23 Years Later, Banned First-Person Shooter Returns With All-New Remaster
Back in 2003, the controversial sequel game Postal 2 was released amid controversy, eventually being banned in several countries. Now, more than two decades later, the infamous sequel is finally returning with a full…
Back in 2003, the controversial sequel game Postal 2 was released amid controversy, eventually being banned in several countries. Now, more than two decades later, the infamous sequel is finally returning with a full remaster. Titled Postal 2 Redux, the project raised more than $680,000 on Kickstarter, easily surpassing its $250,000 goal.
With funding secured, development is now underway for a planned 2027 release. Postal 2 Redux is being developed by original studio Running With Scissors alongside Impact Inked and Team Beef. In addition to upgraded visuals and rebalanced gameplay, the remaster promises to be "sharper, louder, bloodier" than the original while preserving the same Postal identity in a brand-new engine.
Postal 2 Redux Is Even Bloodier Than the Original
Upon its original release, Postal 2 was so polarizing that it even earned a Guinness World Record for being the "most critically divisive video game." It was banned in New Zealand and Australia due to its violent content, though it would eventually have its ban lifted in the latter in 2013. The Postal sequel was also pulled from the German version of Steam. In the U.S., it came under fire in 2008 when police blamed the game for a group of teenagers embarking on a crime spree in North Carolina.
Postal 2 is a first-person open-world game that's known for is over-the-top violence and very dark humor. Players take on the role of a man simply known as the Postal Dude, who has mundane daily tasks he needs to complete each day, from picking up groceries to returning library books. It's up to the player to determine how violently those errands should be carried out. The option is there to walk through town and peacefully interact with NPCs, only harming others in self-defense, or players can cause complete chaos by killing anyone on sight. This kind of freedom was very unusual for video games at the time.
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Because the game has carried a cult following, it was announced in 2025 that a VR version was being developed. Amid the conversion to VR, Team Beef needed to port the game into a modern engine, which is Unity. At that point, it was realized that Postal 2 could also get a complete remaster, adding some new content along with various improvements. The developers turned to crowdfunding to make this endeavor a reality, which has the added benefit of not having any suits asking to have the content toned down in any way.
Some of the new features for Postal 2 Redux include no more load screens, higher-resolution textures, a rebuilt weapon system, more destructible props, smarter NPCs, and other quality-of-life enhancements. It will also be able to reach more gamers, as it's going to be released on modern consoles in addition to PC.
Postal 2 Redux is expected to be released in 2027. Late pledges for the crowdfunding campaign are still available on Kickstarter. More info about the game can also be found on the Running with Scissors website.