"...It takes the infamously controversial brand of violence to a new level."
Gameplay is identical to Postal 2 in every way at least in terms of control mapping. Other than that the game is totally different and packs a whole new story and features new weapons. The game starts with the Postal Dude waking up in a hospital with a bloody bandage on his head. He gets up and leaves his room and sees an ad for a sperm donation on a nearby cork board and he realizes it is a way to make some money. This is the kind of humor the game works with and it is considerably more blatant than in previous versions where a subtle pun appeared here and there. Unlike Postal 2 where you are assigned a list of tasks to complete for each day, here you are usually just told where to go next. The tasks are more complicated this time around because they involve invading a terrorist training camp and making a run from a military stockade. The game even sometimes features a miniature "boss" battle. The objectives are often straightforward but actually reaching the objective can be a hassle because there are no indicators concerning where to go next. You basically just follow your nose and hope you find it, and fortunately the objectives are not brutally hard to find if you explore a little. The story takes some interesting turns like the mission where you must help defend Running with Scissor's president Vince Desi's home from zombies. Some objectives involve slaying a certain number of NPCs including zombies on more than one occasion and even killing cows and elephants. Apocalypse Weekend brings the Postal series to a new low by actually making mercilessly killing relatively helpless animals a fun experience. In one mission you are given a sledge hammer, one of the new melee weapons, and your goal is to kill about twenty cows just for the heck of it. Along with the new animal brutality comes a new form of human brutality in the form of decapitation and severing. Some of the new weapons include a machete, a large scythe, and of course the aforementioned sledge hammer. These weapons will slice and dice your foes into either neatly-cut pieces of flesh or bloody chunks. Or if you prefer you can throw them and they will gore whoever gets in their path. And along with these new toys there are the other guns from the previous game like the pistol, the assault rifle, and the sniper rifle. And of course the Postal Dude can still kick and unzip his pants to relieve himself on anything he likes. Apocalypse Weekend changes virtually nothing in the old formula.
I mentioned earlier that AW takes the Postal brand to a new level of violence, and that statement is proven by what can be done with the new melee weapons. This game is by far the bloodiest and most gory Postal game to date, and it thanks to the fact that now just about anything living can be chopped up in some way. The game is also more disturbing in terms of sheer violence because if you see fit to chop off someone's legs they will fall to the ground and try to crawl away while blood is squirting from their wounds. The same effects apply when you chop off somebody's arms or head. And if you really want the gore then hit an NPC at their midsection and watch as literally their organs fall out and intestines crawl from their corpse. That level of graphic violence is unheard of even in games like Grand Theft Auto because of the player's freedom to kill indiscriminately. Oftentimes you can have a whole street littered with bloody body parts, heads, limbs, and blood is splattered everywhere. Aside from the blood and violent content the game looks identical to Postal 2 with the exception of new places like a Chinese restaurant, a terrorist training camp, a military base, etc. Each one of these places is new but they still retain the look of Postal 2 like with the people and the places. The thing about this game is that Postal Dude experiences these psychedelic shifts from reality to this really wacky world. And in this wacky world everything looks really, really, bizarre. To add to their bizarre nature each time you zone out these little Gary Coleman-esque demons appear and they try to kill you with grenades, diseased cow heads, etc. This twilight world Postal Dude finds himself in from time to time is actually pretty cool thanks to some groovy kaleidoscope effect on the walls, the ceilings, and even on windows. On the screen is a flowing reddish haze that does not impede gameplay but manufactures on-screen what someone in this place might see. The graphics actually almost seem a little sharper than in Postal 2, but that is not to say there are no problems. Apocalypse Weekend shares flaws with its predecessor in most ways including some weird clipping issues, character models do not look amazing, and quite frankly, the world itself is not very impressive. To be fair the development team did make some improvements in environments like with the Chinese eatery and even the terrorist training camp. There seems to be significantly more detail overall in every area than in Postal 2, but things still seem a little bland. The expansion now features some cinematic cutscenes, appearing specifically at the beginning of the game. They do not look very good and ultimately they were probably not necessary. I mentioned before that due to the fact Apocalypse Weekend is just like Postal 2 there is nothing that was done to truly improve on the previous game. A little polishing could have been done in the NPC department because they are mostly recycled with a few new faces, but they still do not look very good. AW neither takes a step forward nor a step backward in graphics; it moves hardly at all.
Sound in Apocalypse Weekend shares the same attitude as Postal 2, and this is a good thing. The Postal Dude's deep, monotone, and sarcastic voice is funny and appealing. And this is especially so when he quips "How would you like it if someone called you a lunatic?" or something similar. He comes across as someone who could care less about something but he does it anyway because he needs to or someone told him to. The voice work for his character is always done wonderfully because he is funny, brutal, and he is just the kind of guy you love to hate. Honestly I am not sure if I should classify him as either antagonist or protagonist, but whichever he is it is the most unique form of one I have ever seen. Other voice work is okay like with the NPCs, and it sounds like a guy does the voice of some of the female ones. This seems especially so for the women in the radical PETA-inspired group "L.A.M.E." that appear in-game. The new kind of work comes in when you butchered someone and they are crawling along the ground moaning and saying, "It hurts!" The voice work is usually pretty well-written but from time to time a cheesy line will show up, but due to the fact this game is already a little cheesy it is forgivable. And once again, just like Postal 2, Apocalypse Weekend has very little music. There are some tunes from time to time but nothing that through extended play. The Postal Dude uses guns- a lot of them. Guns are the core of gameplay and they sound great. In fact, they sound identical to Postal 2 gun sounds. In the end sound rocks though the rare music ever does.
Apocalypse Weekend is a tough game to fine on its own, so it is most likely that you will get it in the Postal Fudge Pack anthology. Regardless of how you acquire it the game stands on its own two feet as the best Postal game available because of some of the improvements and tweaks over Postal 2. It is certainly not the best shooter out there, but it definitely is the most unique and the most disgusting and bloody shooter available.