Postal: Brain Damaged Review

Solid and enjoyable FPS game based on a series that I am not really experienced with and my exposure to it was the remake of the first game and I didn't really like it outside of Postal Dude's voice.

However what made me come to Brain Damaged was that it was more of a straight up first person shooting adventure and I heard some even comparing it to Doom Eternal and well, I'll talk about that first. Outside of guns having alt fires, the double barrel shotgun having a grapple hook on it, and pseudo dash mechanic with sliding instead of dashing, the game isn't really like Doom Eternal.

It has elements of Doom Eternal but I'd argue this game is more of an amalgamation of Serious Sam and Quake as well. The horde shooting is more akin to SS where there is a high enemy count but it's more about trying to dodge attacks and thin out the herd as opposed to Eternal's enemy roster being weak to certain guns, as well Eternal having many other mechanics like flame blech, blood punch, ice grenade, and chainsaw for ammo management, Brain Damaged doesn't have any of this and that isn't a bad thing since I like SS and Quake but the comparison is one of the thing that drew me to this game.

Speaking of SS, the horde shooting feels just as good and satisfying in this game as it does in the former...for a good portion of it. You get a wide variety of guns and power ups all given the Postal code of pain, you got a minigun, assault rifle, rocket/grenade launcher, a pistol which works a bit like Titanfall's Smart Gun, a double barrel shotgun, a cat launcher and a couple more. All though one thing I do think kind of helps makes this game stand out from other "boomer shooters" in some ways is that all your weapons have their own ammo pool instead of certain guns sharing ammo with each other. I am not the biggest fan of the ammo sharing system since I would much rather use the more powerful version of the gun unless if it is to kill some fodder enemies, thanks to BD not adhering to that, I can use more random weapons like the assault rifle for some weaker enemy kills and then chaingun if I want to quickly kill vast hordes.

Another thing it has in common with SS and also games like Doom 1993 is that, after beating a boss, all your weapons are taken away from you which I consider to be a good thing since the shooting in BD and SS while fun in their own way can be a bit one note compared to Doom Eternal so having weapons taken away from the player every few levels helps combat encounters feel less monotonous since you got to for a certain while use weapons you aren't comfortable with.

The level design is also quite good and surprisingly follow a consistent logic for dream like levels. There is a lot of key collecting, switch pulling, switch collecting, puzzle solving with the pee mechanic and item hunts to progress as well as platforming which the game even uses the grapple hook on the shotgun for unlike Doom Eternal's base campaign. This helps break up the pace of the horde shooting since when you are not doing that, you are doing what I mentioned previously. The levels have a since variety to them as well, you got suburban neightbourhood, New Mexico, an asylum, a crowded convention space, a spaceship of sorts, and the Death Star, there is a number of creative and wacky locales you will be visiting in Brain Damaged. The first level is pretty weak since it has multiple keyhunts within keyhunts but I got used to that since it then had me turn on my, "keen sense of looking every knook and cranny" like what games with this level design does. The endless hallways can be annoying but it isn't enough to bother me.

Issues I have is that saving anywhere can be a red herring since sometimes you can save anywhere and sometimes you can't. Not sure if it's a glitch but I can save scum during bosses so I am confused. Either let me save at all times or have checkpoints 

The writing is also not very good and full awkward and forced meme humor but I tolerated this since story in the game was unintrusive at best. 

There is a massive difficulty spike around the Asylum level where you have to kill multiple waves of enemies and they can easily surround and kill you, while not having your full arsenal of guns, falling out of the arena can kill you on top of that, this is one level you can't save scum during making it more frustrating, I did use all the items and powerups I collected previously to help me beat it which I do like but the game never really demands this out of you later on making it more jarring. On top of that you exit the level by grappling on to a mine cart which is more confusing.

Most of the alt fires are useless except for the assault rifle's on occasion and cat launcher.

The cat launcher breaks the game's balance, the alt fire becomes easy to abuse and it makes late game shootouts dull and montonous even on hard, which I raised it to then lowered since it just makes me want to use the cat launcher more. I eventually restricted myself to only using guns I like using like the minigun and assault rifle which I don't like doing but I wanted to make the last level less dull. Cat launcher got useless around the final boss but too little, too late.

Overall, BD is a solid and enjoyable FPS spinoff of a series I have barely any attachment towards. Shooting is generally solid until late game but even then the level design is imaginative enough to keep the rest of the game still relatively exciting. I am glad I gave this one a shot. This spinoff is up there with stuff like Ratchet Deadlocked, Jak X, Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks.