I respect the hell out of RWS. Instead of buckling under the controversy their first game caused, they doubled down and made a sequel so stupidly offensive you'd have to be an idiot to take it seriously. When the sequel to their beloved cult classic turned out to be utter rubbish, they pushed support and DLC for Postal 2 for years to make sure fans didn't have a sour taste in their mouth. And with the most recent entry, they not only brought in huge new voice talent, but every single previous Postal Dude as well, even Zack freaking Ward. It genuinely feels like RWS sees the series as more than just a title they can milk for steady cash. The fans love the series for its tastelessness, and RWS respects the fans enough to keep their communal trash fire burning as long as it can.

That said, Postal 4 feels less like hot garbage and just regular garbage. I played this during early access, and I was excited to see the game shape up as development went on. As soon as 1.0 launched however, the load times were simply too much; quite literally for my PC, most times. If the game didn't crash on level transitions, my computer did. Killing things too quickly would make the game lurch almost audibly, and I often fell through or got stuck on level geometry just by walking wrong.

Optimization is far from the only issue I had. Gunplay feels incredibly stiff, only really just passing a "usable" mark. Melee just feels wrong. The story is . . . well, Postal. The biggest offender though has to be the open world. It most certainly is very open, with most if not all buildings having some way of entering, but about 80% of the time there's no real reward for searching those buildings unless you REALLY need a couple pistol rounds.

Maybe RWS are pulling a big brain commentary, making their most recent game offend gamers by just not being very good. Maybe I'm an idiot expecting anything technically solid when Postal 2 was held together with duct tape and offensive jokes. Maybe RWS will give Postal 4 the love they did Postal 2 and in a few years it'll be damn near perfect. But "maybe" isn't enough for me to recommend this game.

I respect the hell out of RWS. Instead of buckling under the controversy their first game caused, they doubled down and made a sequel so stupidly offensive you'd have to be an idiot to take it seriously. When the sequel to their beloved cult classic turned out to be utter rubbish, they pushed support and DLC for Postal 2 for years to make sure fans didn't have a sour taste in their mouth. And with the most recent entry, they not only brought in huge new voice talent, but every single previous Postal Dude as well, even Zack freaking Ward. It genuinely feels like RWS sees the series as more than just a title they can milk for steady cash. The fans love the series for its tastelessness, and RWS respects the fans enough to keep their communal trash fire burning as long as it can. That said, Postal 4 feels less like hot garbage and just regular garbage. I played this during early access, and I was excited to see the game shape up as development went on. As soon as 1.0 launched however, the load times were simply too much; quite literally for my PC, most times. If the game didn't crash on level transitions, my computer did. Killing things too quickly would make the game lurch almost audibly, and I often fell through or got stuck on level geometry just by walking wrong. Optimization is far from the only issue I had. Gunplay feels incredibly stiff, only really just passing a "usable" mark. Melee just feels wrong. The story is . . . well, Postal. The biggest offender though has to be the open world. It most certainly is very open, with most if not all buildings having some way of entering, but about 80% of the time there's no real reward for searching those buildings unless you REALLY need a couple pistol rounds. Maybe RWS are pulling a big brain commentary, making their most recent game offend gamers by just not being very good. Maybe I'm an idiot expecting anything technically solid when Postal 2 was held together with duct tape and offensive jokes. Maybe RWS will give Postal 4 the love they did Postal 2 and in a few years it'll be damn near perfect. But "maybe" isn't enough for me to recommend this game.