In the words of P. T. Barnum, there is no such thing as bad publicity, and that’s a mantra to which Running With Scissor’s Postal franchise has adhered for a quarter-century. Constructed to court controversy and offend anyone and everyone, it’s as if the already-outrageous Grand Theft Auto series were taken to the nth degree. Postal occupies an odd niche, but those still curious to give it a shot have the opportunity to grab 2003’s Postal 2—often considered to be the series’ highpoint—free of charge for a limited time on Good Old Games.
CD Projekt’s GOG is a service revered for its consumer-friendly approach and efforts to conserve obscure games that may otherwise have been completely lost. Naturally, GOG hosts CD Projekt-developed titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher, but retro PC titles has always been its bread and butter. Postal 2 is perfectly in keeping with the outside-the-mainstream stuff often found on the site, and it’ll be available to claim for free until 10:30PM UTC tonight.
The offer is meant to commemorate the full release of Postal 4: No Regerts, a title that first debuted in early access in late 2019. The latest entry in the Postal franchise has been accosted with uniformly terrible review scores, but, in a way, it’s the sort of title which defies traditional review formats. It may bear the trademarks of a genuinely bad game—many reviewers have complained about bugs, stability issues, and broken controls—but it’s the sort of oddball thing that’s arguably enhanced by these problems. In a way, it’s the video game equivalent of Tommy Wiseau’s The Room or Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space.
It’s actually a pretty good time to become a Postal fan; not only is the fourth installment of the series finally here, but Postal: Brain Damaged, a run-and-gun spinoff that appears to be taking pages from the Duke Nukem 3D or Serious Sam playbooks—is set to debut in early June. Additionally, Postal Redux landed on the Nintendo Switch a little more than a year ago, a port most fans of the franchise likely believed would never happen.
While a niche game like Postal 2 may not have gamers flocking en masse to CD Projekt’s digital storefront, GOG is nevertheless a worthwhile platform into which dedicated PC players should look. Users are allotted a selection of old-school PC titles for free right off the bat, and GOG offers free games relatively frequently.