The Horror Elements of Postal 2

What if Postal 2 was actually a super spooky scary game the whole time??
See episodes early (gimme money button): / @abuffwizard
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:28 Menu
00:48 Opening
01:08 Cemetery
02:02 Reoccurring Sounds
02:34 Estates
02:58 Mall
03:29 Slaughterhouse
04:11 Suburbs
04:26 Mental Asylum
05:05 Apocalypse Weekend
05:58 Hospital
07:32 Military Base
07:48 Hell?
08:18 Service Tunnel
08:35 Vetinary Offince
08:58 Finale
09:19 Outro

[@bootlegthemagician]

the creepy silence after murdering all of the citizens and cops in Postal 2 is probably something i'll never forget, the usual goofy chatter is just replaced by... ambience, kind of reflecting your actions on 'look what you have done'.

[@Irisverse]

Kind of like how in Hotline Miami once you've cleared out a level the game makes you walk back to the entrance, walking past all the carnage you've caused while the music's stopped and you just have to take it all in.

[@GenericProtagonist7]

I tried to play Postal 2 while high as a kite back in highschool, went on a massacre like usual but when the cops stopped spawning and I just had to stand there while the last few flames died out and the silence set it, I swear I just stared at the screen in discomfort for like fifteen minutes lmao.

[@kaj7135]

@@GenericProtagonist7I miss the days when I could smoke up once and be fully absorbed into a game all day long. Now I smoke up just to forget I hate being alive for an hour or two.

[@TheBrickWhisperer]

@@kaj7135 Life's tough, but you're tougher. I believe in you, internet stranger!

[@xChimkin]

@@kaj7135 underage smokings fun i miss it. probably did something to us but who cares

[@DarkLink606]

Postal 2 hit the spot exactly in the intersection between "too disturbing to be comical" and "too comical to be disturbing". The DLC is slightly more tilted to disturbing, and Postal 3 let's pretend it has never existed.

[@yetanotheruser1989]

Yeah I'm not a fan of Apocalypse Weekend, for example. It leans too much into the disturbing, and because of that it's less fun, imo. The base campaign is very well balanced due to the ability to really slow down, explore, and approach it your own way

[@apoletestry3766]

Postal 3? What Postal 3??? Running With Scissors never even made a third game. *wink* *wink* I think you must be mistaken.

[@chainmengaming]

Personally, I like to think that Postal Brain Damaged is the real Postal 3.

[@HangOnThereSlick]

Idk what all this talk is about Postal 3. It doesnt exist.

[@sacrificiallamb4568]

Don't you mean Protal 3?

[@Zaurszz]

I love how postal can be scary if postal wants

[@OperatorMax1993]

I love that too, reminds me of certain eerie parts of Kane and Lynch 2 Dog Days, along with the nightmare parts of Max Payne 1&2 and the doctor fischer part in Max Payne 3

[@swarajderkar7003]

@@OperatorMax1993 can u elaborate on kane and lynch eerie parts ?

[@Orbzy-vt8bu]

I actually kinda wish they stuck with horror elements in the later games, comedy and horror went really well together in the first 2 games

[@resserection1]

The original plans for Postal 4 were a darker game with a mid point between 2 and 1 in tone. Rather than whatever the hell the current 4 is.

[@DrRockefeller]

​@resserection1 yeah, postal 4 is a full blown comedy in tone and completely removes any horror elements

[@sergeantheavyass3471]

​@@resserection1god i would have loved that so much

[@OperatorMax1993]

You're not the only one here, that would have been so awesome

[@danelo13]

I think Brain Damage was the closest we got to a flash back to it.

[@marko-gj1uj]

Horror elements are what Postal 4 lacks

[@whatalegenddamn]

Postal 4 lacks not only that

[@Toxoplasmosis69]

There are horror elements in Postal 4 but they just don't do it for me I guess

[@marko-gj1uj]

​@@whatalegenddamn i know. $40 my butt

[@whatalegenddamn]

@@marko-gj1uj look we all wasted our money on Postal 4 🤣 they should have just Stick to Postal 2 and gave us more DLC content

[@Botul1]

Postal 4 has some horror elements, like the start of Thursday or that one house full of blood, but nothing that comes close to the ones from Postal 2.

[@onutrof1157]

2:49 I once got a glitch, I kid you not, where I could see an NPC in that bathroom, but only through the mirror. Scared me shitless. I tried to recreate it couple of times, but seems like it was just wrongly spawned NPC. At some point in the story, an NPC in doctor's coat appears in there.

[@desertdude540]

The mirrors are pretty janky. I've seen them glitch out and show an NPC on the other side of the wall instead of the Dude's reflection.

[@ForeverMan]

@@desertdude540 yes, that was the bug I'm sure, the NPC was on the other side

[@gatornugthug516]

Had this happen to me in San Andreas the first time they "remastered" it

[@v-y]

Mirrors are somewhat glitchy, if you look into them at a certain angle you can see NPCs through walls

[@BuhTrauma]

happened to me way back when i was also real young, happened to a friend too recently and he got screenshots

[@CaptainBlack47]

Can’t believe you forgot the most terrifying part of all: Your ex Wife

[@omiorahman6283]

With the Best boss fight music

[@joelligmaballs]

Ah yes... The Bitch

[@reggyjohnson9083]

The fact she got slim for the final DLC And married (Redacted)

[@ghoulhellbilly2528]

behind the house at 2:40 there's casket being buried throughout days, from what i remember (if i remember it correctly) it went like this: monday - nothing tuesday - a casket and a shovel wednesday - hole in ground with casket in it thursday - mound of dirt friday - nothing back again

[@Ovtsider_dsb]

The entire world of Postal seems nightmarish to some extent : everyone is stupid and capable of murder, crazy shit happens every day, most places have that weird uncanny feeling and as a NPC every day must be a repetitive torture of getting pissed on, I mean, everyone seems either miserable or brain damaged. But that's just how it is I guess

[@averagebreadconsumer9489]

Paradise has fallen billions must get pissed on

[@SammEater]

I really think the entirity of Postal 2 may be the Dude stuck inside a nightmare world, the pictures of the brains in the hospital reminded me of a similar level in Alice Madness Returns.

[@Wolffanghurricane]

just like the real world

[@Somespideronline]

​@@Wolffanghurricane yeah but there are most people capable of wisdom and compassion.

[@roadent217]

"everyone is stupid and capable of murder, crazy shit happens every day" Heh. Sounds like Florida.

[@lenargilmanov7893]

I remember in Apocalypse Weekend there's a moment when the postal Dude hallucinates while walking up some stairs, and you start hearing a loud mechanical sound, that keeps getting louder as you keep walking. You're expecting to encounter some terrifying new enemy, but instead of that... nothing.

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

As a guy who accidentally downloaded postal 2 instead of the recently released portal 2 at the time and later even worked on the German translation of Postal 1, this viseral, deeply traumatic horror is what is missing from the current postal games

[@eranodelpum9752]

Lmao same, also YOU WHAT?

[@LetsPlayKeldeo]

@@eranodelpum9752 yeah my 13 year old brain wasnt ready for postal 2 lmao but yeah I worked on the german translation for the Dreamcast port.

[@sacrificiallamb4568]

How was the co-op?

[@damienlc8895]

​@@LetsPlayKeldeoso some people really made that mistake? well, "mistake"

[@saturniidspectre]

How did you manage that?

[@Rakiarmas]

This is a good example on how to create a good map / level. Tell a story with it. Doing this makes exploration so much more interesting. It also brings that important personality to the place. It's fun to theorize of what kind of city am I playing in. You can see after a few minutes walking around Paradise that there's something wrong here.

[@Guy9580]

I agree with reason 4#

[@lukabrasi001]

it all feels like the postal dude is going through purgatory with how people die left and right, next to no consequences to anything you do, most of the level design is so uncanny and dreamlike and etc etc

[@SammEater]

@@lukabrasi001 Considering how there is a bunch of pictures of the human brain in that hospital bit, it may be implied that half of this stuff is The Postal Dude being on some sort of crazy nightmare world/purgatorio kinda of scenario.

[@JandJsStudioOfficial]

ive been waiting for YEARS LITERAL YEARS for someone to break down the horror elements of postal 2. such an overlooked yet amazing aspect of this game. IMO postal 2 was the best possible route the postal series could have gone. Elements of that old, late 90s schizo horror style peppered into a ridiculous social satire of a shooter honestly feels like we're taking a look inside the postal dude's mind.

[@JandJsStudioOfficial]

right now i think buff wizard is probably the king of postal content in general

[@whatalegenddamn]

@@JandJsStudioOfficial this is true but i think the Postal series is a hidden masterpiece not many people know about sadly

[@deadb0dyman]

@@whatalegenddamn to me a lot of people dont really look into it beyond the surface "cat silencer pee game" premise so it never gets the attention it deserves

[@Miguel-nt2dp]

Postal 2, 4, brain damage and even 3 happen all in the dude's head he's still in the asylum, the little horror elements are a reminder that the dude can't escape from his past(postal 1)

[@whatalegenddamn]

@@Miguel-nt2dp nice theory

[@ghoulhellbilly2528]

i also think that horror elements of the game are a remnant from earlier in development when postal 2 was supposed to hold more similiarities to postal 1, as lots of unused beta stuff had strongly implied it

[@tomcruiiseship9461]

Makes sense. They must have realized it's more fun to be more of a comedy game

[@BloodRedFox2008]

The maternity ward being empty makes sense design wise as IIRC Vince Desi said the one line they’ll never have the series cross is violence against children (Postal 1’s original 1997 ending may have been at a school, but remember the Dude was unable to harm anyone, and when Redux released the implied dead baby on the credits screen got removed as I assume Vince maybe didn’t notice in the original, but for the remake he likely asked to have it removed as it goes against what he said). The Postal movie did cross that line, but it was directed by Uwe Boll and despite RWS having some input on the film I assume they couldn’t veto all of Boll’s ideas.

[@yetanotheruser1989]

Just a thought, I've no idea if it is the case, but the child scene was particularly janky in its execution. Maybe initially meant for shock, but I think it played out more comedically. I'm wondering if maybe there was a compromise between the two parties.

[@crackshaw4895]

IIRC, the credits screen was unnoticed for a little while with the dev team asking the artist to remove it for all further releases once word got to them. P2 also had an optional school level (albeit with no children) with the Week in Paradise mod, but that was removed for the Steam release.

[@luxferre5974]

i was expecting a mention of the underground area between lucky ganesh and the library with the hell dogs

[@ratare40]

Yeah, that area genuinely creeped me out the first time I went trought it

[@dragonzedante]

Was looking for this. Thanks for mentioning!

[@lilwyvern4]

Those ambient sounds are a decent caricature of a traumatized episode. You put on a veil of normalcy, trying to hide the vacant stare as best you can, and go about your day quietly. Sometimes, however, you see that one innocuous thing that brings back bad memories and there's a distinct inaudible sound that can accompany the sensation. I usually experience it as a kind of noisy static. (If you've played the game Faith, there's a glitchy sound that accompanies hauntings. It's similar to that.) Complete silence is never completely silent.

[@damienlc8895]

interesting comment

[@voidnoodle8911]

I always wonder what Postal 2 would have been like had it kept Postal 1's level of unhinged nature, rather than trading it for a humorous yet still unhinged one. I guess Apocalypse Weekend shows a bit of that here and there with the head injury.

[@OperatorMax1993]

I wonder too, makes things interesting

[@strengthcolossal5538]

Best Uwe Boll Movie

[@escapefr0mslender]

Yea

[@stopgroomingchildren]

the only good one

[@dogd4ze]

Best Uwe Boll movie, still a trash movie all around though

[@strengthcolossal5538]

@@dogd4ze POSTAL 2 BABY ❤️✨

[@vtp2327]

postal dude from 1/redux: a man broken thanks to his environment, with a destroyed mind and who tries to convince himself that he is fine, that everything around him is what is wrong, so that after a path full of slaughter he realizes what he has done and with his mind destroyed he only has the voices in his head that try to make him believe that none of it was real, he regret nothing, but without knowing if he really doesn't. Postal dude from 2 onwards: a broken man who knows that he is screwed but that the world is also screwed. He knows who he is, he has made peace with various parts of his mind and accepts them. And even though wherever he goes there will be a city screwed with people about to gone postal, he has his dog, he has his weapons, he is not alone. , he is the postal dude, he regret nothing, and he knows it. This is how I see the postcard dude that we all know, but it's just my theory XD

[@SammEater]

Another thing that helps the uncanny feeling of Postal 2 is the early 2000's 3d aesthetic, before the HD era of super detailed worlds, GTA 3 has this same "not quite realistic, almost a dream" vibe to its design thanks again to the limitations of that era's hardware. So even areas that weren't supposed to be creepy are by how "out of this world" they look. You can almost say they were the 'backrooms' of their era.

[@tetsuosoprano7382]

Bully has that same atmosphere in many of its areas.

[@SammEater]

@@tetsuosoprano7382 Most open world games of that era has ghat uncanny valley feel to it. True Crime Streets of LA is very weird at the edge of the map. You can definitelly the devs knew most players would not go that far by how glitchy it is. Streets that don't make sense, colision that is not working, so you have cars just going through buildings and a big city like LA just ending on a grassland that makes no sense geography wise.

[@teatanks6481]

inb4 a sudden influx of Postal 2 ARGs start springing up now

[@Geeler]

Oh hell

[@Shiorevi]

That moment of Horror when you raid the doughnut stand in the store next to the police station and find that one of them is of 'questionable' quality.

[@NoobwithaBaseballBat]

Spoiler: its a turd

[@Neon_Henchman]

I think this type of horror is much more effective; yes, a horror game may give you the creeps, but that's always obvious why you feel that way, but when it's so much more subtle like this, you start feeling dread; the path you used to cross all the time may just not feel familiar anymore but you don't quite know why, the dread that there are no children but there's still a schoolbus, crashed. Yet it also has this tongue-in-cheek humor, like how dangerous wastes that threatens all life is on par with the treatment of bodies, or how a whole cow just gets thrown in the grinder. I think I love stuff like this; it is not taken quite seriously, but it is gritty enough that you may just get something other than just a few chuckles, and I think this combination of tones leads to much more interesting settings, since most games tend to stay on one extreme instead of in the middle like Postal did.

[@gimpscam9976]

Old games specifically postal 2 and half life 2, with their engines, being alone in any environment is freaky to me. 2:26 the emptiness is freaky. I know people can relate to playing gmod or some source game with a devoid of life environment, birds chirping, it’s like the rapture.

[@pyroskar6797]

I vaguely remember how when I was younger apocalypse weekend scared me shitless in those head wound sections

[@niranjanr9064]

There's also that secret room in the mansion, where it looks like a love dungeon, heart shaped bed and all. You get the chainsaw / can of lynx as well as some health packs. Outside I believe there is an eternally screaming couple. It's a very absurd scene overall but like these bits of disjointed, somewhat off-putting or out of place locations, it adds SO MUCH to the game.

[@DaveMiller6042]

The dude upon seeing horrors beyond his comprehension: hi there, would you like to sign my petition?

[@Botul1]

Interesting detail that I don't see many people talk about, the weird doctors that appear during the head wound segments on Saturday (6:13) look very similar to the cow statue on top of meat world (3:30), I always wondered if that holds any significance

[@Solutra]

i think it's just a reused texture

[@lukabrasi001]

i think the whole headache thing might be a nod to Silent Hill as a whole, since by Postal 2, both Silent Hill 1 and 2 were out, and Silent Hill 3 was already teased and trailered. the similarities are very apparent as well, both focus hospitals, nurses and decaying vistas, rusty, corroded and dank. nothing really makes sense here. the outside parts also sometimes have deep fog so i'm willing to risk SH has a hand in this

[@SammEater]

@@lukabrasi001 I think both used the same source of inspiration, the film Jacob's Ladder.

[@beanmann000]

You should do a video on the atmosphere and map design of postal 2. One of my favorite things about this game is how much detail was put into Paradise.

[@jimbo2revengeance]

Thank god someone confirmed the droning ambience was real, because for the longest time no one could tell what i was on about, and i started feeling schizophrenic.

[@alicorngummy3894]

I never knew about the graveyard slowly filling up over time. Thats a neat touch.

[@Stryker4747]

Buff Wizard must Dominos Driver, because he never fails to deliver

[@Solutra]

whar

[@Mrs-manwhore]

A domino's delivery driver ran over my dog

[@Miguel-nt2dp]

Postal 2, 4, brain damage and even 3 happen all in the dude's head, the little horror elements are a reminder that the dude can't escape from his past(postal 1)

[@mokibomo]

There's a locked room in the Police Station that forever warped my impression of Postal II.

[@wormystring]

you mean the prison cell at the very top of the police station?

[@mokibomo]

@@wormystring I think so. It has a cell with a red, omnious sound and a strange creature inside. I think it was some bunny. Some Silent Hill-looking ass shit right there

[@wormystring]

@@mokibomo ah yea, maybe it's not entirely locked tho cuz you can get there after repeatedly being thrown in jail cuz yk, the more you get arrested the higher you're put in the prison and all that

[@ineedanewname.8169]

Can confirm you can get in the single solitary cell at the top of the jail by being arrested repeatedly, quite a match throw to get out of it. You can also get into it by triggering the fire alarm and walking in. I think the door the original poster was on the ground floor, though I can't exactly remmeber where.

[@Arelated]

the secret underground area under the library was the most creepy thing i accidentaly come across to while on my first playthrough, made me exit the game

[@ajflink]

A Postal 2 that is horror-focused (not edgy) would be very unnerving.

[@RootVegetabIe]

It's called Pathalogic.

[@DutchGlow-fi2ip]

eternal damnation is cringe fam, no cap skibidi skibidi wut 🙄 tell me, what _actually_ is happening in ED? all the pieces are there, waiting for you to be clever enough to sort them. I'll concede that the horror is diminished once you figure it out...but that's not what you've done here. You just hate a word (and by extension, the nebulous ideas it represents) because the internet told you to hate it. Lemme see your opinion permit.

[@halcyon1644]

@@DutchGlow-fi2ip what?

[@tombotr]

Paradise Lost also has some good stuff, and a lot of it changes day by day.

[@khjgfgdshjkljhgfdrt]

The whole aesthethic of the surroundings changing during the headwound kicking in reminds me of Silent Hill, and its Otherworld

[@shelby5809]

holy fuck that graveyard detail is so amazing. i never even noticed it lmao

[@e195087]

I love the ambient tracks, I'll mess around and put them in my GMod maps, then my friends play them and they'll be rather confused lmao I think a look into the small bits of horror in PL would make a good short followup video, since that DLC contains some rather weird stuff.

[@DutchGlow-fi2ip]

Asylum Ambience is a world-class noise track, no question

[@e195087]

@@DutchGlow-fi2ip It's pretty good, 29.wav is a lot funnier to use though imo

[@mr.gockderdudel9274]

Tbh iam happy that someone is Talking about that because it's something that is so important to the postal games{in my opinion} and iam shock nobody else else has made a video about taht

[@JaXonSlade]

*Hears the terrible screams of the Asylum* “Would you like to sign my petition?”

[@noksi2001]

One particular sound I found eerie and off-putting could be heard in several places and after the 2015 dlc released I finally found the thing that sounds like its source or at the very least it's the strongest there. I'm talking about the mine where the dwarves can be found on Thursday. There's an abandoned building in the mines below and you just can't help but notice it

[@gtrzmbe9390]

It's great how intricate the world of Postal 2 actually is. Plenty of shooting and exploring to do in an otherwise absurd and satirical game.

[@hack45993]

Man... games just had so much care put into them back then

[@chrisstenger3719]

Luv to see a happy night playthrough 😊. Cool video

[@SammEater]

I know some people don't like the goofy route that Postal 2 took compared to the original but it's nice to know even that game still has that horror element underneath its ridiculous exterior.

[@postal2forthe3ds]

i always thought postal 2 did a really good job at being creepy amidst all its chaos and comedy. there have been a few times where ive been playing in silence, late at night, or early enough in the morning that i'm the only person awake, and something would happen that would creep me out, whether intentional or not. i think an overlooked reason as to why p2 is as interesting as it is it how it blends its black comedy with really subtle and often times unintentional horror, which is something 4 and ESPECIALLY 3 completely lost. (i mean, really, 3 is really just a comedy lol)

[@hardboiled2987]

Playing postal makes me feel a slight, underlying, insidious version of the feeling of pure dread and terror I felt the few times I've had persecutory psychotic episodes. It's the same feeling of terror, but just very, very far off in the distance. Only game that does this to me... and my psychotic episodes were no joke btw. Weed-induced pychosis was actual hell on earth.

[@Dankalank]

I forget where, possibly below the convenience store? There's an underground bit with a pack of burned hell dogs guarding either a rocket launcher or a napalm launcher... that place always unsettled me as a kid

[@IndustrialFan666]

I needed this. Thank u

[@fdslk1]

My head canon is that Postal 2 follows the same plot of Postal 1. But seen from the Postal Dude POV, that's why it went from top-down third person shooter to FPS

[@Slonitram]

Excellent video. Postal 2's atmosphere is so fantastic in the way it can turn the mundane into absurd horror. Apocalypse Weekend in particular always seemed so inspired by Silent Hill to me, which is yet another franchise that turns the mundane into a nightmare. I'd love to see an even deeper dive into this side of Postal.

[@bloodspurs]

YESSS i have been waiting for this

[@SonOfAPluto]

I wish Postal would become creepier again

[@vedrisnightmare]

The psychotic breaks in Apocalypse Weekend I never realized how disturbing they were until I started to hallucinate and see things. It's really well done.

[@BUCKSHOT29]

I remember playing postal 2 with a friend watching once and it was rlly humorous and funny. Playing it on my own feels different tho with nobody to alleviate any tension by cracking jokes n whatnot, save for Dudes quips every now n then. The game hits this just perfect spot in my brain of "too serious to be funny" and "too funny to be serious" in almost every aspect, and my brain is conflicted on trying to take it seriously or just rolling w/ everything the game sends my way, regardless of if its dark humor or horror elements

[@Dirik619]

Imagine Silent Hill game where the main character is a mass shooter and is now in Silent Hill facing his demons..

[@light.jeremy01]

I think a protagonist who is a war veteran would be perfect for the series.

[@Chinothebad]

@@light.jeremy01 An actual veteran for Silent Hill no doubt that has seen and done horrors such as war crimes and not some guy who thought he was one while in a mental hospital.

[@stasiubrzezinskinpt5694]

literally the best video idea

[@roughrambo1000000]

Pretty good video. I think the hallucination sections of Apocalypse Weekend is trying to emulate Silent Hill, which wasn't shot and buried behind a barn at the time this came out. Those scenes has an extremely similar aesthetic to the otherworld sections from SH1 and 3.

[@Go1dschmidtsen]

Great video as always

[@ProWrestlingReality]

I love... the atmosphere the open world and interior enviorments...nothing quite like it and so nostalgic now

[@SourceSpaghetti]

You posted this on my bday, what a coincidence.

[@CM-di1oz]

The horror elements of postal 2 remind me a lot of Afraid of monsters.

[@entothechesnautknight1762]

"Nightmarish" gets thrown around aa lot to describe "scary" things, but Postal 2, in a lot of ways, feels like a retelling of an *actual* nightmare. Like, its still a dream, ludicrous shit still happens, and you realize that as you retell it, so you're more then happy to poke at the bits that, in hindsight, wee just kinda stupid, or funny, or outright insane. But also it was a nightmare, and even as you poke fun in your retellings, there's still moments of it that *get* you. That gnaw at your mind. That you can't just brush off casually like everything else. Moments that are visceral and real, because they come from a place of actual stress and fear. I think this is the element that makes Postal 2 a Black Comedy, rather then merely a Dark Comedy, and what makes it so memorable and relevant to this day, well over a decade after its contemporaries have faded into obscurity. Paradise, as well as the rest of the world to an extent, is a nightmare, a real, actual nightmare. Not a figurative nightmare, or a waking nightmare, but like everyone in this world is asleep, and its too hot outside and no one's resting well. The background noise is a garbled misinterpretation of your broken AC unit, and though you have comical terrorists behind every door, violent protesters seiging gamer compounds, elephants raging at a BBQ, etc, etc... They're still butchering pets in the back of the shop. Someone still got vivisected in that bathroom. There's still human mixed into the whole town's beef. You can't chalk these ones up to just dreams being dreams. That they're impossible. That they'd never happen. And thats where the nightmare starts. Honestly, it makes the transition into the first DLC work really well to boot.

[@evilgangceo]

the use of phasers and flangers in the ambience truly make this game special

[@demonicspire1345]

I get that this is an argument about artistic interpretation, and not really "disprovable", but I have a few points that I don't agree with. 1:58 I don't think the implication is supposed to be that people are dumping bodies as such, its that the management of waste is so bad that the waste is seeping into the cemetary and causing subsidence issues that are disturbing the graves (The waste leaking in is how you get the zombies). 2:01 When talking about thematic re-use we also run into the complication that is RWS's tiny size and miniscule budget. I'm sure they re-used any assets from postal 1 that they possibly could. 2:52 This one is more open to interpretation, but to me based on the forceps in the sink, it looks more like someone was doing crude first aid for a bullet wound. Most of the rest of the instruments look like speculums of various types, which fits with the humor in postal 2. I'm also surprised you didn't bring up "B horror" and Troma films as I think there are some excellent parallels if not outright inspiration taken from them for Postal 2's humor. I think the most interesting question this analysis raises is perhaps "what is it about a game's uncanny depiction of reality that makes us uncomfortable?", as I think many of the examples you mentioned were not actually placed with intent to "scare", as such, but nonetheless can create moments that are scary.

[@Jell-o-cide]

The waste did not create the zombies. It was mad cow disease.

[@SM-sj4dq]

Epic vid epic lvl of production

[@kameleon_rap]

I love your postal 2 content

[@Lucas52137]

This video delivered, great job man

[@JohnFortniteKennedy_]

Your profile pic goes so hard man.

[@dragonspear570]

Scrolling through my feed of mostly chill videos and seeing that thumbnail was one hell of a shock to my system

[@notfreeman1776]

I'll say the eerier elements in Postal 2 just simmering beneath the surface of a very darkly comedic game is a very unique vibe

[@adoomuser2166]

Gentle musac at the mall

[@Vileplume87]

*Muzak

[@mayoman9001]

You're actualy my favourite niche internet microcelebrity. Nice vid

[@augustleded]

i always thought the scariness of the first game completely dissolving by the second was a really nice duality, but i kind of love how much in common they still have and how the first one can still be seen as horrifying and the second one can still be seen as comedic, and vice versa

[@midwestman7087]

The whole game makes me feel uneasy the little music there is makes me feel like I’m being watched or I’m in a bad dream

[@weirdautumn]

So many cool little details I've never seen before, like altar surrounded by burnt bodies.

[@Mato_09]

postal 2 is a perfect game

[@WishMount]

Buff Wizard

[@blutch5998]

nice video, dude!

[@xotl2780]

I love Apocalypse Weekend's portrayal of the end of the world. At first, nobody notices or cares that anything is out of place. Even after a military operation to wipe out zombies infesting a fast food restaurant, everyone is wandering around, complaining about things as usual. Later on however, zombies keep showing up, parts of the town are falling into disrepair, nightfall brings more terror, and before you know it, people have begun to riot actively. Zombies hunt down anything with a pulse. The outnumbered national guardsmen show less discretion, shooting at zombies and regular citizens alike, and everywhere you go is chaos. One of my favourite scenes is in the parking lot of the game studio. The headless body of a security guard sits alone in his office, the phone frantically ringing never to be picked up, while half of an active zombie crawls around on the floor next to the corpse, having dropped in from a vent on the ceiling. It's obvious that the man took his own life after witnessing how hopeless his options were. Later on in that same building you can find another lone security guard on a staircase, desperately trying to fight off the undead horrors, with no possible escape route. He'll shoot at you if he sees you, but no matter what he does it's obvious he won't escape alive.

[@OmegaVideoGameGod]

This can’t be good for me but I feel great!!!

[@Mecrowove]

This is buff wizard and this is your daily dose of postal 2

[@KZ_Suntorn]

A little note on the "surgical tools" in the house in the estates you highlighted; some of them included metal sounding rods and an enema, so take that as you will, lol. Also with the butchery area in the back of the pet shop, doesn't the door leading out link to the Chinese restaurant in the food court?

[@PERILOUSS]

happy birthday postal 2!!

[@bpdcel]

The viscera walls in the hallucinations remind me of saya no uta

[@manintheline5331]

Finally someone who talks about it! It has always intrigued me

[@PresidentFotis]

The symbol on the altar at 4:22 is actually really similar to the Chi rho symbol (I don't know if the devs made that intentionally) which was used during byzantine times and formed from the first two letters of Jesus' name

[@ShaggyRacc]

Postal 2 in particular is one of the few games I return to and not get bored after a couple of hours. Postal 2 is great.

[@MT-ll3tu]

It could be rare example of how psychosis trying to hide how grim reality Is. But when It at triggering areas/Situations It can't cope so It bleeds through in a very darkly comic manner. It would explain why dude is so upbeat & chill through out the game and expansions. I've noticed when I have a flare up everything has a comedic layer dumped on It making It very hard to tell If something Is wrong or off, My sense of humour get dark along with It. It actually kinda creepy how accurate Postal is about Psychosis/Schizophrenia.

[@ramudasanjuu]

kino i was waiting for someone to make a video about this

[@LfunkeyA]

these details are what made the game so interesting

[@woffe8094]

man that bloody bathroom was genuinely scary

[@darknesswithin38]

Most games from the 2000's and late 90's had a lot of horror elements. They were so edgy

[@KonniGroup_o7]

Easiest subscribe of my life, great video.

[@ABuffWizard]

Thanks! 🧙‍♂️

[@I_hunt_lolis]

Never thought I'd see a video talking about horror in this comically violent game

[@yetanotheruser1989]

Yeah it's only on my most recent playthroughs that I really picked up on the more subtle horror elements, like the audio, or really exploring some of the darker corners of the map. There is some real grim depth underneath the comedic exterior.

[@johnnyOWPEJF]

the town of paradise always felt hellish to me. the weird nightmarish, almost absurdist atmosphere of postal 2 is something that was lost in postal 4

[@MinhTran-freespirit]

You dont play in Paradise, Paradise plays you

[@TrueImmortal2002]

You made me want to play this game again after seeing this video and the ludicrous difficulty ones. Just waiting for the game and dlc to be on discount on gog and i'll buy it.

[@whatalegenddamn]

You defenitly should im doing it right now and enjoying it

[@escapefr0mslender]

Totally I got it for 99c during st patricks

[@candle9093]

It's two dollars on the RWS website