Running with Scissors tries its hand at a linear campaign. I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised to see a cheap DLC add-on take a more focused, directed approach like this, but all it really does is highlight how Postal 2's combat and level-design wasn't made for or suit that kind of structure. With the open-world having been completely stripped away you're funneled into a string of segments that either have you blasting your way through corridor-shooter levels or killing X number of something (usually animals or zombies) before being able to move on. While the former is definitely more entertaining than the latter, neither are particularly fun or exciting. When the content isn't outright dull it's frustrating instead, shining a big ol' spotlight on the inconsistencies in weapon damage and enemy power. Why is it I can take out the little demon Gary Colemans faster by throwing scissors at them than using an automatic machine gun?

This change in format also forces RWS to engage in a larger amount of scripted storytelling, set pieces, and concocting of their own jokes. Most of my chuckles in the main offering came from however I chose to amuse myself with the tools I had at my disposal. Without the same range of freedom and flexibility at your fingertips here though, they're left trying to mine laughter from the stuff going down in the cutscenes, and let me tell you none of it is terribly funny. A lot of the material is recycled gags (Haha, terrorists and protestors! Satire! LOL!) and gratuitous profanity usage, so I guess I'm expected to be rolling on the floor over how much more absurd and over-the-top everything is now. This expansion marks the point where the franchise first made a heavy push into the hyper-ridiculous territory that would more or less define the property moving forward. I may not be guffawing, but we do get a few noteworthy qualities out of it. Primarily the Dude's hallucination sequences where his prior head trauma causes him to slip into a nightmarish version of reality, which I think might be the devs poking fun at Silent Hill. Whatever the case, it shows the studio has the potential to create a strong horror title visually should they ever decide to step back from the Postal brand for a second.

It's a shame this isn't better, because it's actually a big part of the property's history and lore, making it kind of essential to get the full picture. Apocalypse Weekend​ played a huge role in shaping the tone of the series and is also the source of that "pigeon mission" meme the fanbase constantly references (for some reason). Unfortunately, it feels about the same as your average crappy, low-budget 2000s era indie FPS. The particular weak points being an overly long and difficult escape from a U.S. military prison/nuclear silo that requires quite a bit of save scumming and one of the most dreadfully loathsome final bosses I've ever faced. I also experienced multiple crashes to desktop, which never happened to me during my playthrough of the base game. Oh well, at least when I exit to the main menu there's a sexy chick in a thong there now. So that's nice.

4/10

Apocalypse Weekend unfortunately rips away the base game's great amount of freedom and unlinearity where you're essentially forced on a path to completion, supplemented by a considerable amount of CED (Combat Evolved Disorder) where previous levels are retextured and repopulated and constituted as a new experience. Although this did prove for a fun experience, it really doesn't hoist my favorite parts of the base game, and instead feels like a stitched together series of offensive vignettes of a guy flipping you off from different locations around his city, some of these vignettes feeling less related than others. Still though, it is a worthwhile follow-up to the base game's sudden ending on Friday and works as a flawed but enjoyable conclusion to P. Dude's situation.

I'm sure all these problems could've been rectified by the pigeon mission.

There's something to be said about the sheer shock of Postal 2 suddenly turning to Silent Hill featuring Gary Coleman, and a few moments of the base game's trademark humour still come through. That said, goddamn does Postal 2 not work when you take away the open world and try to structure it as a linear game, and it concludes with a string of schizophrenic difficulty and one of the most dogshit boss fights I've ever fucking seen in a video game, I hope whoever gave the greenlight on it was fired.

Game also crashed like a dozen times while I was playing, and while that's probably more to blame on Postal 2 being held together by duct tape and silly putty, I don't think the base game crashed on me at all, so there's also that.

I'm gonna be 100% honest, I do not think Apocalypse Weekend is anywhere near as enjoyable as the main game of Postal 2.

It feels more limited due to it's more linear nature, which on it's own would be fine, but a lot of it is either "kill blank amount of enemies" or "go through a level then run back out it" so it gets old fast.

I would hesitate to call it "bad" because I don't think it is but, unlike the main game, I found myself wondering when it'd be over more often than I'd like.

The Mad Cow Mike J. boss fight at the end is a funny idea but I feel he's too much of a damage sponge and, since it's also not a hard fight, it sorta just got dull to actually fight.

Also that military base level was just not fun.

This was clearly the victim of a very troubled development, and while I want to sympathise with RWS, it still doesn’t excuse how this expansion turned out. It honestly would’ve been much better if they just added small areas and normal weekend days to the base game rather than attempting to construct an entirely new town of a similar scale to Paradise.

Apocalypse Weekend is Postal 2 without any of the aspects that make it interesting or enjoyable. The strange A.I. interactions, the deadpan comedy, the sandbox-styled world, the emergent gameplay, all of it is either gone or bastardised. Instead, Apocalypse Weekend is a half-baked, linear corridor shooter with a virtually incomprehensible story and almost none of the charm of the base game.

The shooting is one of the weakest elements of Postal 2, yet for some reason, this expansion is almost entirely based around fighting hordes of boring foes in lacklustre combat arenas. When it’s not wasting time with its combat arenas, it’s wasting time with monotonous czechlist-based objectives (not like Postal 2’s tasks, more like Ubisoft side missions). The content is blatantly unfinished and padded out, and it attempts to cover up that fact by drenching the game in pitiful, edgy ‘comedy’ that it puts under a spotlight. And on the topic of the comedy, Apocalypse Weekend completely does away with anything resembling the sense of discovery and mundane absurdity found in both the gameplay and world of Postal 2. Instead, it utilises random, ‘wacky’ references and ‘craaaazy’ provocation to disguise its complete lack of vision, substance, and successful execution.

The only decent part is when it makes fun of Postal 2’s publisher, and even then, you engage with it in the exact same way as the rest of the game. By all points and metrics, Apocalypse Weekend is a bad game, and not even in a way that is funny or interesting to think or talk about. It’s not even enjoyable or satisfying to write this review.

That being said, I’m certain RWS’s following game will improve on all these flaws. Surely, it’ll be a truly great follow-up to Postal 2.

Didn't even know this was an expansion, always thought it was part of the main game.

I don't like it as much. It takes away a little of what makes the base game so unique, and turns into a more "basic" shooter. One of the best parts of Postal 2 is that you don't have to kill anyone, and this just removes that aspect completely.

The whole Al Qaeda and military base levels are way too long, and they're just kinda boring. I also don't really like how they force you to kill animals, at least you can befriend the dogs. Both the cow and elephant levels used to stress me the fuck out when I was younger

Best part of it is the level design, even though it is very linear. Overall i still think it's mostly fun, at least on higher difficulties, and it works well as a finale to the game.