Finally, some good freaking Postal. Shows there's still some gas in the tank for both Postal 2 and maybe the franchise as a whole. After 11 years away and a disastrously received outsourced third main entry Paradise Lost immediately retcons as a nightmarish coma dream of the Dude, Running with Scissors returned to develop this expansion for themselves. I’ve got to say, all the growth you would hope to see from them after such an extended absence is on display here as they deliver not only their typical demented wit, but evidence that they’d genuinely been refining their craft during that period as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not proclaiming this to be some massive step forward for the property. At the end of the day, it is just more Postal 2 (which as it turns out is exactly what I wanted) on a slightly reskinned map. Yet it features markedly improved writing, level-design, vision, and boss battles compared to Apocalypse Weekend. It's also the first Postal to make me legitimately laugh out loud. Stuff such as the robot factory with its hilarious Claptrap parodies (voiced by David Eddings himself) and occasional copycat G-Man sighting, alongside an overall goofier assortment of tasks that include shutting down a nightclub by performing bad karaoke led to a campaign that might actually be more imaginative, amusing, and better paced than even that of the base game.

Another aspect I particularly enjoyed as well was the increased amount of effort that went into fleshing out the map with a greater variety of fun things to uncover. The sorely missed open-world format gets resurrected after far too long and RWS ensured there are more secrets, Easter eggs, and personal touches than ever before to successfully revitalize the setting of post-apocalyptic "Paradise," Arizona by giving you extra rewards for wandering off the beaten path and exploring a setting that had previously always felt kind of barren before. FYI, there's a house where you can find two Postal Babes kissing in a backroom. Happy hunting you horny nerds.

Now, as much as I'd love to keep heaping praise onto this and happily declare it as the best entry in the series (not quite, but very close), there are some issues. A couple of which are pretty serious. Once you reach Thursday on your to-do list for the new week you can tell they either ran out of time, ideas, or most likely money knowing these guys during development. The areas you revisit from the main offering stop featuring enough changes to keep you from realizing you’re basically playing recycled content, causing the last hour or so until you reach the finale in Hell to drag a bit. It probably wasn't overly noticeable or that big of an issue for those who had been waiting on Paradise Lost for roughly a decade, but as someone who had only beaten P2 a mere month ago it stuck out like a sore thumb. A much worse flaw however comes from the option you're given to create a desktop shortcut that will allow you to jump straight into the experience rather than having to go through two different main menus to access it, since opting to go that route results in your Steam achievements bugging out.

There are some other, less significant problems along the lines of minor audio quirks and whatnot. Although ultimately, large or small, none of the faults prevented me from thoroughly enjoying this. It's a fantastic and perfectly befitting send-off by Running with Scissors for easily their biggest success that doubles as a thank you/apology for all the crap that was released in between to the fans, while painting a promising picture for future installments. I know my enthusiasm and optimism for the rest of the property that followed has been somewhat restored after struggling through a string of lackluster to downright awful sequels and spin-offs recently. Perhaps the first definite proof that there's real talent at the Tucson-based studio behind all the controversy.

9/10

There certainly is a fair bit to lament about this throwback to the retro survival-horror classics of yesteryear...

Creating an experience meant to instill terror with a cutesy pixel art style seems like a paradox, yet titles such as Lone Survivor and Claire have shown it is entirely possible to do so successfully. If they stand as proof of the method's effectiveness however, then Lamentum is without a doubt their antithesis. Often the imagery it presents is more goofy than frightening. Leading to a descent through the spirals of madness that simply isn't scary, and not just because of its occasional corny touches which include abandoned nurseries decorated with children's wooden ABC blocks that have been arranged to spell out the words "die" or "hell" (ooh, petrifying 🙄) either.

It may come as a surprise though, that this isn't the game's real problem. That would be how it more frequently serves as a showcase for the less fondly remembered aspects of the Silent Hills, Resident Evils, and other PS1 era genre greats it's paying homage to, rather than the qualities that made them so beloved. To be fair, it does get about half the formula right. Developer Obscure Tales really nailed the exploration and puzzle-solving element, tossing you into a very Spencer Mansion-esque setting full of satisfying head-scratchers that make the loop of figuring out what items need to be used where as the number of areas you have access to only grows larger extremely addicting indeed. Unfortunately, the stuff they got wrong was enough to suck quite a bit of my enjoyment out from even this portion and left me wishing they had made a straight adventure offering instead.

Now, having to carefully manage your supplies, contend with limited inventory space, and potentially lose lengthy stretches of progress should you happen to meet an untimely demise on your way to the next sparsely located safe room is always annoying to a degree, but far from atypical for the genre. Just look at Lamentum’s obvious inspirations. So the fact that all that stuff actively irritated me here whereas I've been able to basically overlook them in its influences means that I either can't hang with survival-horror anymore (totally possible) or that this one doesn't manage to bring these hurdles together in a way that healthily adds to the tension as opposed to merely introducing greater frustration. Naturally, I'm leaning towards the latter.

I think the reason it fails to make everything click for itself is because it doesn't get the combat right. It wasn't until around the halfway mark when I finally found a melee weapon decent enough to make defending myself when backed into a corner, a regular occurrence given how much of the runtime takes place in tight hallways, a legitimately viable option even with the fairly reliable dodge mechanic. With bullets needing to be rationed for boss battles, up until then trying to squeeze past monsters and healing up whatever swipes I may have taken (and usually did take) along the way was genuinely the best means of preserving my resources, which turns the process of getting from point A to point B and back again into an unengaging, tedious, and at times downright aggravating slog. Especially since one of the protagonist's lungs apparently explodes the second he tries to run more than three steps when in the presence of an enemy. Word of advice, turn off the RE1 style limited saves and maybe just play on easy.

Another, minor in comparison flaw that left me nonetheless baffled is the game's approach to endings. I achieved 3 out of the 4 different conclusions. That fourth and final one, meanwhile? Unless you're willing to awkwardly hump every square inch of scenery I have no idea how you would unlock it without resorting to a guide as it requires you to collect a certain number of items (6 human teeth and 10 "strange" coins to be precise) that often don't have any sort of visual indication of where they are onscreen and are sometimes hidden in scripted hallucination scenarios that give you only a single opportunity to grab them. I also still don't know what you're supposed to do with them afterwards. By far the most cryptic set of finale requirements I've seen since trying to spare Cybil in the first Silent Hill.

Ultimately, in spite of all my complaints and grievances I did push through to witness the credits roll. Drawing strength from the consistent dopamine hit of finding that next key or tool that would grant me access to another section of "Grau Hill" and the secrets inside. The devs definitely delivered on the brainteasers, but the manner they dropped the ball with the action and horror causes this to be difficult to recommend. If they can manage to notably improve in those departments for their already announced sophomore showing “INANIMA” then we could have a true standout on our hands. Unfortunately, their debut effort leaves a lot to be desired.

5.5/10

You know, for the big, bad black sheep of the Postal franchise I was expecting something a whole lot worse. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some deluded apologist fan trying to convince you this actually a misunderstood masterpiece or even a good game at all. I'm just saying it's more a cheap and disappointing product than the unplayable affront it's known as. Honestly, I've played a little over half the property's entries and expansions at this point, and PIII is about par for the course in terms of quality. Sorry, not sorry.

Its biggest problem is budgetary, which has continuously proved to be the only thing that has been more detrimental to the series' reputation and reception than even its controversial content. Running with Scissors passed development of the project off to Akella, the company responsible for publishing their works in Russia, and one of its internal studios fittingly named "Trashmasters" because those guys had deeper pockets. Unfortunately, the country's Great Recession from 08-09 completely mucked up any chances for the potential greatness that you can still catch the occasional glimpses of while playing.

The whole package was built around the idea of replayability, featuring a branching storyline that will lead you to one of three possible endings depending on your choices and behavior. The notion of getting to see entirely new content in the form of different missions and cutscenes is as compelling in this format as it is in your typical Western narrative RPG, although it's more than a bit weird that they decided for outcomes to be determined by a morality system. I mean, actively encouraging players to be upstanding, law-abiding citizens in a Postal game?! What sense does that make?

Ultimately however, I didn't find the gameplay enticing enough to pull me back in to go for another ending, and not simply because I feel I happened to pick the most interesting path of the bunch on that first playthrough either. The financial struggles behind the scenes led to this being nothing more than a generic, linear third-person shooter. Admittedly one that can be mindlessly entertaining due to the fun gore and silly guns, even if some weapons don't seem to work (I'm convinced it's impossible to hit anyone with the fire axe). Might have earned a cautious recommendation were it not for the plethora of technical issues. As if long levels without checkpoints weren't enough, I experienced multiple crashes to desktop and repeated instances of critical doors inexplicably failing to open that forced regular mission restarts.

Never knowing if something was about to go wrong and cause me to have to replay possibly lengthy stretches of a stage if I didn't remember to manually save every few minutes is what really kills this for me. I legitimately enjoyed the return to a more grounded style and tone after Apocalypse Weekend, and found the writing fitfully amusing by virtue of how nasty and vulgar they were willing to be with the shock humor in their blatant efforts to offend. It is perhaps worthier of the Postal name than the vast majority give it credit for. Regardless, while I believe the overall general vitriol this has received over the years is a tad overblown, I wouldn't recommend the curious members of the fanbase check it out. The dev's lack of proper funds led to this being too unstable and lackluster to be a fulfilling use of your time. It may be too early to tell for sure as I've still got quite a few releases left to try, but based on all I've gotten to thus far I'm beginning to suspect this property doesn't have anything consequential to offer after its second outing.

5/10