The frenetic running simulators in Running with Scissors have never been well received by critics. On the contrary, they’ve bogged down the Postal saga to the point where it just keeps getting worse. The third game in the series is often mentioned in discussions about the worst game ever made, and the makers have used that reputation to boost marketing.
It’s no secret for anyone that the critics’ ratings can be completely different from the players’, as proved by the crown jewel of this saga, Postal 2. This game was heavily criticized, so that media communication managed to ban it in several cases countries (including Sweden, for a while). As a result, his sales figures skyrocketed. Postal 2 was a diamond in the rough underground, but the fun was completely wiped out in Postal 3, a title that critics and gamers alike agreed was extraordinarily bad.
Post has always stood for freedom of expression. It’s a saga that has never taken itself seriously, which is its main attraction. After all, there’s something innovative and refreshing about dropping all inhibitions and taboos and unleashing your rage on civilization. But it’s one thing to be arrogant and provocative and quite another to be absurd and spoiled. When a game is completely buggy and childish in the most embarrassing way, it’s impossible to turn a blind eye. Now that Postal 4: No Regerts is out, it’s obvious that it’s heading down the same path as the previous ones. It’s not as unfortunate as part three’s sprawl, but it’s not far off: it’s a complete disaster.
My character is Postal Dude and at the start of the game my RV just got robbed after being stopped at a street toilet so I’m stranded with no house and no money.
I’m willing to work for a living so I go to the fictional city of Edensin to find a job. After a frustrating search for an employment agency, I finally find the right job and come across a true nemesis hiding behind his desk. At least he’s willing to give me several crappy jobs for a 50% fee, so I’m up for that. The deal is a complete insult, of course, and I didn’t expect Dude, who is easily offended and intense in other games, to take it without question. Anyway, that happens, so now I’m faced with a range of options, including changing lightbulbs in the sewers, stopping a prison riot, or just walking around making money. Each choice is more boring than the last, and the whole game is like this: daily missions from Monday to Friday. There is no deeper meaning, no political mockery or social commentary. There is no satirical social criticism, just paid employment mixed with jokes that mostly deal with the environment or directly with the sphincter.
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In terms of gameplay, the Postal saga is the least original you can find, but they make up for it with a twisted sense of humor and show that they clearly don’t give a shit. An example is that you can use cats as a silencer. This trick isn’t for everyone, of course, but it can work for the right audience. However, it is something very difficult to balance. When is it too much? When is it not fun to walk around and piss on people? There is no concrete answer to these questions, but for me this game crosses the line. Postal 4: No Regerts is sleepy and boring, has some of the worst gameplay I’ve ever encountered, the combat is very sluggish, the humor is very silly, and it’s so buggy and buggy that at times I was on the verge of exploding and throwing the console and TV out the window.
When I fight someone I always end up wishing I had chosen the pacifist path because the combat experience is so bad that I’ve rarely experienced anything like it. The AI is awful and all the enemies are running straight at me with part of their head exploding. Sometimes they get caught on something in the area or with each other in large clumps so they don’t pose a threat. You just kill them because they are easy targets. As usual, I have a lot of weapons in my inventory, but I don’t particularly like any of them. All lack a sense of weight and dynamism. I ended up using the pistol almost exclusively, which seemed decent but still very weak. It also didn’t help that enemies could take a ridiculous amount of bullets throughout the game without dying. One would think that half a magazine straight to the Temple would be enough to sink even the strongest man, but no. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter if I die. I start again from exactly the same place and lose nothing, except maybe my honor. Each encounter is monotonous and mindless, it’s like a quest that must be completed in order to advance.
Exploring Edensin is just as boring. Trying to find a location with the worst map ever is challenging but not fun. Eventually, I got tired of wandering in uncertain circles and being stuck with graphical glitches, forcing me to restart the game. I decided to rent a vehicle from my hard-earned salary and was surprised when the cure turned out to be worse than the disease. Attempting to maneuver this stiff, slow, clumsy creature was hands down the worst video game experience I’ve had in years. If there were a lot of bugs before, things haven’t improved. The world is flat, but there’s no shortage of places to get stuck, and when that happens you can say to the session, “Sayonara, you son of a bitch.” Another very “weird” thing was that when I rented the vehicle and left it for a while, it disappeared. It was gone, just like that.
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One thing I hate about games is when they platform to the limit, even if the mechanics are completely falling apart and unfit for such a task. The hardest part of a game should never be climbing down a ladder, and that adds fuel to the fire. In 2023, if the creator didn’t even bother to create an animation for climbing a ladder, instead letting the player “float down,” you know this is a completely botched title. While graphics aren’t everything in this world, those in Postal 4: No Regerts are downright horrid. They’re so angular, lifeless, and hopelessly outdated that you can only tell them by year from those of previous sixth-gen console games. The character models are some of the worst I’ve seen lately and the sound effects aren’t great either. They’re usually out of sync, and since firearms have no pressure at all, they almost sound like fireworks.
All of Postal 4’s shortcomings combined are absolutely demoralizing and should discourage any sane person from spending a single cent on the game, but the truth is that even if it were completely free, it would still be too expensive for what it is it offers.
