"Uncomfortable" is the word I use to describe
postal 1. It's violent, shocking and disturbing and most of all, uncomfortable; and in our
modern world, most people are at least a little bit desensitized to violence, including
myself; so it's rare when something can still unsettle me. Postal 1 managed to do so. I can only
imagine how shocking it must have been back in the late 90's when it was developed by Running
with Scissors and unleashed into the world. If you've never heard of postal 1 before,
well firstly it's nothing like postal 2, except in name. Secondly, I highly encourage you
to pick it up for free on Steam and play it all the way through if you can handle the subject
matter. It will probably take you around an hour or two to play all the way through, and it's
worth it just for the incredibly upsetting ending. But enough with the stalling, you most likely came
here from the incredibly provocative title I still haven't figured out yet as of writing this! Postal
1 is a masterpiece in controversial art, even, dare I say, better than postal 2 in that regard.
While I do believe both games share the same goal of setting out to push people's buttons, I
think postal 1 can truly teach us something about the current state of society, or at
least make us question things. The greatest things a piece of art can do is make you feel
something or make you question something, and Postal 1 does both of these. It made me,
personally, feel very uncomfortable while playing, which is something I applaud the game for.
What other games can you think of where the entire mission statement of the game is to
make the player feel uncomfortable about the actions they're committing in-game? I can think
of games that make the players question things, or feel uncomfortable about what a character
is doing, but not for the ENTIRE game. Games that come to mind are the Hotline
Miami series (a personal favorite of mine), pretty much any one of the games made by Rockstar,
examples include the torture scene from GTA 5 and pretty much all of Manhunt 1 and 2. These games
make players ask questions about themselves, the big one being "do you like hurting other people"
as Richard from Hotline Miami would put it. Games like Manhunt may make players feel
similar to how I felt playing Postal 1, but with added horror atmosphere and stealth
elements to soften the blow a little. Postal 1 just goes balls to the walls with its
depiction of violence, an unrelenting, chaotic, disturbing depiction. People don't always
die from being shot, and you have the choice of mercy killing them or just letting them bleed out.
People scream and cry. It's all very upsetting. Before we get on to the rest of the
video, I think it's important to say that mentally ill people are more often
victims of violence than perpetrators, although that doesn't mean it never happens,
it just means it is almost never the case. Obviously there has to be something going on to
make you do something like what the Postal Dude does in this game, but a majority of the time
if it happens, it's not JUST mental illness, so please, don't hate or fear ANYONE on
account of what I say in this video. Postal 1 follows the Postal dude, a schizophrenic or
psychotic-coded man who just lost everything in a town of people he's convinced have some sort
of madness disease (at least in Postal REDUX). The game takes place over 16 levels, 17 counting
the ending, with both civilians and armed enemies, mostly made up of police, with a few of what I
believe are militia members peppered in there. Each level begins with a bit of insight into the
Postal Dude's brain, my favorite being "Blessed are the meek for they make easy targets" which is
honestly just such a good line. If you found this video, I'm going to assume you probably already
know all of this stuff, so I'm just going to get into the juicy part of this video, why I
think Postal 1 is important, and why I think controversial or shocking art is important.
I don't believe any art is without some merit. I think some art can have more merit than
others, but I don't think any one creation can be completely devoid of meaning, and that goes for
controversial, messed up stuff too. Think Human Centipede or Cannibal Holocaust, even if a film
has nothing to say or say very little to say, something can still be gathered from it.
aside from the obvious messages of both films, they still can make us question things. "what
is acceptable to be shown on film? is cruelty acceptable if it's for a greater purpose
like art? Can we truly seperate art from the artist?" some of these questions may
have obvious answers, while others have been debated for years, but that doesn't
mean they don't need to be brought back up. The rest of this video goes into spoiler
territory for Postal 1 so if you made it this far into the video and still haven't
played it, go play it now and come back. Postal 1 ends with Postal Dude trying and failing
to shoot at children in an elementary school. This was removed in Postal REDUX but can still
be seen in the free Steam version of the game, which I think is understandable and I can
see where they're coming from in removing it, but I think it's a copout. From what I've
heard, the creators of the game said they removed it because it was originally meant to show
something incredibly shocking that was completely unthinkable, but I still think it applies. To
my knowledge, this is the only game to ever show something like this. It had the intended effect
on me when I first played it, jaw-dropping shock. How could they show that? it was completely
"unthinkable" to show something that grim in a video game. I truly believe that with
the removal of this part of the game, the overall experience is less upsetting like
was intended. I don't think even the devs know what's going on in the ending of Postal Redux.
The game pushed boundaries with the original ending, even today. Boundaries always need
pushing. there's a seldom talked about war between what is accepted and what is not. I
believe we should always be striving to expand what is accepted and keep it in line with not
hurting other people. An ending to a video game can't hurt someone who doesn't play it and going
in to Postal 1 you should know what it is about. after the Elementary School quote en quote
"level", the game shows us the most important part of the entire experience, a distorted monologue
that says: "Population pressure and the stress of modern life may cause an increase in violent
tendencies. The urban environment is the incubator for all sorts of undesirable behaviors. However,
much his atrocities disgust us, he may actually consider himself a hero. This is common among
those who are referred to by the popular slang, "going postal". In his tortured mind, he may feel
he was battling against impossible odds. It is not unusual for some individuals to believe that the
entire fate of the world rest with them. In the end, our subject displays all the classic
symptoms of a paranoid delusional. We may never know exactly what set him off but... Rest
assured we have plenty of time to study him." This. This right here is why I made this video in
the first place. This short moment in a game made decades ago is, to me, one of the most important
things I think people need to hear. Postal dude isn't just a perpetrator, he's also a victim.
This OBVIOUSLY doesn't make what he did acceptable to any extent, but it explains WHY he did it. By
understanding why people enact these tragedies, we can work to fix the route issues of their misery,
and hopefully prevent them from doing such things. Everybody thinks of themselves as the hero,
even the worst of society. This speech also has the effect of causing us to look inward. Are
we partially responsible for the massacre caused by Postal Dude and his Demon? When you were a dumb
teenager and bullied some kid on the internet, did that cause a ripple effect that led to a
tragedy? Is it our fault that unstable people snap, at least a little bit? What is the X
factor that leads to all of these horrible things happening? some people say it's
guns, some people say it's mental health. But is there even the slightest chance
that it could be all of us, as a group? I leave you with one final message. Be kind to
the weirdos of society, the quiet kids and incels, The degenerates and the hermits. You could
be the one who stops them from causing a tragedy. Thank you for watching and tell me
down in the comments if you liked the video.
