I remember the first Postal game coming out without a whole lot of fanfare. My childhood brain doesn’t remember a lot of ruckus being made amongst the village elders until Postal 2 hit, and truly it made the violence and explosion-sprees of Grand Theft Auto 3 look like a trip to a candy store. It’s important that you understand how these games were received in 2003 so that we can properly take a look at the latest installation for Postal 2, brought to us a full twelve years later: Paradise Lost.
Paradise Lost is a direct continuation of the story of Postal 2. Yes, there was a loose story for the game, though most censorship groups would have you think otherwise. I will say that it’s a weird feeling to jump into an expansion for a game that hasn’t been updated graphically or mechanically in twelve years. It feels dated, and plays like a dated shooter. It should, since it’s still rooted in the original Unreal Engine – groundbreaking at the time, but a little choppy by today’s standards, and paling in comparison to the Source engine of Half-Life 2 which was released shortly after the first installation of Postal 2.
With all of that said, none of the original feel or atmosphere of the vanilla game has been lost. The main plot point is that The Postal Dude is looking for his lost dog in his (now destroyed) hometown. The gameplay is the same as the original – you get a checklist of things to do, you wander through town picking up random guns and drugs that have been left lying around for some reason. Although the developers keep using the “you don’t HAVE to shoot everybody” defense, at some point you’re going to be presented with randos who will start shooting for absolutely no reason. You can hang out and wait in long lines like a good citizen, but eventually someone is going to come at you and force your hand.
One odd thing I noticed about Paradise Lost was how incredibly sparse everything is. At the start, random people (mostly built from the same small set of male and female 3D rigs), meander through a broken train yard. Much to my amusement, the bulk of these people only interact once you make the motion for them to do something. What this means is that most resident wander aimlessly, throwing up middle fingers for no reason and swearing nonstop until you hit them or something. The most common reaction, regardless of what I was doing, was that people would scream and start fleeing. It makes for an amusing interaction, but gets a little old.
It’s chock full of crass humor, rampant racism, sexism and doesn’t apologize for any of it. In terms of controversy, I don’t foresee any media groups raising any alarms – especially with serial murder simulator Hatred on the horizon. The game is full of offensive action, but it’s offensive by 2003 standards. Heads go missing when you fire your guns, but it comes off as more cartoonish than visceral. Swearing is rampant, but it’s pretty commonplace in mature games today and more than accepted by the gaming community – now largely in their late 20’s and older.
I would only recommend this game to two groups of people: loyal fans of the Postal series, and anyone looking for a window into a piece of controversial gaming history. By today’s standards, the gameplay as a whole just doesn’t feel particularly satisfying. Shots are fired but you don’t really feel much of a difference between weapons. The item system is a little clunky. At all moments of the game, everything about the lay of the land from the racist stereotypes of characters, to the nonstop cursing, to the 75% of the female characters who appear to be dressed in some variation of a schoolgirl outfit screams “HEY YOU GET OFFENDED BY THIS.” This was absolutely the developers’ intent, but not exactly my cup of tea.
Teenage Me would have felt like a pretty bad dude playing this game in 2003.
Adult Me just feels a little put off.
2/5
