Name: POSTAL

Publishers: Running With Scissors

Developers: Running With Scissors

Genres: Action, Indie

Platforms: PC, Linux, macOS

Released: 1997-11-14

POSTAL

POSTAL is the first part in its series of shooting games. It is best known and somewhat infamous for its uncanny violence, cynical black humor, and a highly controversial theme. The game offers the player to "go postal" on a spree shooting across the city.

Plot

The player controls the protagonist, nicknamed The Postal Dude: a homeless middle-aged man who apparently goes crazy and hears disembodied voices. He believes in a conspiracy theory that US government has poisoned his hometown with a nerve agent, and he's the only sane person around. He tries to eliminate the crowd he considers "infected". His goal is to fight his way to the US Air Force base which he believes is responsible for the presumed attack.

Gameplay

Unlike its better-known sequel, POSTAL is 2D and uses top-down and isometric views. On each level, the player has to kill a specified share of enemies: civilians, military, and police alike. When this goal is complete, the door to the next level will appear. The player can complete the level even if The Postal Dude is killed, as long as the number of his own kills is satisfactory. The character can carry up to 8 types of weapons with varying strength and ammo limit. His basic gun is the weakest but has indefinite ammo supply.

Expansions and adaptations

There's an expansion pack Special Delivery that adds more levels and characters. In 2016, the game was remastered and re-released as Postal Redux. The game was unsuccessfully adapted to film by Uwe Boll.