I did not expect Running With Scissors to announce a new FPS where you play as a victim of one of the massacres depicted in the original Postal. Then again, I find it wise not to expect anything from Running with Scissors. The developer made its name on stoking outrage with its largely terrible games, though I will concede that Postal 2 was, despite its many, many flaws, ahead of its time in certain ways.
Even so, Flesh & Wire is a twist I didn’t see coming. Described by Running With Scissors as a “horror first-person shooter”, it puts you in the shoes of Angel, a young woman seeking vengeance against the Postal Dude after being caught on the wrong end of his rifle during his 1997 killing spree. The game will involve tracking the Dude across the Arizona desert, battling military forces and your own traumatic memories as you search for vengeance.
There’s no doubt that wrangling with the ramifications of the original Postal’s story is an interesting idea, especially given the US’ torrid history with mass shootings in the years since. Do I trust Running with Scissors in handling such material? No! And neither should you!
Even if we put aside the studio’s broader history, last December saw an absolute fiasco where the company announced a new game, insulted fans, apologised and cancelled the game in the space of 48 hours. Granted, RWS wasn’t actually making that game. But it was still far from the company’s finest hour, and it hasn’t had many of those.
Nonetheless, I would love to be proven wrong and for Flesh & Wire to turn out great. At the very least, Running With Scissors has time to get the game right. Flesh & Wire isn’t coming out until sometime next year. If in the meantime you want to play a Postal game that doesn’t suck, Hyperstrange’s spinoff Postal: Brain Damaged is an entertaining, if thoroughly disposable, boomer shooter lark.