Postal 4: No Regerts (PlayStation 4)

Postal has always been a troubled series of games, from the original being banned in over 10 countries all the way to Postal 3’s removal of store and being retconned by Postal 2: Paradise Lost, an expansion to Postal 2 that came out after Postal 3’s launch. We see a few changes with Postal 4, so let’s take a look at this PS4 port.

After the previously mentioned mess of Postal 3, Running With Scissors named Postal 4 the true sequel to Postal 2, here we see our trusty Postal Dude (now voiced by famed VA Jon St.John), and his pooch Champ, have his car stolen and has to make ends meet so he can get his car back. This is done through the games campaign, starting with a sketchy employment agent, going all the way to crime boss of Edensin, the town we find ourselves in.

The town we play in as split into a different areas, these help break up the gameplay a bit, the maps perfectly fine for the game, it’s not too big nor a deal to traverse like other open world shooters can be. There’s always your mode of transport available pretty much all the time, with the Dude using mobility scooters dotted around in points in each area. There’s a few areas we’re able to go into too such as a shopping centre and a sewer, these all look alright if a bit generic.

Missions start with the very “menial” or more physical if tasked in real life. You’ll find yourself in the sewers unblocking pipes full of excrement, or catching dogs and cats, these will get you used to the more simple mechanics of the game, basic combat against rats, how items are used etc. The more days we go through, the more elaborate and “interesting” the tasks get, we find ourselves voting, robbing banks, and inspecting dams. These obviously have a more humorous tone to them than I’ve explained though.

Unfortunately the main mechanics of the game don’t really work great, combat is extremely clunky, with enemy AI feeling like its regressed back to the early to mid 00’s, movement feels especially sluggish on the PS4 and even with the sensitivity moved up. Which falls us straight into the performance side of things, playing this on a PS4 Slim there’s some obviously struggles, the game is somewhat framey as I like to put it, with dropped/low fps running throughout the game.

I do some what feel Postal has quite a unique look, this is pretty open to how you prefer your games though, the almost cartoon style for me works with the almost slapstick/adult tone of the game, the character models remind me of something pulled right from Saints Row 3, which I feel isn’t too far from the Postal 4’s aesthetic. Again however we do have a few issues with the visual presentation, character models don’t specifically look great, it only seems like the Dude was the only who had some real effort put into him, everyone else seems to be here to just add numbers.

Maybe I’m getting to old for the kind of humour that Postal pushes out, but I had a very meh experience playing this. It felt very aged already, and with the added limitations of the PS4, I’d only suggest getting this is you absolutely must play this on a console, but then you should probably grab the PS5 or Series X for it.