POSTAL 2

Who said Postal doesn't have a storyline?

This article may contain significant plot details, please read at your own risk.

Template:Infobox VG"Ever have one of those days?"

— The cover art for Postal 2

POSTAL 2 is a first-person shooter by Running with Scissors. It is the sequel to the 1997 game POSTAL.

Plot

Players take on the role of the Postal Dude, a tall thin man with a goatee, sunglasses, a long black trench coat, and an alien t-shirt.

Every day, his wife demands him to complete a number of errands, in which he must put up with being flipped the bird, mugged, attacked by protestors, put upon by an obnoxious convenience store owner/terrorist and his patrons who cut before him in the "money-line", plus a Marching Band, a murderous toy mascot named Krotchy, the police and SWAT, the ATF and the National Guard, a religious cult, savage butchers, psycho Taliban terrorists, and Gary Coleman himself.

After carrying out these tasks which almost get the Postal Dude wound up in jail or killed, Paradise erupts into complete carnage (allegedly) due to his actions over the week. As he walks home, he witnesses civilians and law enforcements battle it out while cats fall from the sky. He arrives home safely, however it turns out he forgot one last item to get for his wife, and therefore, he shoots himself in the head to stop listening to her nagging.

Gameplay

The game levels are split into days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

At the beginning of each day, the Dude is given several tasks or "errands" to accomplish, such as to 'get milk', 'confess sins', etcetera. The player can accomplish these tasks in any way desired, be it as civilly or as chaotically as possible, and can be accomplished in any order. The game also includes an extra task that is only activated on Friday if the Dude performs a special action.

In-between tasks, the player is allowed to explore the town of Paradise, causing chaos or just moseying around. Completing errands is essential however, as some districts and areas of the town are barricaded up, thus unavailable to the player until a later day. The game also has a large array of weapons to use, from shovels right up to rocket launchers peppered throughout Paradise. Oh, and you can piss on people which is fun and practical as it disables NPCs by making them vomit.

Steam Version

Main Article: POSTAL 2 Complete

After the trainwreck of Postal III, POSTAL 2 was re-released on Steam via Steam Greenlight on November 2nd, 2012. This version merges the Postal 2 base game with it's expansions (Share the Pain and Apocalypse Weekend), adds several features from the A Week in Paradise mod, and gives the game Steam Workshop support.

Controversial aspects

Violence and police brutality

The option of attacking and/or killing police officers and soldiers, as well as bystanders.
Decapitating people with shovels or similar weapons (katana, machete etc.) and kicking the heads about.
Setting people on fire with a variety of methods, from gasoline and matches, to Molotov Cocktails and Napalm Launchers or even the kicking about of burning heads. If a kill by burning is achieved in multiplayer, the game will refer to it as a "Tibetan monk experience".
Stun-gunning people until they cower on the ground and urinate on themselves.
When the Postal Dude wears a police uniform and brutalizes innocent people, other police officers openly admit that they [the Dude] are corrupt, sometimes even suggesting he watches it, "someone might have a camera". At several points in the game, police NPCs are seen attacking and killing civilians for no apparent reason. Furthermore, while they will attempt to arrest the Dude if he commits a crime, they will always attempt to kill any NPCs that participate in the infighting, usually by beating the NPC to death with their batons even if the targeted NPC has surrendered and begs for mercy.
Playing "fetch" with dogs using the severed heads of slain NPCs (it should be noted that dogs "friendly" to the player will also fetch any non-food items dropped or kicked around by the player).
The add-ons (see above) add the ability to dismember NPCs with weapons such as chainsaws, katanas, etc., and watch them attempt to crawl away. This ability is enhanced in the A Week in Paradise mod.

References of current and past events

Al-Qaeda terrorists who carry out a suicide bombing of a church and a marching band (these characters all resemble Osama bin Laden and many characters in the game of Middle Eastern descent are shown to be connected in some way with the terrorists).
The hunt for the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq is parodied in the weapon called the "Weapon of Mass Destruction", found in the Tora Bora area. It is a variation of the Rocket Launcher that fires chemical missiles.
Anthrax-filled cow's heads used as weapons which make the victims vomit blood.
A scene that bears resemblance to the Waco Siege of 1993, with a cult group being surrounded by ATF agents at "the compound".
Jihad, the company that makes the goat milk in Monday's chores.

Stereotypes

Homophobia in the shape of an arcade game prop called Fag Hunter. The AWP mod (included in the Fudge Pack release) expands Fag Hunter into a mini-level where the player has to kill 20 stereotyped gay NPCs (depicted as bald, unshaven men wearing pink dresses).
Racial stereotypes, such as Habib, the owner of the Lucky Ganesh convenience store, who speaks with a stereotypical Indian accent similar of that of Apu from the FOX sitcom The Simpsons. Habib appears to be a Muslim, yet at the same time his store has obvious Hindu elements.

Miscellaneous

The use of cats as silencers for shotguns and machine guns by pushing the barrel of the gun into its rectum. This was commented on in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
A kid's TV show mascot named Krotchy, who is a giant cartoon scrotum. A talking toy with his likeness even says phrases such as "Daddy said only he can touch me there!" or "Don't touch me! I'm callin' my lawyer!" when used. Krotchy has a partner character named Larry the Crab, whose toy seems much less popular (indicated by the toy store being filled with Larry dolls and no Krotchy because Krotchy toys were sold out).
Numerous jabs and insults aimed at Joe Lieberman, including a banner that reads "Leiberman [sic], God sees your lies", the easiest difficulty setting is "Liebermode", and in the final newspaper announcing the apocalypse on Friday, a byline that reads "Lieberman blames Doom". (After a player's death or suicide, if the game is left running without restarting or reloading a saved game, NPCs standing around the body will invariably make statements such as "Somebody call Lieberman" and "I blame Doom"). Similarly, several jokes are aimed at Dave Grossman such as a video arcade named "Grossman's Arcade".