POSTAL Redux Reviews

The year 2017 will mark the second decade since the landmark, cult-classic game POSTAL was released into the world. Controversy sparked from every corner of the dark title, especially due to its gruesome ending and remorseless killing. It took Running With Scissors a few years, but they finally latched on to the success of the series and eventually birthed POSTAL 2 and 3 into the world; those are reviews for another time, however.

POSTAL Redux is not just a simple graphical overhaul of the original title, instead it's a complete revamp of the game done in Unreal Engine 4. The makeover definitely shows, not only in the aesthetic presentation of the game, but also the fluid, up-to-date controls that make the Redux so much easier to play over its predecessor. There are many notable differences between POSTAL Redux and the first POSTAL, which will be taken a look at within this review.

For those who have played the first POSTAL, feel free to skip this paragraph. Those of you questioning what the game is all about, stick around. In POSTAL, you play as an antagonist who's simply known as The Postal Dude; some say he's schizophrenic, some say he's a madman, some like to believe he's a pretty nice guy. Either way, The Postal Dude has a theory that his hometown of Paradise, Arizona is being flooded with mind-altering substances; he starts believing that he is the only individual who is unaffected. Once he gets evicted from his home, he starts a murderous rampage of blood-lust, and doesn't stop until he reaches the Military Air Base; where he believes the source of the noxious gas is stemming from.

For long-time fans of the series, you may be upset to know that Running With Scissors have changed the iconic ending in the Redux. There's no longer . The interpretation of this is up to the individual, but the same end cutscene is still present after the last "level" plays out. In my experience, the new Redux ending is much less impacting than the original, and the game loses some of its overall morbidity due to it.

The original POSTAL had 21 levels, plus four extra levels from the Special Delivery expansion pack, the Redux only has 17 levels in total with one of them being the newly created Carnival map; so it's safe to say that Running With Scissors trimmed the fat a little bit. As well, the difficulty of this title is nowhere near that of the original, and seasoned players will find even the hard difficulty severely lacking in comparison to POSTAL's "11" difficulty setting. However, this could be something that is fixed in the future, as the Redux has been receiving regular updates since its release in May, 2016.

The developer claims that the visuals are a "faithful" recreation of the original, and quite honestly I haven't seen a difference in them other than the fact that they're of higher resolution and thus much more clear. This is a good thing, as it genuinely looks as though the original hand-painted backgrounds have been re-scanned in a superior format; if someone redid all of the backgrounds, kudos to them as they look like the real deal. As for the character models, they're noticably upgraded from the Playstation 1-era models from the original game, and you can even change The Postal Dude's trench coat color.

It's safe to say that the Redux functions like any other modern top-down shooter now. In the original, it was difficult to control The Postal Dude with both the keyboard and mouse, due to the games age and engine limitations. The Redux sees to it that the mouse control is extremely fluid, as is the aiming/targeting system and ability to switch between weapons with the scroll wheel. Not to mention, the Redux can also be played with a console controller, for those who are not fond of keyboard and mouse controls.

Other than the upgraded visuals and lack of levels, POSTAL Redux has some other notable changes. One of the biggest additions is the new executions. In the original game, no matter what gun you were using The Postal Dude would switch back to his AR-16 for the execution of downed enemies, now each gun has its own unique animation. Another fantastic feature is when playing on Hard mode, the journal entries that show up between levels read as they appeared in the original manual of POSTAL; on Easy and Medium they simply stay the same as what is shown in the first game. There's a new revolver weapon, the machine gun (or SMG in this version) has a higher rate of fire and range, the shotgun and spray cannons do not share the same ammo any longer, the journal entry dates all read 2017 as opposed to 1997, and the newly introduced Rampage mode is a bit like the Gauntlet Challenge from the original game.

Sadly, POSTAL Redux does have a major downfall; the game likes to crash... a lot. The amount of crashing that still occurs despite the numerous updates to the title is unacceptable. Running With Scissors just released an update that implemented 4 player co-op, yet they cannot find the time to rectify crashes that skew the players experience with the game? That's just hard for me to believe. The game will crash during level transitions, during start up, but most of all during the Rampage mode.

With that being said, if you can live with the amount of crashing that this game likes to do, then POSTAL Redux will be a great addition to your collection of violent, twisted, dark humored games. The complete engine overhaul has really brought the classic POSTAL title up to speed in the modern world, although it would be nice if Running With Scissors left all of the levels intact instead of picking which ones to keep in and leave out; it would've also been nice to have the original ending. The audio is also completely remastered, so The Postal Dude's witty and sarcastic comments can be heard crystal clear now. As well, I'm sure the newly introduced 4 player online co-op will appeal to a large range of gamers. If you've never played POSTAL before, this is an excellent starting point. If you're a long-time fan of the series, you won't be disappointed.

Rating: 4.5/5.0 - Excellent, highly worth playing.
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