I had many ‘regerts’
The Postal series has always been about being as offensive and over-the-top as possible. Literally diving head first into every meme and cringe inducing mechanic it can squeeze into an interactive experience and yet not a single game has been slightly memorable. Originally released in 2022 Postal 4: No Regerts (get it?…) is now making its way onto consoles, well PS4/PS5 at least and is just as mundane as it was back on PC. This game is an open world mess that leans into its bad design methods and not in that curious to check out kind of way.
The game kicks off with Postal dude and his canine companion Champ. They make a quick stop and forget to bring their car keys with them. This ends up in someone stealing their car and mobile home attached to it. Thus begins the journey to the nearby fictional town of Edensin where they are tasked with odd jobs in an effort to retrieve their stolen items. That’s it, and it never gets any deeper than that.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: PlayStation (reviewed), PC
Price I’d Pay: $9.99
The basic layout of the game is basically an open world where Postal dude is doing a ton of awkward jobs and fighting enemies, none of which is fun. These activities can range from anything such as launching people over the border via a catapult to changing light bulbs in the sewer. Postal dude has to do tasks every day from Monday through Friday and is basically a real job. It feels like a real job too as I never wanted to engage in any of its mess.
The developers have leaned into the fact that this is the true sequel to Postal 2 and it feels just as mundane. I cannot stress enough how unfun all of these activities are. While there are a plethora of types of things to do, none of them are enjoyable. One would think the sheer amount of diversity in the mechanics would find some fun, especially with how outlandish they are, but sadly it is all a chore to do every single time.
There is also combat in the game which is just as lackluster as everything else. First up we have the enemy AI. It is mindless. It runs directly at you and sometimes stands still while you shoot them like a shooting gallery. It is brainless and not fun to wipe out. This could be remedied if the weapons were at least enjoyable to fire. Sadly the standard fare lacks any sort of punch and the sound design is disappointing. Nothing feels good. The staple of any FPS is how good your shotgun feels, and even with the Fournicator, a four-barreled shotgun, it is nothing but disappointment here.
While the original PC version came out last year, this new console version didn’t bother to address most of the bugs and poor design. Fast travel is still relegated to the scooters and is as slow as can be. The world design is mediocre at best and not fun to explore. The visuals and bugs are a mess. It never looks good and the amount of issues that cropped up during my playthrough were numerous. At some point I just assumed the team did all this on purpose. Like they were trying to be in on a joke that simply isn’t funny. This game feels like it is trying to be bad and not in an interesting way, in a way that makes me not want to play it ever again.
Postal 4 is a game that should be avoided. I can see now why some console makers did not want this travesty on their machines. This game is not fun or entertaining at all. Some of the voice work is decent and I laughed maybe twice in my entire playthrough, but on the whole it is embarrassing at best and offensive at worst. This is not a game that succeeds in its offensiveness and instead feels worse because when they attempt to be edgy it comes across as desperate.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
