Postal 4 Dubbed Failure by Critics; Fans Claim Otherwise
The sequel to the Postal series leaves early access on April 20. Critics claim that the new title is unplayable. Fans of the series have a completely different opinion.
After three years in early access Postal 4: No Regerts will officially debut tomorrow. The series known for its brutality and irreverent humor makes one of the most anticipated comebacks in the gaming world, and critics unanimously declare the title a failure.
On Metacritic the new Postal received an overall score of 33/100. This extremely low result was influenced by several problems, repeatedly cited in critics' reviews.
"Postal 4: No Regertslacks humor and enjoyable, engaging mechanics. The only thing the game has more than enough of are the constant technical problems, which are just one item on a long list of shortcomings," is how the 1/10 score from GameSpot was explained.
"Beyond the topic of political correctness, the game offers insane possibilities, but due to bugs, boring missions, terrible performance, long loading times and poor optimization, the gameplay experience is disappointing and annoying," wrote Eurogamer Italy in it's 4/10 review.
Crude humor without a point, laborious shooting, and terrible optimization - that's what reviewers think of the new game by Running With Scissors.
Creators' intentions
The official description of the new Postal call it the 'sequel to the worst game of all time', and many internet users claim that the problems cited by reviewers are intentional. It's hard not to agree with the fact that the series has always aimed at unsavory humor and crude gameplay, being a kind of caricature of the genre. Reviewers, however, are aware of this idea and say that the developers have failed in this area as well:
"Running With Scissors may consider this review a source of pride, given that the poor quality of the game is a joke in itself, but don't think for a second that Postal 4 stood even for a moment next to the so bad it's good category. This game has no positive elements to it. It's a truly awful experience that should be avoided at all costs," GameSpot's review continues.
What were the intentions, we'll probably never know. It is clear, however, that critics had a field day with the game.
Fan reception
Interestingly, the gaming community is of a completely different opinion. On Steam Postal 4 received 85% positive feedback in early access. It seems that fans of the series praise exactly those elements that the reviewers considered the worst, including poor optimization..
"Friday throws an error and you can't continue playing... Exactly as I remembered 10/10," writes comment from user QRED100 on Steam.
"IGN rated it 2/10, GameSpot 1/10... That's saying enough, I wholeheartedly recommend it," user Lyka's comment on Steam.
"Postal. A series known for being hated by critics and adored by fans. I've seen the reviews. All of them negative. Good job. You made the critics completely miss the point. This is exactly what the fans wanted. RWS always satisfies and has some of the best, if not the best staff in the industry. I will happily play this game for the next 15 years, just like I did with Postal 2," writes user Noobie on Steam.
Success or failure? I guess it's better to please the players and enrage the critics than the other way around. If the fans of the series are satisfied, then I guess the developers do not need anything more. However, did the reviewers not understand the convention, or do they just look at it more objectively and do not justify the mistakes, like players blinded by nostalgia? I guess it's enough to repeat the old saying that the beauty lies in the eye of the beholder...
