Postal 2 Preview

"It's only funny until somebody gets hurt," exclaims Running With Scissors CEO Vince Desidiero, "at which point it becomes hysterical." Desidiero's cruel but humorous twist on the age-old admonition best captures the essence of Postal 2, the first-person shooter sequel to the notoriously violent 1997 game that put his company on the map. The original Postal was viewed by many to be overly violent--you were able to take out your pent-up aggression against all kinds of innocent bystanders in the game--and even Senator Joseph Lieberman got into the act, seeking to ban the game outright. The game ultimately sold well more than 200,000 copies worldwide, and while Running With Scissors had wanted to develop a sequel right away, legal wranglings over the Postal rights prevented the company from doing so until years later. Now, having been in development at the company's Tucson, Arizona, offices since January 2001, Postal 2 promises to multiply its predecessor's shock value tenfold, and with the new standard that Grand Theft Auto III set for this subject matter, the game has to deliver. From what we've seen of it, we don't doubt that it will.

However, don't expect Postal 2 to contain nothing but mindless violence. "This game isn't meant to be violence only," explains Desidiero. "Violence by itself isn't fun. Vulgarity on its own isn't fun. We need to find a balance between these and various other elements to produce black humor that's enjoyable." And that's exactly what you'll find in Postal 2. The game is being developed using the latest version of Epic Games' Unreal 3D technology coupled with MathEngine's Karma software to create solid visuals and realistic, if not slightly overexaggerated, physics. And this latter feature won't just be used for giving characters a rag doll effect either. "[Lead Programmer] Nathan Fouts set my entire driveway on fire while researching the effects of fire," laughs Desidiero. "But it was worth it, because we're now able to realistically mimic the effects of flame and gasoline in the game." One of the weapons that you can wreak havoc with in Postal 2 will be a gas can, and its contents will run down walls, splash, and form puddles just like you'd expect it to do. Alt-click on your mouse, and your character will flick a match that will ignite the gas stream that you previously created, causing a small line of fire to race along the trail until exploding in a giant fireball once it reaches a puddle. "You can do so much with just this one weapon," says Fouts. "One of our favorite techniques is to run circles around people with the gas can and watch them fry."

The game's impressive qualities won't end with its visuals either. The AI will be sufficiently complex, which will lead to things like characters recognizing what kinds of weapons you're carrying and then reacting appropriately. Splash some gasoline on someone, and he or she will run off screaming before you have a chance to strike your match (the person will remain flammable, however). Cops, on the other hand, can tell the difference between legal and illegal weapons you're carrying. A pistol that isn't being pointed at anyone, for example, won't illicit much of a response from nearby policemen, but if they see you with a rocket launcher--no matter how innocently you might be carrying it--they'll take you down. "Characters on the street can notice you doing something illegal, they can hear gunfire, they'll run to the nearest cops and point in your direction, they can be confused and tricked by firing your gun once and then hiding it quickly...they just have so many different reactions," exclaims Fouts. "And they behave so [realistically] that it's almost scary!" adds Desidiero.

According to the development team, what's even scarier is interacting with the game's characters on peaceful terms. If you want, you'll be able to play this game without ever pulling the trigger, and the simple act of interacting with people going about their everyday lives--like standing in line at a bank--is sure to wow, especially since it's never been tried before in an action game.

A World Gone Postal

The actual structure of Postal 2's missions is also noteworthy. Perhaps the closest comparison that could be made to it would be Grand Theft Auto III, but even that wouldn't be entirely accurate. As anyone who's played the original knows, you play a nameless man living in a trailer park of one Paradise, Arizona. You'll be tasked with doing a series of your daily errands--shopping for milk, returning an overdue library book, and so on--though how you handle those situations is up to you. Ever wanted to shorten the line at the bank by shooting your way through it? More power to you. Want to permanently quiet the rude cashier at the store? Go right ahead. The world of Postal 2 is made up of multiple large areas, each with numerous buildings and homes, and unlike in other first-person shooters, you won't progress through these levels in a linear fashion. Instead, you'll get a list of four chores that need to be completed within one day in the game. How you choose to accomplish these four errands is entirely up to you, but you won't be allowed to move on to the second day until their criteria have been satisfied. Additionally, at the end of each day, you'll have to take part in a Survivor event of sorts, which pits you against overwhelming odds. Shooting your way out of a SWAT convention will be the first such challenge.

As you progress through the days, more of the world will open for you. "We're trying to make this process as transparent as possible," says Fouts. "It won't be quite as obvious as Grand Theft Auto III's method of opening new islands for you." The entire game spans the length of one workweek--five days--for a total of 20 individual missions. Populating these levels are a variety of characters. "The Unreal code can theoretically display 64 onscreen characters at a time," says Fouts. "But we're aiming for just 15-20 models at once...and these will be good-looking people, not like the ones in State of Emergency." Every character model will be made up of 3,000 polygons, and the designers at Running With Scissors are creating modular models that let them swap out skins, animation, skeletons, and dialogue for a grand total that tops out well more than a hundred unique people who will be populating the game. Additionally, there will be several unique characters whom you'll run into, including policewoman Consuela, Paco the junkyard entrepreneur, and military Stu. Every last one of these characters has hit-specific reactions, and to further add to this kooky realism, their dead bodies never disappear either.

You can expect Postal 2 to ship with support for multiplayer, the specifics of which are still being finalized at Running With Scissors. If the developer has its way, however, the game will come with four deathmatch levels and the ability to play the 20 single-player levels cooperatively with others. According to Desidiero, Running With Scissors would like to release a "Postal Tournament" multiplayer-only game sometime after Postal 2, with even more multiplayer modes, though that remains to be seen. Until then, you can look forward to Postal 2, which, when it releases this November, will undoubtedly be the most sick and twisted game anyone's played in a while--the guys at Running With Scissors wouldn't have it any other way.