame sex jokes that not even Beavis and Butthead would laugh at. Its disappointing because like Grand Theft Auto, American culture and civilization is ripe for parody and had Postal 2's writers been a little more clever they could've easily aped Suburbia in a much better way, and I would love to see Suburbia tackled better in a game such as this because I highly doubt GTA will ever tackle it since GTA is on a much larger scale.

The voice acting, while not necessarily bad, is poorly done for one reason: A cast consisting of about maybe only 7 people. You will hear every voice tons of times, and they only had one female voice actor and she didn't do much to at least do more than one type of voice. The only female character that doesn't sound exactly like all the other female characters is the Dude's wife, "Bitch" (Seriously, that's the name given to her although believe it or not, for once that nickname actually is proper considering that she is pretty damn mean. In fact she shoots the dude in the head for not bringing home her favourite ice cream. Ouch.) and she only really exists to give you chores. There are some decent acting jobs, but its too repetitive and slim to make a proper impression.

The Bottom Line
Postal 2 isn't a game for everyone. It is very buggy, its offensive, and its got too many design flaws to truly list. However, with an open mind, it can be great catharsis and a good way to blow off steam. It has a lot of potential, and it has a lot of growing up to do. I'm hoping that the upcoming Postal III will be a bit more mature and have better coding. I'm part of a cult audience, I love this game but as a critic I still have to pick it apart and it is VERY flawed. Its hard to recommend Postal 2 without sounding like a psychopath, but if you believe in Catharsis as a good way of relieving stress and you have a fondness for blood and guts, Postal 2 can provide some fun times and it can really blow off a lot of steam.