Postal 2

In Postal 2, the player takes on the role of the Postal Dude, a tall and thin red-headed man with a goatee, sunglasses, a black leather trench coat, and a T-shirt with a grey alien's face printed on it. Postal Dude lives in a dilapidated trailer on land behind a house in the small town of Paradise, Arizona, with his nagging wife, who is identified in the credits as simply "The Bitch". The game's levels are split into days of the week starting Monday and finishing Friday.

At the beginning of each day, Postal Dude is given several tasks to accomplish, such as "get milk", "confess sins", and other seemingly mundane tasks. The object of Postal 2 is to finish all of the tasks throughout the week, and the player can accomplish these tasks in any way they wish, be it as peacefully and civilly as possible, or as violently and chaotically as possible. It is possible, if occasionally difficult, to complete most tasks without engaging in battle, or at least, harming or killing other characters, as evidenced by the game's tagline: "Remember, it's only as violent as you are!" The daily tasks can be accomplished in any order the player desires, and the game also includes one task that is activated only when Postal Dude urinates, in which the player is tasked with getting treatment for gonorrhea after Postal Dude discovers he has the infection.

Throughout the course of the game, Postal Dude must put up with being provoked by other characters on a regular basis. He is given the finger, mugged, attacked by various groups of protesters, and is harassed by an obnoxious convenience store owner/terrorist and his patrons who cut before Postal Dude in the "money line". During the game, Postal Dude also encounters a marching band, a murderous toy mascot named Krotchy, the Paradise Police Department and its SWAT team, overzealous ATF agents, the National Guard, an eccentric religious cult, cannibalistic butcher shop workers, fanatical al-Qaeda terrorists, and former child actor Gary Coleman, among many others.

By Friday afternoon, the final day in the game, the apocalypse occurs and societal collapse soon follows, with all law and order breaking down. Cats begin to fall out of a darkly-colored sky, and almost everyone in town becomes heavily armed, with random gun battles breaking out in the streets. Despite this, Postal Dude returns home to his trailer as normal, where he then gets into an argument with his wife, who demands that Postal Dude explain why he never picked up the "rocky-road" she asked for at the beginning of the game. Postal 2 then ends with a gunshot being heard, before being kicked to the end credits.

Interacting with a resident of Paradise

One of the major concepts of Postal 2 is that it is meant to be a "living world", a simulation of a tongue-in-cheek off-kilter town. Game characters live out their lives completely separate from the actions of Dude; walking around town, buying and selling merchandise, and even engaging in random shootouts with each other and the police.

The town features many cars but they are all "useless exploding props", according to Dude, and cannot be driven, although they can be blown up and sent flying into the air. In addition to cats and dogs, other animals present are elephants; these animals can be shot or set on fire—or simply annoyed by the player walking into them—causing them to trumpet with rage and attack anyone within stomping distance. A peculiar feature is the ability to pick up cats as an inventory item. When used, Postal Dude shoves the barrel of the currently equipped firearm into the cat's anus (cats can only be used while equipped with a shotgun or assault rifle) as a "silencer". Every time a shot is fired, the cat meows in apparent agony, and the gunshot is muffled. After nine shots, the cat has run out of lives and it will fly from the end of the weapon. Most dogs have the ability to befriend the Dude if he feeds them a continual supply of dog biscuits or feeds them any other food (pizza, donuts, fast food). Once a canine's loyalty has been earned, the dog will attack anyone who attacks the Dude, or alternatively, anyone whom the Dude attacks. Dogs will also chase and kill cats, and play fetch with the Dude's inventory items and severed heads. There were also going to be cows included in the game, but they were left unimplemented. They did appear in Apocalypse Weekend and the A Week in Paradise modification.

The game also features a cameo by Gary Coleman, acting as himself, who appears early on as the objective of one of the game's tasks (travel to the local shopping mall to get Gary's autograph). The player can choose to fight and kill Coleman or simply have the book signed peacefully (after enduring a long line-up). The Dude twice mistakes Coleman as having starred in What's Happening!! and The Facts of Life, when he actually starred in Diff'rent Strokes. Regardless of the Dude's actions, the police storm the building in an attempt to arrest Gary Coleman and a gunfight ensues which invariably results in Coleman's apparent demise, with or without the player's help. Later on in the game he can also be seen in the Police Station, when the player escapes from his cell he also frees everyone else—including Coleman, who can be seen running alongside Krotchy. Coleman apparently survives as he can be seen in the Apocalypse Weekend expansion, bandaged up in the hospital (various evil Gary Coleman clones also serve as recurring enemies during Postal Dude's constant hallucinations).

Urinating on dismembered bodies in a terrorist training camp. This scene caused a great deal of controversy in New Zealand as graphic depictions of urination are deemed obscene in New Zealand, even though the game has no scripted scene of this; this is a purely optional act for the player

Final score for a non-violent game of Postal 2

In 2004, the Office of Film and Literature Classification banned Postal 2 in New Zealand, citing high levels of violent content and animal violence. The game remains banned in New Zealand to this day and possession, distribution or even buying it for personal use is a criminal offense, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $50,000.[19]

Regarding his views on the subject, Linux and Macintosh developer Ryan C. Gordon, who ported the game to those platforms, stated that he feels that the game holds a mirror to the worst aspects of modern society, saying in an interview that the game is a "brilliant caricature of our mangled, disconnected, fast-food society, disguised as a collection of dirty jokes and ultraviolence."[20] Michael Simms, founder of Linux Game Publishing, also at one point commented on the matter, stating that "although I wasn't a fan of the gameplay in Postal 2, I loved the message that the company was trying to put out. Because you can play Postal 2 in the most violent and graphic way, but you can also play it without hurting a single person. I don't know anyone who's played it like that, but I like that the people who made Postal are saying you can get through this game without any violence."[21]

On the review aggregator GameRankings, Postal 2 received an average score of 59.07% based on 37 reviews.[22] On Metacritic, the game received an average score of 50 out of 100, based on 27 reviews—indicating mixed or average reviews.[23] Some of the game's better reviews came from PC Gamer, which gave the title a 79%, and Game Informer, which gave it a 7.5 out of 10. On the other end of the spectrum, GMR and Computer Gaming World each gave Postal 2 scores of zero; CGW stated that "Postal 2 is the worst product ever foisted upon consumers."[25] In response, negative quotes from Computer Gaming World's review ended up being proudly displayed on the box art of the Postal Fudge Pack.

Postal 2 became Linux Game Publishing's fastest selling game in its first month, and contributed greatly to the continuing profitability of the company.[26] Postal 2 also became the second computer game to be banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification of New Zealand after Manhunt for "Gross, abhorrent content (Urination, High Impact Violence, Animal Cruelty, Homophobia, Racial, Ethnic Stereotypes, etc) on February 17, 2004. It was also banned in Australia by the OFLC that same year due in part to the absence of an 18+ rating for games. In Sweden, the attorney general took the Swedish distributor of the game to court. He was prosecuted with "illegal depiction of violence", a crime falling under the Swedish freedom-of-speech act. The court dismissed the case on December 12, 2006.[27]

Game Over gave the game a score of 80% commenting "It's also out to make a statement, whether it's conscious of it or not, and it's that part that gives it some value beyond the mere technical mechanics. Given its pedigree, it's almost as much a political product as it is a game product. While it may not seem apparent to some, particularly the 'politicians', there is merit to Postal 2 beyond just gross out excess, something akin to, dare I say, the art house indie flicks in the film industry. Controversial statements and taboo material - those are unequivocal 'yes'es for Postal 2, and Running with Scissors manages to throw in plenty of mindless fun with it as well."[28]

Postal 2: Share The Pain received an average score of 61% based on 14 reviews on GameRankings,[29] and an average score of 59 out of 100 based on 10 reviews on Metacritic.[30] Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend received an average score of 55% based on 6 reviews on GameRankings,[31] and an average score of 45 out of 100 based on 4 reviews on Metacritic.[32]

Scenes of the game can be seen in the music video of the Black Eyed Peas single "Where Is the Love?"[33]

Although acknowledged as an adaptation of the first Postal game, the 2007 film adaptation of the same title directed by Uwe Boll borrows many elements from Postal 2, including the Krotchy doll, the trailer park, the cat silencer, The Lucky Ganesh convenience store, the terrorists, and Uncle Dave and his compound, among others. Gary Coleman was not involved in this film; instead Verne Troyer, appearing as himself, fulfilled Coleman's function in the movie.

In 2013, Boll announced the second Postal film. On August 28, 2013, Boll announced he was funding production of Postal 2 through Kickstarter, but the project was cancelled in October 2013.[34]

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