My only experience with the POSTAL franchise before this was watching highlights of Mat and Pat from Two Best Friends(i THINK it was them) pissing on some guy in one of the sequels, and watching the movie with one of my roommates. I think that did Not prepare me for what i was getting into lmfao
This game is fucked.
But I actually think it's fucked in a way that's more creative than people seem to give it credit for nowadays it seems. I already know the stories of news article thisss, and the devs being like thattttttttt and so on and on
But lets try to keep it condensed here hm?
This is a SOMETIMES isometric SOMETIMES top down shooter(idk why it alternates it doesnt really make the gameplay more challenging or fun) with some okay weapon variety and level variety and really not much else to write home about on that, its functionally sound
ANNNNNNNND thats kind of it when it comes to how i feel abt this game in gameplay like its a near mindless shooter thats aesthetic, sound design and what it is kind of carries it. My favorite parts about this game were these sorts of twisted mental reflections on the areas you were going to next in a demented self justifying tone of you doin what you gotta do,
the near eyestraining mental visuals that fuse in a slurry of corroding rust reds, the void and tinges of scarlet
it's no secret the game makes it known that the guy you control isnt necessarily Lying to you, the player, but genuinely believes everything thats happening right now for one reason or another
is it a withering piece of game design meant to take the piss out of violence as a whole or is it an edgy, demoralizing ironic romp speedrunning into your straightjacket?
The thing that really seizes ""The Dude""'s real mental state to me is when youre wandering... you cant find anyone
but you still need someone to kill
you still need to hit that percent goal or maybe youre curious and you REALLY RE ALLLY need to find that last guy you need to find that last guy and youre not really sure Why but you feel like you need to, is he strong is he an animal is he defenseless, is he hiding around the corner, is he more of a challenge than the last dozens you slaughtered??? the answers to these questions are simple
nope! probably! probably! big fat nope! but the clear paranoia and delusions that ensue that even follow into the ending make the whirring of empty cave echoes laced with faint tinnitus ring ever truer, with crickets and a full course serving of deafening silence and the writhing twinges of bodies' last clinging throes to life.. the kind where the game doesnt even let you "finish them off" or anything theyre just limping and youre waiting for the timer to clock in..
this isnt a horror game by any means and the "video games cause violence" PTA meeting of the month club in the 90s and early 00s still sucks fart nuggets but there IS some merit and a point being made here it feels. the final level in redux is very different but i think it does some things better AND worse than this game's ending
Redux in particular stages the ending with a longer walk to its climax of realization for the main character in a much more direct and choreographed way, and i like it i just also think it happening at the school with kids all being the same exact sprite is more interesting and gets your mind tumbling like "were all those kids just lookalikes of the mc when he was young.. were they not? were they a friend of his in his youth that caused him to spiral out of control and gain all these mental issues in a rolling stone kind of way?" the answer NEVER actually baring itself to you
I think that the asylum bit itself has much more unsettling and well done visuals in Redux as well but I still think its interesting, dark.. sad... an unhinged serial killer in a trenchcoat ala incel duke nukem wannabe spouting one liners for what he thinks is for the good of existence, just what he thinks will make the flames in his flesh die down
and yet when he finally sees white all hes left is the void and confinement, left to rot like the bodies he left in his wake
final thoughts: Now I'VE heard that everything going forward is apparently in an alternate universe that embraces dark comedy more than having something like this going on, which is Fine. But I think its kind of hard to think of this game as someone's edgy little mindless shooter they wanted to make with no substance to it whatsoever(though the gameplay is quite tedious after a bit)
The craziest thing is by the end of it I realized two things
1. I said all this shit just to say the game is "Okay" as a whole.. i THINK i liked it?
and 2. I think this game convinced me to pick Drakengard 1 back up because if I could stomach tedium here I think I can stomach it for the rest of that game
This game is fucked.
But I actually think it's fucked in a way that's more creative than people seem to give it credit for nowadays it seems. I already know the stories of news article thisss, and the devs being like thattttttttt and so on and on
But lets try to keep it condensed here hm?
This is a SOMETIMES isometric SOMETIMES top down shooter(idk why it alternates it doesnt really make the gameplay more challenging or fun) with some okay weapon variety and level variety and really not much else to write home about on that, its functionally sound
ANNNNNNNND thats kind of it when it comes to how i feel abt this game in gameplay like its a near mindless shooter thats aesthetic, sound design and what it is kind of carries it. My favorite parts about this game were these sorts of twisted mental reflections on the areas you were going to next in a demented self justifying tone of you doin what you gotta do,
the near eyestraining mental visuals that fuse in a slurry of corroding rust reds, the void and tinges of scarlet
it's no secret the game makes it known that the guy you control isnt necessarily Lying to you, the player, but genuinely believes everything thats happening right now for one reason or another
is it a withering piece of game design meant to take the piss out of violence as a whole or is it an edgy, demoralizing ironic romp speedrunning into your straightjacket?
The thing that really seizes ""The Dude""'s real mental state to me is when youre wandering... you cant find anyone
but you still need someone to kill
you still need to hit that percent goal or maybe youre curious and you REALLY RE ALLLY need to find that last guy you need to find that last guy and youre not really sure Why but you feel like you need to, is he strong is he an animal is he defenseless, is he hiding around the corner, is he more of a challenge than the last dozens you slaughtered??? the answers to these questions are simple
nope! probably! probably! big fat nope! but the clear paranoia and delusions that ensue that even follow into the ending make the whirring of empty cave echoes laced with faint tinnitus ring ever truer, with crickets and a full course serving of deafening silence and the writhing twinges of bodies' last clinging throes to life.. the kind where the game doesnt even let you "finish them off" or anything theyre just limping and youre waiting for the timer to clock in..
this isnt a horror game by any means and the "video games cause violence" PTA meeting of the month club in the 90s and early 00s still sucks fart nuggets but there IS some merit and a point being made here it feels. the final level in redux is very different but i think it does some things better AND worse than this game's ending
Redux in particular stages the ending with a longer walk to its climax of realization for the main character in a much more direct and choreographed way, and i like it i just also think it happening at the school with kids all being the same exact sprite is more interesting and gets your mind tumbling like "were all those kids just lookalikes of the mc when he was young.. were they not? were they a friend of his in his youth that caused him to spiral out of control and gain all these mental issues in a rolling stone kind of way?" the answer NEVER actually baring itself to you
I think that the asylum bit itself has much more unsettling and well done visuals in Redux as well but I still think its interesting, dark.. sad... an unhinged serial killer in a trenchcoat ala incel duke nukem wannabe spouting one liners for what he thinks is for the good of existence, just what he thinks will make the flames in his flesh die down
and yet when he finally sees white all hes left is the void and confinement, left to rot like the bodies he left in his wake
final thoughts: Now I'VE heard that everything going forward is apparently in an alternate universe that embraces dark comedy more than having something like this going on, which is Fine. But I think its kind of hard to think of this game as someone's edgy little mindless shooter they wanted to make with no substance to it whatsoever(though the gameplay is quite tedious after a bit)
The craziest thing is by the end of it I realized two things
1. I said all this shit just to say the game is "Okay" as a whole.. i THINK i liked it?
and 2. I think this game convinced me to pick Drakengard 1 back up because if I could stomach tedium here I think I can stomach it for the rest of that game