Unlike the generally excellent commentary found in Grand Theft Auto 5, Postal 4 left me wincing for hours as it takes on heavy issues with the finesse and grace of a grease fire. It’s a mess, and that’s before we even touch the parts that delve into sensitive political topics. After seeming not to bother with telling a coherent story for the first 14 of its 15 hours, the end bizarrely tries to throw a curveball at you and make you care about anything that’s happened with a plot twist that fell flatter than my uncle thinks the Earth is. Along the way you meet a cast of unhinged characters like a man obsessed with bidets for some reason and a foul-mouthed mobster and must complete a chain of quests for each of them before moving on to the next set. You play as The Dude from Postal 2, a bathrobe-wearing ne’er-do-well, as he searches for his stolen mobile home and tries to scrape out a living by doing a series of bizarre nonsequitur chores for the locals. If you even consider Postal 4’s sloppy chain of errands a “story,” it’s an absolutely miserable one. ![]() Instead it’s got all the subtlety and nuance of an enraged ape throwing its dung. It’s embarrassingly juvenile stuff to be sure, but if the dialogue were at least well-written or clever along the way I’d have no problem with that. There’s one part where you have to unclog a sewer by smacking huge piles of feces with a shovel and another where you visit a vagina-themed amusement park for no discernible reason. Its sophomoric, cringe-inducing writing is mostly made up of pointless sexual gags and literal toilet humor, and it all feels like it was spewed out by a fourth grader who just learned their tenth naughty word. The main difference is that South Park usually backs up its outrageous ideas with smart writing and some kind of coherent message or meaning behind the madness, while Postal 4 almost never sticks the landing. Postal 4 bills itself as a satirical open-world shooter that wants to push the limits with a raunchy, over-the-top style and a crass subject matter in the vein of South Park. Whether you’re in on the joke or not, there’s nothing on offer here except pain. Even for the novelty of a guilty pleasure, like watching a really bad movie for a laugh, Postal 4 only ever disappoints – if I could somehow forgive the corny writing, bad graphics, awful gunplay, and constant bugs, it would still be incredibly difficult to enjoy any game that hard crashes every hour or so. If the goal was to make one that’s even worse then that’s certainly been achieved, but that gag doesn’t mean it’s ever fun to actually play. ![]() ![]() Developer Running With Scissors describes it as a sequel to “the worst game ever,” Postal 2, renowned for its vulgarity and rough edges. Maybe I’m supposed to hate Postal 4: No Regerts.
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