izigame.me

Postal seems to have forgotten it's successful 2003 roots in simplicity and humor. I want to like it, but this take on the "Postal" series is an unfinished product that one could argue to be irredeemably flawed.
Postal 2's staple of provocative jokes are now swapped to be evasively corny, so I hope the unfortunate soul buying this for edgy jokes likes pretending poop is still funny for hours straight. It's almost a main-character. The developers otherwise begrudgingly scratch the surface of acknowledging current events, despite having been given a literal ABUNDANCE of current cultural/political issues to potentially satirize. You'd almost really have to be trying to write a "Postal" game this bad. The devs otherwise seem bent on ignoring any criticism of the game's humor, by outright denying community feedback (despite releasing in EA) as if they were ONLY making this game for their office buddies, and not relying on some nostalgia money to fund their buggy project. Formerly dedicated fans are now openly argued with, told they never understood the series, etc.; essentially gaslit and alienated to help sell a fundamentally flawed product 20 years since the predecessor.
RWS's characteristic style of engaging the community directly has become less of this charming quirk, and more of an explicitly manipulative PR tactic weaponized to mitigate expectations, and even convince you to feel sympathetic for them. It's almost been 5 years since EA and enemy NPCs STILL have trouble recognizing you're standing next to them? This became a cash-grab the moment they assumed all these die-hard PC fans would be willing to support this broken game's expansion to console.
RWS took all the money while running on the assumption they could justify a product on stale promises of eventually, one day justifying the price point.
Crucially, the writing was clearly designed to pander to the censorship associated with being allowed on consoles. The writing, in my opinion, is probably indicative of most of the fundamental intolerance towards P4's janky nature. People will still play a fun game with glitches. It has no signs of reversibly changing 5 years later, which is why formerly open-minded fans like myself are now annoyed customers who don't appreciate this misleading product.
Writing:
The story is just awful and grounded in the reddit-tier humor of what are essentially grossly outdated and completely non-provocative references and gimmicks. Eccentric characters swarm and steal the spotlight from the otherwise stoic silence of Dude. He no longer feels like that suburban maniac getting pissed, and pissing everyone else off. This is because all social commentary has effectively been erased, getting replaced with s*x jokes from "so random lol" cartoonish characters trying to outdo him in his next adventure. RWS can't get past appealing to a 12 year old's humor.
The whitewashing of edgy and (actually funny) comedy from Postal 2 is P4's greatest loss. It is replaced in favor of an excessive and most obvious cover of "safe" jokes and their associated cringeworthy cutscene interactions. The dialogue has no edge anymore, as if Postal 4 pretends to not know what game it is. Postal 4 is basically an adult game pretending to be something it's not.
Seriously, RWS. Almost every bad review you have here you can BLAME on the writing. Maybe people would have looked more favorably on the half-finished state of your game if the jokes for a dark-comedy series weren't so evasively corny. The plot also unironically plays like a fever dream.
NPCS:
NPCs are generally so uninteresting that you almost forget they're even there. Edensin is not toxic enough. Not enough "enemy" NPCs to encounter on regular difficulties, and not enough trash-talking. Their most memorable presence is the gimmick of pulling out a phone - which get's old very quickly. NPCs hardly run away, and seem to be in their own world during moments of danger. They also seem to have trouble in combat scenarios.
MAP:
Every turn in the sandbox's hellscape of forgettable exploration makes you resent the space between points A and B. Postal 4's map is mindlessly huge for what little exploration the game offers. Most of the current game environment manages to alternate between clunky and almost completely void. There is no sense of "flow" or adventure amongst the vanilla building assets scattered along huge pockets of uninspired desert space. The natural environment looks as if it was pre-made by a different development team. Almost every indoor area is also littered to death with decorative props in some attempt to make up for this otherwise soulless feel. Portions of Riverside and the entirety of the Sewer mission are otherwise great counter-examples. They are great demonstrations of visual level design, which also carry that same (positively) old-school Postal feel. The rest of the game should feel more like this. Countless flyover areas, such as around the Firestation - are awkward and lifeless.
Bugs/Suggested Fixes:
Primary NPC characters will relentlessly bark the same instructional line when taking a while to complete their missions.
NPCs will not always vocally react to Postal Dude breaking into their property.
Phone will occasionally freeze after being opened, making it impossible to switch tabs and sometimes use the map itself.
Scooters will not transport with you between load zones.
There are so many scooter stations, it is almost annoying.
Should also be noted that there are not enough funny and random Dude lines during actual combat, which is a huge missed opportunity.
No button to yell "get down!" or option for bottomless clips