Post Scriptum
Periscope Games/Offworld Industries
In all my years as a game reviewer, there have been very few times where I’ve been as challenged in reviewing a game as I am now. An avid tactical shooter/military simulation geek, I’ve had the pleasure of playing and reviewing just about every one of these types of games out there.
Post Scriptum just debuted, and that’s kind of a big deal to us tactical shooter folks. Here’s a brief description of it from the game’s Steam page:
“Post Scriptum is a WW2 simulation game, focusing on historical accuracy, large scale battle, difficult learning curve and an intense need for cohesion, communication and teamwork. Players will relive the events of ‘Operation Market Garden’ across the fields and towns of Holland.”
Since Post Scriptum has some of the crew from the excellent military shooter, Squad, working on it, I thought that the game was in very capable hands. It even has a couple of the guys from Project Reality tinkering on it (a superb Battlefield 2 mod), which is hands down my favorite game of all times.
With all of these factors at play, I think a lot of gamers (including myself) set their expectations a little too high. But, I also believe that both the game’s developers and publishers promised too much, and delivered too little.
Take for example, the flashy airborne trailers on Post Scriptum’s website, which feature scores of Brits para-dropping over the ravaged, war-torn meadows of Holland, while flak bursts inundate the skies. Or the promises of features that never made it into the full release, and instead turned into “after release” as seen in the game’s feature list:
“- 40 vs 40 multiplayer PvP battles (50v50 is our goal)
– Parachuting into action
– Photo scanned 3D Uniforms
– Artillery and Airstrike support
– Vehicles using realistic values, such as turret speed, armor thickness etc..
– Authentic level at a 1:1 scale based on military archives and historical maps
– Faithfully recreated historical weapons, vehicles and famous landmarks
– Base building, fortification and barricades
– Logistic and supply runs to help fortify your position and rearm friendlies
– Towing system for supplies
– In game Voice Over IP with proximity fade
– Full access to PS SDK to add or modify content after release
– Steam Workshop support after release
Content:
– 4 maps initially with a 5th one coming soon incrementally for a total of 140 km² of authentic playable area
– 3 game modes, starting with “Offensive”, the other two “Armored” and “Sandbox” will come after release.
– More than 40 faithfully recreated vehicles and emplacements as well as 50 authentic weapons
– British & German factions, including the 1st Airborne Division, XXXth Corp, Waffen SS and the Wehrmacht
– The entire western vicinity of Arnhem in 1944 and Arnhem city center with its famous bridge too far
– Source Development Kit for you to add or modify content after release”
The “parachuting into action” is a very limited ordeal that is featured on a single map, certainly a far cry from the grand, cinematic trailers that the game’s website has bandied about for some time now.
Does this mean that Post Scriptum is a terrible game? No. Does it need a lot of work? Heck yeah.
Game mechanics – wise, Post Scriptum nails the concerted, slow, steady pace of any of the best tactical shooters just fine. Planning out your tactics over voice coms with your squad leader, while he in turn communicates with other squad leaders as well as the commander, can simulate war and breed unit cohesion like nothing else out there on the market.
However, the excellent, common sense squad leader rally system from Squad and PR are noticeably missing in Post Scriptum. This disincentivizes protecting the squad leader from harm since dead ones can’t lay rally points. Instead, all that a squad leader in Post Scriptum represents is a guy who orders you around.
There are also some optimization issues that need to be worked out. I noticed that even on “Epic” graphical settings, the game’s graphics look murky. There are many tears in the visuals fidelity, and people have reportedly been turning them all the way down to “Low” in order to pick out enemies from the surrounding foliage.
Gameplay-wise, Post Scriptum excels. Just as with Squad and PR, this game features some seriously team-based tactical experiences that you just can’t get with any of the more hyper-paced shooters out there, such as the Battlefield and Call of Duty series.
But, in another strange move they launched the game with only a single mode: “Offensive.” This mode basically pits attackers vs. defenders in a sequential flag-capturing affair. This would be okay if it also featured standards such as Squad’s AAS (Attack And Secure) mode.
Overall, although Post Scriptum could be a great game if the devs update it with some major additions, right now it’s more of a “should have spent more time in the oven” type of project, and that’s really sad since mechanically it’s very sound. We’ll just have to wait and see…
SCORE: 74%
Post Scriptum features decent graphics that make its WW 2 theme come alive. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
Visit CyberpowerPC’s website to check out all of the other great deals as well!