Postal²

The Good
I never played the original "Postal" but the best part of Postal 2 is part of its motto, its only as violent as you are. In fact, you can play the entire game as a pacifist. However, be warned the game tries smartly to make you "go postal"... for instance...Want to stand in line to sign an autograph? If you don't kill everyone in front of you, be prepared for a LOOOOOOONG wait!...

Much of the humor in Postal IS funny, such as your shotgun's "silencer" and the jokes that are around. Your character, the Postal Dude, says some funny lines as he roams through the town of "Paradise", Arizona, and as much as I hate Gary Coleman, his guest appearance here (Or when I played, his death) is well deserved. Finally, the developers name, "Running with Scissors" is GREAT!

The Bad
Postal 2 just plain tries too hard to be extreme, violent, vulgar and disgusting as humanly possible. Not that I'm either sensitive to that, mind you, my favorite game is Duke Nukem 3d, but Postal 2 goes a little far, and it feels fairly forced. The feature that allows you to urinate/unzip pants is a great example of this, but in this case it is made slightly funny by the Postal Dude uttering the words "That's the ticket!"

Postal 2 is very obviously inspired by Grand Theft Auto and Duke 3d, but it fails to be as funny, memorable and fun as either, as the level design is somewhat boring. While I enjoyed a different "extreme" first person shooter, "Blood", that game was more than its name and excellently designed, and what is it saying when a game titled Blood isn't as extreme as "Postal 2"?...

The Bottom Line
Postal 2 is by NO MEANS a bad game, but in its attempt to be the most extreme and politically incorrect video game ever (which it probably is), it stops trying to be fun and becomes just a way for the developers to show off HOW far they can possibly go...