[GAME REVIEW] Postal 4: No Regerts

Are you familiar with the Postal series? I’ll admit, I had a passing knowledge of the series, that included knowing of its over-the-top violence, rampages and niche humour. I was keen to give this one a try, knowing I had friends who raved about Postal 2 back when it came out.

So, when I booted Postal 4: No Regerts up for the first time, I was keenly interested in seeing what it actually felt like to play. Through the intro cinematic, the game set the scene quite nicely, and was a good litmus test to whether I would fit in the target audience for this game. Unfortunately, I don’t think I did.

Postal 4 has returned to the first person shooter style that it moved away from in the previous instalment. The gameplay was…adequate. Nothing glaringly bad, but also nothing that seemed unique or pushed any boundaries of the genre.

Gunplay was quite smooth, and the variety of weapons ensured it didn’t feel super repetitive, the way some games shoehorn you into using just one or two guns for the duration of the playthrough.

However, I did feel the controls for using items was pulled from the code of something from the early 2000’s. The old style previous/next item buttons to scroll through your inventory, and one button to use the selected item. This was fine at the start, but within a half hour of playing I had enough items it seemed like a chore to do.

The also story left a lot to be desired. The player character “Postal Guy” has his car and caravan stolen and loses everything, then must find work to get back on his feet. This story is peppered with some attempts at humour that never hit the mark with me. Going through town seeing some already dated references like a parody of Joe Exotic, or playing off Donald Trump’s misogynistic quote about grabbing women in an attempt for a cheap laugh fell flat. This may be amusing for fans of “Stoner Comedy” movies, but I don’t see a wide audience enjoying it.