Now that the dust has settled, and we no longer have to pay for what is a glorified demo, it's honestly really fun for what it is. There's genuinely plenty of fun in going against this one large map with several situations, angles, and goals to encourage replayability. What probably helps a lot is that the stealth gameplay is great. I have some gripes with it, but thankfully a lot of the small issues would be later fixed in The Phantom Pain.

However, if you (understandably) don't want to play the same one map over and over, or had to buy this for thirty dollars when it was NOT bundled for free with The Phantom Pain, then a glorified demo where the main mission is an hour of gameplay at most is a bit tough to recommend.

A fantastic horror game and one of the few that still gets me perfectly. That is, as long as you won't try to cheese it and realize how basic the gameplay is, but the fact alone it manages to mostly work that well if you let it is impressive, and likely the key ingredient that so many games that later copied this one didn't get. Definitely one of the most important games in the industry.

Also wow, the fan made content. Look past all the shitty jumpscare fiestas that YouTubers played, there are some real gems that can possibly triple the playtime.

Disappointing.

I can absolutely see why this game was considered a cult classic at the time, but looking back at it now, I struggle to find any enjoyment in it. And that's besides the fact that you need fan patches to make it work properly on PC. Yes, it sucks, but I play old games on Steam all the time, it's not something I'm not used to.

The stealth is janky as fuck. I am not expecting Hitman levels of detail, but the AI is clearly very bare-bones and easy to cheese. They never felt that threatening, my strategy often devolved into baiting them into the shadows and just quickly killing them off, and that was on the higher difficulty. Using sound and objects to distract the enemies felt like it had very random levels of effectiveness, and never felt like I could do it consistently. The combat itself is clearly intended to be the last resort, but it feels like it's rather easy to abuse as well, and can be the easier way to get past. The first couple levels I did get past felt incredibly linear and not really remarkable in any way.

Perhaps it's the disturbing feel and context of the game that is intended to be the real hook, but I have not felt even remotely absorbed in it. It all feels too scripted. The basic AI aside, the enemies just sometimes feel like they're explicitly lined up for you to be killed. I know the setting is that you're basically helping a guy record his snuff film, but with how everyone seems to be right in for the show, it almost feels like a silly battle royale or something. Maybe I'd be more accepting if the game wouldn't feel so fucking pleased about how "disturbing" it is. Also, while I'm not advocating vigilante justice, when you're explicitly told most of these people you kill range anywhere between a serial rapist and Hitler, it's a bit hard to find this game that morally questionable. The most messed up thing I did was kill a bunch of pretty much objectively evil dudes, which sums up almost every violent video game I've played.

In summary, I've played Postal 1 before, a game with even more basic gameplay, fewer graphics, even less narrative and detail, and it managed to feel more disturbing and morally questionable than this game, which I see as proof that it's mainly the fundamental design decisions that aged like rotten milk.