Postal III
Developer(s)	Running With Scissors Akella (TrashMasters Studios)
Publisher(s)	RU Akella
Distributor(s)	Valve Corporation (Steam)
Writer(s)	Bill Kunkel[1]
Series	Postal
Engine	Source
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	Microsoft Windows RU November 23, 2011 NA December 23, 2011 Steam February 17, 2012
Genre(s)	Third-person shooter, Open world
Mode(s)	Single-player
Media/distribution	Optical disc, download

Postal III, or Akella's Postal Spin off according to Running with Scissors,^[2] is a third-person shooter video game developed by Russian game company Akella.^[3] It is the third game in the Postal series and is a spin-off sequel to Postal 2.^[4] It was the first game not developed by Running With Scissors but rather licensed to Akella to produce and develop.^[5]

Postal III was released in the USA for Microsoft Windows on 23 November 2011,^[6] and releases were planned for Linux^[7][8] and Mac OS X.^[9] PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ports were announced in later stages of development,^[10] but it has recently been revealed that budget constraints are holding back these console ports.

Gameplay [edit]

Postal III it includes performances by a wide array of minor celebrities, including Ron Jeremy, Jennifer Walcott, and Randy Jones. The game also contains characters depicting Uwe Boll (director of the 2007 Postal film),^[11] Sergei Mavrodi, Osama bin Laden and Hugo Chávez.

Plot [edit]

In Postal III, The Postal Dude emigrates to Paradise's sister town of Catharsis as he previously blew up Paradise with a nuclear bomb.^[12] Due to the economic meltdown, the Dude drives into town and becomes stranded because he can not afford a tank of gas. He must then find work and do various odd jobs to escape the town.^[13]

Through the course of the game, the player can choose one of two paths: the "bad path", which includes joining in on the schemes of Mayor Chomo and Uncle Dave, or the "good path", which involves the Dude joining the Catharsis Police force. The game plays out in a fairly linear and cinematic way, although the player's actions effect the outcome of the story and the game. Although the "good path" is more difficult to play, it offers more story line and a longer campaign.^[14]

There are 3 Endings to the game as Postal Dude must escape from the impending Venezuelan Invasion with Hugo Chávez leading the charge.

Evil Ending: Escaping Carthasis with the skin of his teeth and leaving Chomo, Dave and Bin Laden at the mercy of Hockey Moms. Postal Dude winds up at the mercy of the law enforcement who was quick to give him and his dog the death penalty for his slaughter. His appeal to heaven completely fails and Postal Dude is sent to hell.

Neutral Ending: Postal Dude succeeds in escaping Carthasis without resorting to murder or delivering swift justice and meets Jennifer "Jen" Wallcott who tries to hijack his car but winds up marrying him instead and enjoying the honeymoon in Peru. He wins the lottery and has a bestselling book which details his personal view of the exploits in Postal 2 as Champ bites on the groin of the talk show host.

Good Ending: Saving the world from Hugo Chávez, Postal Dude become one of the most popular yet controversial heroes of American history. He winds up becoming the President of the United States with Jen Wallcott as his wife and head of Secret Service who winds up annoying both sides of the political spectrum. As he moves into the White House, a certain nuclear button sparks the inner psychopath within.

Regardless of the endings, Postal Dude's final words are "I regret nothing!"

Release [edit]

The game was initially released for Windows on November 23, 2011 in Russia.^[15]

It was supposed to be released on December 21, 2011 worldwide in downloadable form on Steam.^[16] However, for unknown reasons the Steam store delated its release, removing Postal III from its game listings. The game can still be purchased from Direct2Drive and GameFly but still requires Steam activation and now Steam.

Austrian game distributor Gameware^[17] released two boxed editions on December 23, 2011.^[18]

Reception [edit]

Rating aggregation site Metacritic found Postal III to be critically slammed, with an average review score of 24 out of 100.^[19]

GameSpot gave the game 3/10, while Game Informer also lambasted the game, giving it a score of 1/10 and saying that "the people behind Postal III don’t have the writing ability to back up their gutter-dwelling mouths. As it turns out, they also don’t have the design or programming chops to create a stable game.". This makes it one of a handful of games to ever receive such a low score.

In a more positive review, QJ.Net stated that the game was "one of the most interestingly written, psychotic and harmful games I've ever played" and that the developers had "ended up with a product that looks good, sounds great and is often funny", but also complained that their "experience was marred with constant crashing and a lot of graphical glitches" as well as complaining that it often comes off as "mean spirited and lacking in heart".^[20]

Original Gamer gave the game a rating of 7.5, deciding that it was "a good game, just not a great one". The reviewer praised its storyline, wide variety of weapons, and creativity while deriding the games "linear level design and gameplay" and complaining that it takes "a while to get to the meat of the title". It also called out the games use of good and bad paths, which he believed unfairly favoured the good path, deciding that the game "punishes you for being bad, by being bad itself". That said, it concluded by saying that the "fun is there in Postal 3, you just have to work a little for it."^[1]

Developer reactions [edit]

In an interview with rebelgamer.de about a month after release, Vince Desi, the head of Running with Scissors admitted that the "fan reaction has been mixed" to Postal III, as well as stating that most of the complaints centred around the game having "too many bugs." Desi acknowledged that it was hard for him to hear from "diehard fans and hearing their complaints", but did however emphasise that the developers have been "making updates to fix a lot of the problems" as well as stating that people who purchased the game at that time would have a "much better experience."

He also commented that while RWS had "designed a very big challenging game with great variety", their development team and publisher "were under tremendous pressure and decided to release a different game, something that they could deliver." He did however note that he was "glad that the publisher has tried very hard to make the necessary improvements" following the games initial reception. He also commented that they were committed to making "sure that gamers get the best value they deserve" from Postal III.^[21]

On August 25, 2012 developer and Postal franchise owner Running with Scissors removed Postal 3 from their store, stating that it was "in the best interest of the Postal Community" and encouraged gamers to instead purchase their earlier titles, stating that they are "a far superior product for a lot less money".^[22] This came after revelations that Running with Scissors relationship with Akella had broken down and that they no longer had any real involvement with the future development of Postal 3.

RWS explained the situation by stating that Postal III "was licensed to a Russian publisher and developer who were supposed produce the game to our design, with a much bigger team and budget than we had for POSTAL 2. Even taking those facts into account, it didn't work out very well. It was a mistake and one we will not repeat" and that "after the disaster that was PIII due to the mistake of outsourcing it, we have decided to make the next game 100% in house."^[23]

A later interview with Running with Scissors' Jon Merchant further clarified the situation, with him stating that "Akella had vastly more resources than we had for POSTAL 2, so it seemed reasonable at the time they could produce a game that was at least equal to the game we made inhouse. Things started out well but I think they got hit pretty hard by the economic problems of 2007-8, and it all started to go downhill from there. The final product was very far removed from our original design, and horribly broken." He also commented that "the game is a broken mess and should not be sold. We stopped selling the game ourselves some time ago when it became apparent that neither us or the community would get the SDK tools. We don't regard it as the third POSTAL game, just a dodgy spin off that should never have happened."^[24]

Vince Desi summarized the situation in a 2013 interview by saying that "some deals work, some don’t, PIII failed for many reasons. Worst of all we lost control of the project and that was the beginning of the shitfest. Historically we had a great relationship with Akella, our Russian publisher, and for the record the folks there were good people and I consider them my friends regardless of the fiasco PIII ... Again, it is a testimony to POSTAL fans around the world who have shown their loyal support beyond all odds and hurdles that allows us to keep on going."^[25]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• http://runningwithscissors.com/ Running with Scissors