Postal (video game)

Not to be confused with Portal.

Postal
Developer(s)	Running With Scissors
Publisher(s)	Ripcord Games
Distributor(s)	Good Old Games Gamersgate Direct2Drive Desura
Series	Postal
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS
Release date(s)	November 14, 1997
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter
Mode(s)	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: M (Mature) PEGI: 18+ OFLC: RC
Media/distribution	CD-ROM
System requirements Microsoft Windows: Minimum Requirements: Microsoft Windows 98 Intel Pentium III 733 MHz 128 MB RAM 32 MB DirectX 7 video card DirectX 7 sound card 1 GB of free hard disk space Recommended Requirements: Microsoft Windows 98 Intel Pentium III 1.2 GHz 512 MB RAM 128 MB DirectX 7 video card DirectX 7 sound card 1 GB of free hard disk space Mac OS: Minimum Requirements: Mac OS X 10.2.8 IBM PowerPC G3 700 MHz 256 MB RAM NVIDIA GeForce2 32 MB or ATi Radeon SDR 32 MB 1 GB of free hard disk space Linux: Minimum Requirements: Linux Kernel 2.2 Glibc 2.1.x xFree86 3.3.x Intel Pentium III 1 GHz 256 MB RAM NVIDIA GeForce 32 MB or ATi Radeon SDR 32 MB OSS compatible sound card 1 GB of free hard disk space

Postal is a computer game, made by Running With Scissors and published by Ripcord Games in 1997. In 2003 there was a sequel, Postal². Director Uwe Boll has bought the movie rights for the series, and has produced a film of the same name.

General information

Postal is a 3D shooter with mainly isometric, but also some top-down levels featuring hand-painted backgrounds. Gameplay and interface are similar to first-person shooters of the time in most, but not on all counts:

• Movement is always relative to the orientation of the player character ("The Postal Dude"). The player therefore must always be aware of the direction the character is facing, which can be difficult on the isometric maps.
• There are eight weapon slots, each with a fixed amount of maximum ammo. The default weapon is a weak machine gun with unlimited ammo.
• Contrary to first-person shooters, however, the goal is not just to stay alive and reach the next level, but to kill a given percentage of the armed NPCs on the map. Only then the exit to the next level is activated.

There is no plot as such. The presence of a moving van on the first level suggests that the Postal Dude has been evicted from his home and is therefore "going postal", but no background story evolves during the game. However, the manual hints at a possible backstory (the Postal Dude believes the town's population has been infected by a madness plague), and an endgame video implies that the Postal Dude succumbed to his psychosis and is now incarcerated in a government facility.

External links

• Postal at Metacritic
• Postal at Postal Network
• Postal in the Postal Wiki, an external Wiki