39,327
edits
Postal (video game series): Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 4:
Before Uwe Boll brought us the [[So Bad It's Good|magnificent masterpiece]] ''[[So Bad It's Good|Postal]]'', there was the notoriously tasteless ''Postal 2''. And before ''that''? 1997's ''Postal'', developed by Running With Scissors. It's arguably one of the most unsettling PC games ever created, and one that attracted a good dose of attention from the [[Moral Guardians]]. You play as "The Postal Dude", who believes himself the [[Only Sane Man]], and goes on a bloody rampage, shooting it out with cops and soldiers--and inevitably inflicting ''a lot'' of collateral damage along the way.
The 2003 sequel ''Postal 2'', doesn't play itself ''nearly'' as seriously. The Postal Dude is now married and lives in a trailer park, and the game covers what has to be the weirdest week of his life, as every day the simplest errands become life-or-death battles. (Cashing his paycheck? Robbers invade the bank and he gets caught in the crossfire. Returning a library book? Anti-book protesters ''[[Book
The games are not only controversial, but have also been panned by critics, mostly by reviewers who were offended by the game's content, such as Robert Coffey of ''Computer Gaming World'' who wrote that "''until someone boxes up syphilis and tries to sell it at retail, Postal 2 is the worst product ever foisted upon consumers''", a quote that has since been [[No Such Thing As Bad Publicity|included on the boxes of re-releases]]. The series as a whole has developed a [[Love It or Hate It]] reputation with its mixture of shock value and [[Rule of Fun|generally fun]], cathartic gameplay.
Line 53:
* [[Author Avatar]]: The Postal Dude works for Running With Scissors, the developers of the game. He's fired immediately before getting his paycheck from Vince Desi, but employees walking around Paradise are pretty much the only NPCs that will defend the Dude if things go wrong. They also have the highest hit points of all the regular NPCs.
* [[Beast of Battle]]: One area of the game is an arena where a marching band and, for some reason, a trio of elephants are parading around. Annoy the elephants and they go on the rampage, generally taking out the band first. The ''Apocalypse Weekend'' expansion includes a scenario where you kill elephants with a scythe for a guy who makes waste-baskets out of their feet; the elephants rampage again and kill everybody else.
* [[Book
* [[Breaking the Fourth Wall]]: "''Hey, it's not my fault. Book the kid with the keyboard.''" Just one of numerous quips that show that the Postal Dude is keenly aware of being in a video game.
** He'll especially call you out on [[Save Scumming]] with the quicksave key. "My grandmother could beat the game if she saved as much as you do!"
Line 64:
* [[Daydream Surprise]]: ''Apocalypse Weekend'' begins with one, with the dude imagining himself in bed with two of the Postal babes. It quickly turns nightmarish when some fat evil doctor shows up, at which point [[Catapult Nightmare|the Dude catapults awake.]]
* [[Disk One Nuke]]: ''A Week in Paradise'' makes the "Fag Hunter" [[Show Within a Show|arcade game]] into a playable minigame. While the premise might put people off, it's still worth playing just for the chance to grab a fully-loaded [[Revolvers Are Just Better]], [[Shotguns Are Just Better]], machine gun, sniper rifle, and ''rocket launcher'' within ten minutes of starting the game (especially since the only extra bonus for actually doing what the minigame tells you is a few health items).
** Even sooner, the same mod adds a machete from ''Apocalypse Weekend'' into the shed near the Postal Dude's trailer, which, unlike the melee weapons from the base game, can kill people in a single hit [[Precision
* [[Disgusting Public Toilet]]: Many throughout the game.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: {{spoiler|At the end of the game the Postal Dude realizes he forgot his wife's Rocky Road ice cream and shoots himself rather than face her reaction. In the expansion, he comes to in the hospital the next day, having only inflicted enough damage to cause hallucinations.}}
Line 76:
* [[Grenade Hot Potato]]: It's possible to take out grenade-throwing enemies by kicking their grenades back at them.
* [[Hate Plague]]: {{spoiler|1=Afflicts the whole town of Paradise after you complete all of your tasks on Friday. At least the NPCs are often too busy killing each other to bother with killing you.}}
* [[Hitbox Dissonance]]: Gary Coleman. Especially obvious when the AI [[Boom! Headshot!|always goes for the head]] and you see puffs of blood appearing ABOVE Gary's head when he gets into a shootout. Likely done for balance reasons, lest Gary end up like ''[[Golden Eye 1997 (Video Game)|Golden Eye 1997]]'s'' Oddjob.
** This also leads to strange things if you play ''A Week in Paradise'' and attempt to kill Gary when he shows up; if you do so with a bladed weapon and behead him, his ragdoll stretches out to normal size.
* [[Hitler Ate Sugar]]: As per parody, some book protesters hold signs stating "[[Gratuitous German|ACHTUNG!]] HITLER WROTE A BOOK!"
* [[Hyper
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: [[Good Bad Bugs|Probably not intentional]], but it's entirely possible to see a book protester on Tuesday attempting to get a book signed by Gary Coleman.
** This is the source of humor from a lot of the hate groups: protesters who are against violent video games holding signs stating "KILL VIOLENT GAMERS" and can later be found playing arcade games in the mall, a condemned house with graffiti sprayed by an otherwise-unseen "Parents Against Graffiti" group, and others.
* [[
* [[I'll Kill You!]]: Often uttered by hostile NPCs when you get too close.
* [[Katanas Are Just Better]]: In the AWP mod, they're good for dismembering people with a quick slash and also assassinating people in public with an [[Secondary Fire|alt-fire]] [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works|throw]] right after unsheathing it, [[Normally I Would Be Dead Now|unless they survive being impaled by a hurled katana.]] Police officers and soldiers are also strangely resistant to them.
Line 90:
* [[Kill It With Fire]]: Let's just say that the fire effects are very, '''very''' thoroughly planned.
** You can pour trails of gasoline on the floor and light it with a match when some poor sap walks near.
** There's the napalm launcher weapon, which either fires impact-detonating napalm bombs or fires [[Hyper
** The ''A Week in Paradise'' mod adds an easy to find [[Aerosol Flamethrower]] weapon.
** If you get caught on fire, which likely WILL happen if you're in close quarters with other people set ablaze, you can try to ''[[Urine Trouble|piss it out]]''.
Line 99:
** ''Apocalypse Weekend'' adds dismemberment; people can have their limbs sliced off and still live, bleeding and crawling in pain. With the scythe, you can cut their torsos in two and watch some organs spill out!
** The ''A Week in Paradise'' mod takes it up a notch by having NPCs to run around screaming with their arms gone, while making the gore even more detailed.
* [[New Game
* [[No Badass to His Valet]]: The Postal Dude's wife.
* [[Nuke'Em]]: {{spoiler|In the ending of ''Apocalypse Weekend'', the Dude grabs a nuclear warhead from an Army base after he's detained as a terrorist. He sets it up at a rival game company, and it takes out Paradise as he and his dog Champ drive away.}}
Line 106:
* [[Police Brutality]]: The in-game police seem to enjoy beating the crap out of random civilians just for the hell of it. Their methods of dealing with actual crimes could also come off as overkill.
** While they'll allow you to sit still and be handcuffed, the NPCs do not get that option - the cops ''will'' kill them. Seems to be a trade-off, as they'll let NPCs walk around clearly carrying weapons with no problem, but if they see you draw one they've already got their own drawn and aimed at you.
* [[Precision
{{quote| The Postal Dude: "Oh man. That is fucking awesome!"}}
* [[Save Scumming]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] with a side of [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|fourth wall demolition]] if you use the quicksave key frequently.
Line 116:
* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: It is nearly impossible to beat the game without killing anyone and in fact, most players probably wouldn't even think of tring it (sort of defeats the purpose of a game designed purely for [[Catharsis Factor]]). However, if you somehow manage to pull it off, you will get a unique message at the end of the game saying "[[Video Game Caring Potential|Thanks for playing, Jesus]]".
** There are a surprising number of details in the game itself too, showing that the development team truly cared to add depth to the game's interactivity: For example, if you "discard" a cat near a dog, the dog will pursue the fleeing cat until [[Ludicrous Gibs|it catches it]], allied dogs will fight just about any person who is assaulting you until the person or the dog is dead, and dogs will even leave waste matter on the ground, given time. Other touches include varied responses based upon your costume, such as police officers saying something similar to "It's not worth your pension!" if they see you "tasering" somebody while you're dressed as a cop.
* [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works]]: Can be done with the [[Secondary Fire]] of ''Apocalypse Weekend'''s melee weapons, though in the case of the machete it [[Precision
** Also subvert-able in that throwing a sledgehammer at a cow from behind can actually cause the thing to get ''[[Ass Shove|stuck up its anus]]''. Dogs can also catch machetes in their mouth without getting it chopped off, as well.
* [[Tourettes Shitcock Syndrome]]: The "Mad Cow Tourettes Zombies" in ''Apocalypse Weekend'' as mentioned earlier.
Line 135:
* [[Charged Attack]]: How the [[Stuff Blowing Up|rocket launcher]] works. The longer you hold down the left mouse button, the further the rocket will go before detonating. [[Too Dumb to Live|Try not to just tap the button.]] The [[Secondary Fire]] is a [[Homing Projectile]] instead.
* [[Custom Uniform]]: Ever so slightly. If the dude goes the "good" path and thus has to wear a variety of police uniforms and suits, he keeps his happy face and Christian cross buttons, as well as his [[Fingerless Gloves]].
* [[Difficult but Awesome]]: This installment's [[Obvious Beta|rather loose physics]] has made using [[Machete Mayhem|the Machete's]] [[Precision
* [[Emergency Weapon]]: The kick returns. There aren't any doors you need to kick open, but it'll knock over most human foes, setting them up for any number of nasty finishing attacks.
* [[Everything's Worse With Bees]]: Swarms of African Killer Bees roam some areas, most notably the Ecotoligists' compound. They slowly eat away at the health of anyone they chase after. The Postal Dude can acquire [[Improbable Weapon User|bee hives to throw at enemies,]] thus unleashing the bees on them.
Line 157:
* [[Press X to Not Die|Press X To Get A Rabid Cat Off You]]
* [[Regenerating Health]]: Gone are the [[Heal Thyself|health pickups]] of earlier installments, though some of the Postal Dude's lines would seem to imply that health packs were [[Dummied Out]] at some point.
* [[Secondary Fire]]: A lot of weapons in this game have it. The [[Machete Mayhem|machete]] returns from ''Apocalypse Weekend'' with it's [[Precision
* [[Shout
* [[Straw Feminism]]: According to the "Hockey Mom Leader" anything even remotely pornographic is in fact a worldwide conspiracy to objectify all women.
* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]: You've got grenades and a rocket launcher. Have fun.
* [[Take Cover]]: Added along with a general third-person perspective shift.
* [[Take That]]: This game features jabs at, among other things, Uwe Boll, Jack Thompson, [[George W. Bush]], [[Dick Cheney]], [[Sarah Palin]], [[Al Gore]], [[Osama Bin Laden]], [[Take That, Audience!|the audience]] and [[Take That Me|the developers themselves.]] Of note is [[Cosmetic Award|the achievement]] "Jack Thompson Was Right" [[Crosses the Line Twice|for killing 1000]] [[Innocent Bystanders]].
* [[Tempting Fate]]: The setting of this installment is a town called "Catharsis".
** Sure Mr. UN Officer guy, [[Too Dumb to Live|put the Postal Dude in charge]] of a [[Big Red Button]] and [[Idiot Ball|ask him not to push it, or let anyone else push it.]] [[Sarcasm Mode|That's a good idea.]]
| |||