Postal III

Postal III, like Postal 2 before it, changes up the perspective, this time acting as a third-person shooter as opposed to first person. The core of the gameplay is more linear and story-centric as opposed to the open world of 2, with mission-based objectives pushing the plot along. However, it retains the same sense of wild abandon action and combat the series is noted for.

There are two paths the player can follow depending on actions performed in the game, as well as how far the player's Karma Meter reaches; if the player wantonly attacks and kills innocent people, the Karma Meter will be affected, changing from yellow to red and guaranteeing the player goes down the "bad path," in which the plot and missions change accordingly, and which ends with text asking if the player is "disappointed" that they did not get to "waste them yourself?", telling them instead to take the "good path", which will allow the player to see the story through to its logical conclusion.

Postal III includes performances by a wide array of minor celebrities, including Ron Jeremy, Jennifer Walcott, and Randy Jones. The game also contains characters depicting Uwe Boll (director of the 2007 Postal film),[8] Sergei Mavrodi, Osama bin Laden and Hugo Chávez.

In Postal III, the Postal Dude emigrates to Paradise, Arizona's sister town of Catharsis after he destroyed Paradise with a nuclear bomb.[9] Due to the economic meltdown, the Dude drives into town and becomes stranded because he can not afford a tank of gas. He must then find work and do various odd jobs to escape the town.[10]

Through the course of the game, the player can choose one of two paths: the "bad path", which includes joining in on the schemes of Mayor Chomo and Uncle Dave, or the "good path", which involves the Dude joining the Catharsis Police force. The game plays out in a fairly linear and cinematic way, although the player's actions affect the outcome of the story and the game. Although the "good path" is more difficult to play, it offers more storyline and a longer campaign.[11]

There are three endings to the game as Postal Dude must escape from the impending Venezuelan invasion with Hugo Chávez leading the charge.

• Evil Ending: Escaping Carthasis by the skin of his teeth and leaving Chomo, Dave, and Bin Laden at the mercy of hockey moms, Postal Dude winds up at the mercy of the law enforcement, who are quick to give him and his dog the death penalty for his slaughter. His appeal to heaven completely fails and the Postal Dude is sent to hell.
• Neutral Ending: Postal Dude succeeds in escaping Carthasis without resorting to murder or delivering swift justice and meets Jennifer "Jen" Walcott who tries to hijack his car but winds up marrying him instead and enjoying a honeymoon in Peru. He wins the lottery and has a bestselling book that details his personal view of the exploits in Postal 2. During a talk show interview, Champ bites on the groin of the talk show host.
• Good Ending: Saving the world from Hugo Chávez, Postal Dude becomes one of the most popular yet controversial heroes of American history. He winds up becoming the President of the United States with Jen Walcott as his wife and head of the Secret Service who winds up annoying both sides of the political spectrum. As he moves into the White House, a certain nuclear button sparks his inner psychopath.

Regardless of the endings, the Postal Dude's final words are "I regret nothing!"

In Postal 2: Paradise Lost, a 2015 expansion for Postal 2 developed by Running With Scissors, the events of Postal III were retconned as being part of a dream sequence the Postal Dude had; he accidentally crashed his car into a stop sign and entered an 11-year coma from the trauma. Corey Cruise reprises his role in the expansion, voicing an Alternate Postal Dude alongside original voice actor Rick Hunter.

In 2006, Running with Scissors was struggling financially and contracted Akella, who had published Postal 2 in Russia, to create the next entry in the Postal series. Running with Scissors provided the initial design for the game, but was not very involved in development. Shortly after the beginning of development, the Russian financial crisis of 2008-2009 occurred, disrupting the game's development and putting additional financial strain on Akella. During and after development, Akella refused to provide Running With Scissors access to the game's "source code, assets or developers tools."[12] Because of this, Running With Scissors was not able to provide any updates or patches for the game, and players were not able to create mods for it either.[13] In 2012, shortly after the game's release, Akella ceased operations after being on the verge of bankruptcy.[14][15]

The game was set to be released through the digital distribution platform Steam on December 20, 2011. However, the main release was delayed; some users were able to obtain the game through the GameFly storefront.[16] The game formally released on December 21, 2011.[17] The game was removed from sale on Steam on November 21, 2022 due to DRM issues.[18] On October 13, 2023, Running with Scissors announced that the game had returned to Steam with the DRM removed.[19]

Postal III received "generally unfavorable" reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.[20]

GameSpot gave the game 3/10, while Game Informer also lambasted the game, giving it a score of 1/10 and saying that "the people behind Postal III don’t have the writing ability to back up their gutter-dwelling mouths. As it turns out, they also don’t have the design or programming chops to create a stable game. This makes it one of a handful of games to ever receive such a low score."[17][21]

In a much more positive review, QJ.Net stated that the game was "one of the most interestingly written, psychotic and harmful games I've ever played" and that the developers had "ended up with a product that looks good, sounds great and is often funny", but also complained that their "experience was marred with constant crashing and a lot of graphical glitches" as well as complaining that it often comes off as "mean spirited and lacking in heart".[24]

Original Gamer also gave a positive review, giving the game a rating of 7.5, deciding that it was "a good game, just not a great one". The reviewer praised its storyline, wide variety of weapons, and creativity while deriding the game's "linear level design and gameplay" and complaining that it takes "a while to get to the meat of the title". It also called out the game's use of good and bad paths, which he believed unfairly favored the good path, deciding that the game "punishes you for being bad, by being bad itself". That said, it concluded by saying that the "fun is there in Postal 3, you just have to work a little for it."[25]