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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steamworkshop_webupload_previewfile_375392124_preview_4.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:Running With Scissors insists that the actions depicted [[DontTryThisAtHome should not be reenacted in Real Life]].]]
3->"''IRegretNothing.''"
4-->-- '''The Postal Dude'''
5
6Before Creator/UweBoll brought us 2007's ''Film/{{Postal|2007}}'', there was the ''Postal'' video game series, developed by Running With Scissors, which started with 1997's ''Postal''. The game puts you in the shoes of "The Postal Dude", who believes himself the OnlySaneMan in a world gone mad ([[AxCrazy he's not]]). As such, [[GoingPostal he goes on a bloody rampage]], shooting it out with cops, soldiers, and innocent bystanders alike.
7
8The game spawned three sequels: ''VideoGame/Postal2'' (2003), ''VideoGame/PostalIII'' (2011), and ''VideoGame/Postal4NoRegerts'' (2019). It also spawned [[Film/Postal2007 the aforementioned loose film adaptation]] in 2007 by Creator/UweBoll.
9
10On 20 May 2016, RWS released POSTAL Redux, an HD remake of the original Postal, on Steam, and later [[http://runningwithscissors.com/?p=2318 open sourced]] the original version of Postal 1. Four years later, it was ported to the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch on October 16th 2020, making it the first time the ''Postal'' series has appeared on a console. It then received a UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 port in March 2021.
11
12Another spin-off known as ''VideoGame/PostalBrainDamaged'', developed by Hyperstrange and supervised by Running With Scissors, was announced on 5 September, 2020 at Realms Deep, and released in June 9th, 2022 for PC, with console versions in the works. Unlike the other games in the series, ''Brain Damaged'' is a {{Retraux}} shooter that harkens back to the violent first person shooters of TheNineties, such as ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' and ''VideoGame/Wolfenstein3D'', with an atmosphere reminiscent of the original game's. Watch the announcement trailer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wu4sdkzGQo here]].
13
14On April Fools 2023, RWS released ''[[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2362740/POOSTALL_Royale/ Poostall Royale]]'', a free to play twin stick shooter and a wackier throwback to the first game. It also marks the debut of the Postal Doe, the Postal Dude's female counterpart.
15
16Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', although a 2016 update for the second game, which promises of a store which will open in 2016 (in-universe), pokes fun of it in the newly opened "[[BlandNameProduct STEME Store]]". See also ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'', the SpiritualLicensee of these games.
17
18!Games
19* ''Postal'' (1997)
20* ''VideoGame/Postal2'' (2003)
21* ''VideoGame/PostalIII'' (2011)
22* ''Postal Redux'' (2016)
23* ''VideoGame/Postal4NoRegerts'' (2019)
24* ''VideoGame/PostalBrainDamaged'' (2022)
25* ''Poostall Royale'' (2023)
26----
27!!Hi there, would you like to sign my trope examples?:
28
29[[foldercontrol]]
30
31[[folder:Series-wide Tropes]]
32* ArtificialStupidity: Taken to absurd levels in the third installment. Enemies won't shoot you even if you're right in front of them or sometimes they will completely ignore your existence even while you're attacking them. And friendly AI also have problems with pathfinding and following you, making escort missions even more frustrating than they already could be.
33* BadassLongcoat: The Postal Dude's attire of choice, with CoolShades and, in the third game, fingerless gloves.
34* BlackComedy: While the first game was far more gritty and took itself more seriously, the later games moved into this territory and reveled in it without ever looking back.
35* BloodyHilarious: Hell yeah.
36* CatchPhrase: ''IRegretNothing''.
37* CrapsackWorld: No normal person would want to live in Paradise. The police are corrupt, and all the townspeople appear to be idiots and/or straight-up psychopaths.
38** It's worse in Catharsis, as the global economic meltdown has shot gas prices through the roof. The place is a border town and houses the G.W. Bush memorial border fence, which is used to keep ''Americans'' from illegally entering Mexico to look for jobs instead of the other way around. Any "illegals" crossing from Mexico are nothing but Al Qaeda wearing piss-poor disguises.
39* CreatorProvincialism: ''2'', ''[[CanonDiscontinuity III]]'', and ''4: No Regerts'' are all set in fictional areas in Arizona. Running with Scissors was founded in Tucson AZ and continues to operate there.
40* DeadpanSnarker: The Dude.
41* {{Deconstruction}}: All of the games in the franchise can be deconstructions of the "Murder Simulator" genre and of it's own games- Postal 1 looking like an absolutely serious and downright chilling examination of the mind of a spree killer and what it would be like being as mentally ill as him (Hint: Not fun) as a deconstruction of Postal 2 and III, while 2 and III, in turn, are completely silly and ludicrous deconstructions of Postal 1 by mocking the edgy approach to these games and [[PlayedForLaughs playing the atrocities off as giggle-worthy.]]
42* DenserAndWackier: The first game was played relatively straight, whereas the games from 2 onward are basically the video game equivalent to ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark''.
43* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Though in the second and [[KarmaMeter third]] games, it depends on the player's actions. Still, the difference between "everything" and "damn near everything" is academic here.
44* ExcusePlot:
45** Everyone is your enemy and you want to kill them all because... well, that bit was excised so it wouldn't get in the way so much. You're probably just deranged.
46** In the sequel, you do your chores, mostly by killing anyone who denies you the objective. [[PacifistRun Or you can just watch]] [[HumansAreBastards the world fall]] [[WeirdnessMagnet apart around you.]]
47** In ''Paradise Lost'', you come out of a radiation coma after 11 years, only to find that Champ has vanished completely. Now you have to find him.
48** ''Postal III'' is really just about the Dude trying to escape Catharsis, as it's not much better than Paradise.
49* [[FatBastard Fat Bitch]]: The Dude's wife, at least in the movie. In both it and the second game, she's simply known as "The Bitch". [[spoiler:According to ''Paradise Lost'', she was indeed this before her dating Mad Cow Mike J made her thin. After the boss fight, Mike J revives her with his milk, turning her fat again]].
50* ForTheLulz and ForTheEvulz: Of course, it depends on how amoral you want to be. In the second game, it is entirely possible to do a PacifistRun and [[VideoGameCaringPotential complete the game]].
51* GenreShift: Not for the games, but for the developer. Prior to ''Postal'', these people made such games as ''Tom & Jerry'' and ''Bobby's World'' for the SNES, amongst other titles largely aimed at children. They also made the well-known ''Spy VS Spy'' game. Why'd they shift over? They basically got tired of making licensed games and wanted to do their own stuff.
52** So you could say they ''[[IncrediblyLamePun went Postal]].''
53* GoingPostal: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
54* GuideDangIt: In the first game, many players clearly had trouble figuring out that pressing [=F1=] was how you moved on to the next level after you completed all objectives, given that the Steam version has an achievement called "Oh, you press [=F1=]!" for reaching the second level.
55* HeroicComedicSociopath: The Postal Dude, when killing terrorists and zombies. The Dude can actually embrace the "Heroic" part in ''Postal III'', where he can become a cop and use non-lethal force to take down bad guys.
56* MolotovCocktail: Available in every game to date.
57* MoralGuardians: The series attracted the attention of them in real life, while the games themselves mock them, by portraying them as hypocritically violent protesters.
58* NegativeContinuity: While there is some semblance of continuity in the games, details tend to change not only from game to game but even mission to mission; it's fully possible for Gary Coleman and Krotchy to die in ''Postal 2'' only to [[UnexplainedRecovery turn up alive and well]] in prison on Friday . Sometimes the Dude will [[LampshadeHanging actively acknowledge]] the inconsistencies in continuity, such as trying to ask Mike J. why he's human again in ''4'' when in ''2'', [[spoiler:he became Mad Cow Mike J., a demonic cow monster]].
59* PressXToDie: Played literally. In ''Postal 1'', the player can press "Q" to commit suicide by gunshot. ''Postal 2'' allows you to press "G" do the same, but by biting a hand-grenade, which doubles as a SuicideAttack. This was removed from ''Postal III'' and ''Paradise Lost'', though the former nods to it in the form of the "Emo" [[CosmeticAward achievement]], for injuring yourself.
60* RefugeInAudacity: The series completely runs on it.
61* SoundtrackCoverCharacterJam: Several.
62** The ''Postal & Postal 2 Original Soundtrack'' features four skeletons dressed like a marching band.
63** The soundtrack for ''Redux'' features a HumanoidAbomination getting his cranium blown out while listening to something on headphones, in the game's deranged art style.
64** ''Music To Go Postal By Vol. 2'' has The Dude holding a pair of scissors with a boombox on his back in the style of ''4''.
65** The original soundtrack for ''4'' has The Dude with a pair of headphones [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction on fire]].
66* TheSociopath: The Postal Dude. Of course, that depends on the player's choices.
67* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: The Dude remarks on it in ''Apocalypse Weekend'' during an early hallucination sequence, noting after killing what appears to be a demon with the voice and features of Gary Coleman that "With my luck, that's really a nun, or someone's grandmother. [[SociopathicHero But there's no sense in taking chances]]."
68* VideogameCrueltyPotential: The whole point of the series.
69** In the first two games, the player can encounter a marching band that will inevitably be lit on fire or blown up.
70** In ''Postal 2'', it's possible to shoot a character, light him on fire, piss on him to put the fire out, kick him to death while he is crawling on the ground, then whack the charred corpse's head off with a shovel for good measure - ideally in the direction of another NPC to make them panic.
71* VillainProtagonist: Though frankly, most characters he meets [[BlackAndGrayMorality aren't much better.]]
72* VulgarHumor: From [[UrineTrouble pissing on anything you come across]] to ribald sexual references to [[FanDisservice wearing an ass-less gimp suit]], the series love to cash in the shock value to players.
73* WideOpenSandbox: The second and third games to varying degrees. The first game, and the second game's first expansion are linear, level-based games, but some levels are fairly open in design and allow for at least some exploration (particularly the "Lower Paradise" area of ''Apocalypse Weekend''). ''Postal III'' eventually had a Free Roam mode patched in.
74* WorldOfJerkass: Pretty much everyone The Dude meets ranges from "jerk" to "attempting to murder you and everyone else", so it's not too surprising that he has the attitude to match.
75[[/folder]]
76
77[[folder:Postal and Postal Redux]]
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79[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5019_postal_macintosh_front_cover.jpg]]
80
81* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: While the [[MindScrew confusing nature]] is kept, in ''Redux'', [[spoiler:the Dude doesn't try and fail to shoot up an elementary school, but instead finds a church with a funeral occuring, with the screen shaking and darkening as the casket lowers, leading into the original game's ending sequence.]] The loading screen on Hard and Nightmare mode [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this change.
82-->''I've been here before. I know it. But... something's changed.''
83* AllThereInTheManual: There's no {{backstory}} or anything in the game, save for the unsettling loading screens, nor a tutorial of any sort. The manual and Hard mode in ''POSTAL Redux'' fills you in a bit, suggesting that a HatePlague has infected the town, though [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness it's hard to say for sure whether that's true]]. The intro to ''Postal III'' reveals that his house was foreclosed on, which caused the Dude [[GoingPostal to snap]]; even if that game is no longer canon, it ''was'' revealed to be a coma hallucination the Dude had between ''Apocalypse Weekend'' and ''Paradise Lost'', so presumably a comment on the Dude's past from the Dude himself is still factual.
84* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
85** Entering a new level will fully replenish your health, regardless of how much you lost during the previous level.
86** Grabbing a health or ammo pickup when you're already close to the maximum will leave the pickup with whatever health or ammo you didn't need, so you can come back to it later and not have to worry that you're wasting resources if you end up picking up health when you're already one or two points away from fully healed.
87** In the original game, you couldn't [[DoNotRunWithAGun move and use the shotgun at the same time]], leaving you open to enemy attacks while trying to kill a hostile. ''Redux'' allows you to run and use the shotgun at the same time with no issues.
88** Grenades, firebombs and mines are treated as primary weapons in the original, meaning you had to manually use them like any other weapon. ''Redux'' treats them as secondary weapons, as they now can be used with a dedicated secondary fire button.
89** Hostile health is now displayed with a crosshair in ''Redux''. Not only that, but enemies are easier to kill than the original.
90* AlternateContinuity: ''Redux'' is implied to be this with all the changes made from the original taken into account. Both ''Postal 1'' and ''Redux'' are also heavily implied to be in a separate continuity than the one ''Postal 2'' and ''4'' occur in.
91* ArtificialStupidity: Every panicking unarmed civilian will run around in ''absolutely random'' directions. They will not try to actually run ''away'' from the heavily armed lunatic, nor will they try to steer clear from crossfire.
92* BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: Postal Dude can kill the ostriches in The Farm level if he desires to.
93* BeatingADeadPlayer: Enemies still attack the corpse for a few moments after the player is killed. The player's corpse can be repeatedly tossed by enemy's explosives.
94* BodyHorror: The credits screen that appears every time you quit.
95* TheCameo: A cheat code in ''Redux'' unlocks [[spoiler:Not Important/The Antagonist from ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'']] as a playable character, complete with his own voice lines.
96* DevelopersForesight: The game will notify you if you manage to complete a level without killing any innocents. It will keep track of innocents who get caught in the crossfire and killed by enemies, and those will not be counted against the player.
97* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
98** Unlike the games after, the events of the first Postal aren't PlayedForLaughs in the slightest (other than some BondOneLiners from the Postal Dude), and are instead played for all the horror you'd expect from a guy snapping and going on a killing spree.
99** This game is a top-down shooter rather than the first- and third-person shooters the rest of the series has been.
100** There are no melee weapons available to use, being limited to ranged weapons and throwables. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking You also cannot piss]].
101** There are no characters based off real people, either played by themselves (Mike J and Vince Desi, [[VideoGame/Postal2 Gary Coleman]], [[VideoGame/PostalIII Jennifer Walcott]], [[VideoGame/Postal4NoRegerts Civvie]]), or parodies (Osama bin Laden).
102** The final level of the original game straight up has [[spoiler:children present, which the Postal Dude fails to harm. Later games omit children altogether [[HideYourChildren for obvious reasons.]]]]
103** It's implied that Rick Hunter's lines for the Dude aren't actually the Dude's, but rather a demon or a split personality, indicated by the voice lines in the files being labeled as "demon". All future games establish that Rick Hunter's performance really is the Postal Dude's voice.
104* ExplodingBarrels: Played straight, and also used somewhat creatively to simulate other explosive environmental objects like gas pumps.
105* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Played with. [[spoiler:The final level in the original game is called "The Elementary School", but it's all scripted. The Dude shows up and opens fire on a playground, but the children aren't affected. Then he has his breakdown. On the other hand, the kids from that level seem to be the same shorter sprites you ''can'' kill during the game, so who knows?]]
106* MindScrew:
107** The loading screens, despite nothing really supernatural happening in game. Justified in that the protagonist had gone insane.
108** [[spoiler:Both the original and the ''Redux'' endings can count as this. The original ending has the Dude attempting to shoot up an elementary school, finding out that his guns do nothing, and collapsing as the screen distorts. The Redux ending has him trying to kill one "hostile" in a church, coming across a funeral that may or may not be his own and collapsing to the ground as the casket is lowered and the "hostile" tally is fulfilled. Both end the same way, with the Dude incarcerated into an asylum to be studied.]]
109** [[spoiler:Redux's Co-Op ending is even worse. It implies that there's more than one Postal Dude, with the Co-Op Dudes arriving at the Campaign/Rampage Dude's cell to finish him.]]
110** Hell, ''Postal 1'' as a whole could be considered one due to how out-of-place it feels next to every other game in the series.
111* MultipleEndings: ''Redux'' actually has six endings, each one with their own minor differences. One for beating the game normally, one for beating Rampage Mode, one for beating the game on Hard/Nightmare Mode (which changes the loading screen messages to the journal entries from the original game's manual, as well), one for beating either the Super Delivery (Special Delivery and Super Postal levels) or Excess Postage (base game levels + Super Delivery levels) campaigns, and one for beating the game in Co-Op.
112* MurderSimulators: The game seems dangerously close to one, at times.
113* RevolversAreJustBetter: ''Redux'' introduces a revolver that's '''very''' powerful.
114* ScareChord: A subtle one can be heard when preforming an execution.
115* ShoutOut: One of the buildings in the Carnival level in ''Redux'' sports a green poster advertising ''[[VideoGame/{{Blood}} JoJo the Idiot Circus Boy]]''
116* TitleDrop: One of the Dude's taunts is simply "Postal!".
117* UpdatedRerelease:
118** The original game was rereleased on Steam in 2015 with support for modern hardware, improved mouse and keyboard controls, gamepad compatibility, achievements, high resolution settings, widescreen support and all levels from the "Special Delivery" expansion pack. And to celebreate the series 20th anniversary in 2017, Running With Scissors released a patch including the two Japan-exclusive levels from "Super Postal" worldwide for the first time since its release. Unfortunately, online multiplayer and the level editor were removed from this version.
119** ''Redux'' includes new character models for the Dude, civilians and hostiles, redone artwork for the levels, loading screens and the ending, new endings, redone soundtrack, new and redone voicework, a new level (The Carnival), a new weapon (the revolver), new skins, [[spoiler:Not Important/The Antagonist from ''VideoGame/{{Hatred}}'']] as a playable character, QOL improvements, rebalanced difficulty and a new Score Attack mode known as "Rampage Mode". Later updates for the remake included levels from both expansions, online co-op and a deathmatch mode.
120* VillainousBreakdown:
121** [[spoiler:The final level of the original game has the Dude undergo one of these upon opening fire on a playground full of children and finding that they are completely impervious to his weapons.]]
122** [[spoiler:The final level in ''Redux'', "The End", has the Dude heading to church, finding it's locked and empty, then moving straight into a funeral, presumably his own (as the hostile count is a measly 1, and it's reduced to 0 when the coffin is lowered), before he has his breakdown.]]
123* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:Averted '''hard''' in both the original game and ''Redux''. Lead designer and co-creator of RWS Vince Desi has made it clear that for all the things he's okay with a player being able to do in videogames, murdering children is effectively the one line he refuses to ever cross. In fact this is part of what caused the game to become so controversial because at the time the New York Times wrote an article saying you CAN kill the children, and when Vince called them up over it and they were so nonchalant about the lie told and their refusal to print a correction, he sorta implied he was going to go over there and bash the writer's face in, which got him a call from the FBI.]]
124[[/folder]]

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