Postal III is the second sequel to Postal, following Postal 2. It was released in 2011 and is about the Postal Dude's adventures in a town named Catharsis.
Postal III, which is built on the Source engine, was co-developed by Running With Scissors, TrashMasters Studios, and Russian developer/publisher Akella. It was announced in 2006, and was released worldwide via digital distribution on the Steam store Christmas week on December 20, 2011, although three retail versions were released in Russia a month before on November 23, 2011. It was supposed to be released on PC, Mac OS X, and Linux, with Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports announced for 2012; however, only the PC version was released. The game was released unrated due to Akella not wanting to pay for an ESRB rating, meaning that the game was (at one point) only available in non-Russian territories through the Running With Scissors website; it is currently on Steam but was briefly taken off, making it unplayable with third-party methods until Zoom Platform added the game to their library, removed the DRM and improved the DRM-free mod that was used to previously play it meaning the game was brought back to Steam and added to Zoom Platform. Due to a combination of lackluster sales, some serious miscommunication between RWS and Akella, and the sheer number of problems with the game, RWS has dropped the title from their store and refers to the title as "Russian Postal", officially declaring it a spin-off game.
After the Postal 2 DLC "Paradise Lost", officially followed up by Postal 4: No Regerts.
Tropes in this video game include:
- Action Girl: Guest star Playboy Playmate Jennifer Walcott acts like one, as do the Postal Babes.
- All Just a Dream: The whole game was retroactively rendered as such; see Canon Discontinuity below.
- Amazon Brigade: Of sorts. Jennifer Walcott heads a team of security guards made up completely of Postal Babes.
- Anachronism Stew: A very minor case. The game takes place at least some time after the Bush administration, but the Dude has a cellphone from the '80s.
- Affectionate Parody: Believe it or not. The game's cutscenes have a grindhouse flare.
- Batter Up!: A nail-bat, even. Secondary Fire tosses the bat at an enemy, where it sticks fast.
- Binge Montage: Dude does this at a bar in celebration of a thwarted hit on his business. It ends up unintentionally getting him mixed up with some Mexican criminals, which in turn gets him sent to prison.
- Bland-Name Product: Various stores and restaurants, and the "Thegways."
- Canon Discontinuity: The Paradise Lost expansion for Postal 2 retroactively turned the entire game into a nightmare the Dude had during his radiation-induced coma after Apocalypse Weekend.
- Charged Attack: How the rocket launcher works. The longer you hold down the left mouse button, the further the rocket will go before detonating. Try not to just tap the button. The Secondary Fire is a Homing Projectile instead.
- Climax Boss: The "Bad/Insane" story path doesn't have a proper Final Boss fight, but you do have an extended shootout against Krotchy a few levels before the end.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: Bosses are immune to non-lethal weapons like the taser or pepper spray. They either won't be affected at all, or will be staggered but can't be knocked out or arrested.
- Custom Uniform: Ever so slightly. If the Dude goes clean and signs up to join the police, wearing different outfits like a cop uniform, a secret service suit and SWAT armor, he keeps his happy face and Christian cross buttons, as well as his fingerless gloves and tan boots. He keeps these for his janitor and prisoner outfits on the Bad Path, even on the Krotchy outfit.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Krotchy takes several hundred rounds of assault rifle fire to bring down. Even The Mayor/Uncle Dave/Osama and Hugo Chavez's tank components only take a little under 150 rounds each to kill.
- Degraded Boss: The first badger saw Ecotologist you fight is a full-on mini-boss with greatly enhanced health and immunity to non-lethal weapons. Later in the game, you'll fight more badger saw Ecotologists who are no tougher than the regular Ecotologists.
- Difficult, but Awesome: This installment's rather loose physics has made using the Machete's alt-fire throw much more difficult, though it still kills enemies pretty damn quickly.
- Elite Mooks: On the "Insane" story path, SWAT officers aren't much tougher than regular cops the first time you fight them, but they receive a major durability upgrade much later in the game during the prison break level, capable of surviving several headshots or almost a full mag of assault rifle fire to the torso before going down.
- Emergency Weapon:
- The kick returns. There aren't any doors you need to kick open (as any you need to go through open automatically just by getting close to them), but it'll knock over most human foes, setting them up for any number of nasty finishing attacks.
- It's also possible to pick up severed limbs/heads to throw to stun enemies.
- Fan Disservice: The Dude's first job in the game is working as a cleaner in a sex shop run by Mayor Raul Chomo (played by Ron Jeremy), 'nuff said.
- Said Mayor also has a Malaysian slave boy... which ends up being a 40-year-old slave man. In a gimp suit and gas mask. That's assless. And has nipple tassels. And a Gary Coleman mask on the back of his head.
- Reaching Daveland on either route has Chomo's Presidential Campaign tape replaced with a sex tape featuring the Mayor. And Uncle Dave. And the Malaysian slave "boy". And a rhino. Thankfully, it's only described, but what little is seen of the "video" shows someone's naked ass and a man-tit.
- Fan Remake: There's two: Postal III Unreal, being developed in Unreal 2 using the Postal 2 Workshop Tools, and Catharsis Reborn, being developed in the Source engine.
- Foe-Tossing Charge: Sprinting through enemies will knock them aside and onto the ground.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The Dude's initial goal upon arriving in Catharsis is to get more gasoline for his car so he can keep going. Because of the recession, gas prices have skyrocketed, so he has to take up odd jobs to come up with the cash. The fact that you can pick up dozens of full gas canisters throughout the game and all you can do with them is to help burn stuff goes uncommented, and he never seems to put two and two together outside of a Pacifist playthrough.
- Guide Dang It!: You can only regain Karma on the evil path.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: One of the levels in the good path has the Postal Dude join Catharsis' SWAT team, taking over the spot by a team member who was killed by the AIDS-infected monkeys that showed up in a prior level, but unlike the rest of the team he doesn't get a helmet. Notably, he actually asks about getting one, but then is shown by the lieutenant that
they haven't bothered to clean it up since its last owner's demise - the Dude then quickly decides that he'll be fine without it. - Improbable Weapon User: A shop vacuum, rabid cats, killer bees, and the goddamn badgersaw, just to name a few.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Jen Wolcott, Ron Jeremy, Randy Jones and other celebrities appearing as themselves.
- Joke Weapon: Piss again.
- Karma Meter: The game has one, with a "Good" side and a "Bad" side. The "Good" side has the Dude joining the Catharsis Police Force. The "Bad" side has the Dude staying the immoral asshole he has always been and working along side his Uncle Dave and Mayor Chomo. Good karma is maintained by carefully observing your objectives, using non-lethal force when necessary, and not rampaging against innocent bystanders. Bad karma is gained by ignoring your secondary objectives and massacring the residents of Catharsis. In a weird twist, Good karma can only be lost unless you're on an evil mission, which means you have to screw up enough to get kicked off the police force to work your way back into their goodbooks rather than while you're still an officer of the Law.
- Kill It with Fire: The gas can returns, though the napalm launcher is regrettably absent. You can use the pepper spray as an Aerosol Flamethrower, though. And there's always Molotov Cocktails.
- Loads and Loads of Loading: Anybody who has played Half-Life 2 back then knows how long the Source engine takes to load. Get used to looking at Uwe Boll flipping you off.
- Multiple Endings:
- Good Ending: After Mayor Chomo's botched campaign speech and him, Uncle Dave, and Osama run away, the Dude is sent after them. While cornered, Dave decides to arm a plutonium bomb so that the Hockey Moms, Postal Babes, Gay Cowboys, and the Dude are killed along with them. Turns out that the Afghani "plutonium" is nothing but a jar of piss. After the Dude kills Chomo, Dave, and Osama, things take a turn for the weird-worst. The Apocalypse happens again. With the fucking Venezuelan army lead by Hugo Chavez showing up. After fighting his way through the war-torn streets of Catharsis to reach his trailer, the Dude confronts Chavez and kills him. The aftermath results in a wave of "Dude-mania", with the Dude becoming a national hero, finishing with him taking the 2012 Presidential campaign by storm and replacing Barack Obama, with Jennifer Walcott as his personal bodyguard. While discussing Oval Office redecoration ideas with Jen, the Dude finds the infamous fictional representation of the nuclear football thanks to Champ. It ends with a close-up of the Dude wearing a devilish grin on his face and saying "I will regret nothing". Cue the credits.
- Bad Ending: Starts off almost the same as the Good Ending, but instead of the Dude going after the Mayor, Uncle Dave, and Osama, he fights his way out of Daveland with Champ and leaves them to the Hockey Moms. Dave decides to drink the "plutonium" rather than have the Hockey Moms kill him, but finds out that the jar was full of piss. The Hockey Moms end up tearing the trio apart akin to a zombie horde. After a fake-out "The End", the Dude continues his tale, showing that him, Champ, and the Motorhead monkey were captured by the US army and sub-sequentially given the electric chair. Another scene change reveals that the person the Dude was telling his tale to was Saint Peter, in hopes of bullshitting his way into Heaven. After Peter trounces the Dude's story, he says that he has no choice but to send the Dude to his eternal damnation. As the Dude and Champ are dropped into Hell, the Dude yells out "I regret nothing!" and the credits roll.
- Neutral/Pacifist Ending: Same as the Good Ending, except for the final outcome. The Postal Dude ends up on Limp Dickerson's late night talk show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous", sharing his story of having escaped the Venezuelan Army in Catharsis without killing anyone. He announces that his best-selling book: "The Fall of Paradise: If I Did It" (a jab at O.J. Simpson's book) is coming out on softcover. He has since married Jennifer Walcott after finding her trying to hotwire his car, with their wedding ceremony taking place in Machu Picchu. The couple then take this moment to advertise the Peruvian Big Mac and Peruvian NAZCAR (NASCAR + Nazca Lines). The host then congratulates them on their highly publicized lottery jackpot win of $500,000,000, with the Dude also mentioning that they've moved into their dream house, ending with the obligatory quip: "I guess you could say, I regret nothing." Champ then proceeds to gnaw the host's nads, the signal fades and the credits roll.
- More Dakka: This installment features an M249 machine gun. Spraying it for long enough can reduce most enemies to Ludicrous Gibs, but will cause it to rattle around in The Dude's arms, drastically decreasing accuracy.
- Mundane Made Awesome: Chainsaw Badger!
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: For the most part, celebrities appear as themselves (Jennifer Wolcott, Randy Jones, etc.) or as in-name parodies of such (Uwe Boll, Al Gore, Hugo Chavez) but there is one major exception - the unnamed leader of the Hockey Moms looks a whole hell of a lot like Sarah Palin.
- Padding: The counts for several objectives such as collecting cats at the start of the game were bumped up before release, other things such as the fact you have to tase over 10 people (Without killing any in-between) to increase your Karma meter, which takes a long while if you aren't using the Pre-order exclusive Fart gun.
- Posthumous Narration: What the Bad Ending turns out to be. The Dude was killed at the end of the day, and it's revealed that he was narrating the story at the Gates of Heaven, and the person who was questioning him throughout the plot was actually Saint Peter.
- Press X To Get A Rabid Cat Off You
- Regenerating Health: Gone are the health pickups of earlier installments, though some of the Postal Dude's lines would seem to imply that health packs were
Dummied Out at some point. - Scary Stinging Swarm: Swarms of African Killer Bees roam some areas, most notably the Ecotoligists' compound. They slowly eat away at the health of anyone they chase after. The Postal Dude can acquire bee hives to throw at enemies, thus unleashing the bees on them.
- Secondary Fire: A lot of weapons in this game have it. The machete returns from Apocalypse Weekend with it's throw-and-return alt fire. The Pepper Spray's alt-fire turns it into an Aerosol Flamethrower, while that of the Catnip Spray causes the Dude to inhale it and go into psychedelic Bullet Time.
- Shout-Out:
- Many in the achievements, including ones to The Matrix, Judge Dredd, Repo Man, and various action movie actors.
- The Dude's prisoner number during the prison break level is 451.
- A Silent Hill save sigil can be found in the obligatory sewer level.
- Straw Feminism: According to the "Hockey Mom Leader" anything even remotely pornographic is in fact a worldwide conspiracy to objectify all women.
- Stuff Blowing Up: You've got grenades and a rocket launcher. Have fun.
- Take Cover!: Added along with a general third-person perspective shift.
- Take That!: This game features jabs at, among other things, Uwe Boll, Jack Thompson, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin, Al Gore, Osama Bin Laden, the audience and the developers themselves. Of note is the achievement "Jack Thompson Was Right" for killing 1000 Innocent Bystanders.
- Tempting Fate: The setting of this installment is a town called "Catharsis".
- Too Dumb to Live: Sure Mr. UN Officer, put the Postal Dude in charge of a Big Red Button and ask him not to push it, or let anyone else push it. That's a good idea.
- Trade Snark: In the Bad Ending, the podium that St. Peter is standing at in front of the gates of Heaven has a TM sign beside the Cross, despite the fact that it is the kingdom of Heaven and does not have the need for trademarks (especially not one involving a trademark for the faith).
- Trashcan Bonfire: Can be found in various places.
- Unreliable Narrator: If you get the bad ending, it reveals that the entire game was just a fake story that the Dude made up just to get into Heaven. Unfortunately, St. Peter saw through his lies and has him sent to Hell anyway.
- Wide-Open Sandbox: Seems to be returning to this after Apocalypse Weekend, with more of a focus on making mass-murder optional.
- A sandbox Free Roam mode was patched in post-release. In their words, "Explore Catharsis. Kill things."
