Running with Scissors will be turning 30-years-old this year. Yes, you read that right. The studio was founded in 1996, so 30 years on the dot. This would be impressive and a massive achievement for any studio, but what makes it even more impressive is how they haven’t made a single good game since 1997.
I’m going to rip the band-aid off right here, Flesh and Wire looks fucking terrible.
It is both a marvel and incredibly harrowing how this studio hasn’t learned anything about game development since Postal 2 came out back in 2003. Postal 4 is one of the worst games I have ever played, and in spite of its near 7-year-long development cycle between the public alpha and full release, it has not been improved an iota. The game is a slog to get through, still incredibly poorly optimized to this day (I think Black Mesa had shorter loading times), and a game trying to riff on Postal 2 in the modern day inherently does not work because of how different the socioeconomic and political state of America is compared to the early 2000s. It’s hard to satirize a country that’s trying so hard to make an ass of itself already.
So you can probably imagine how hard my eyes rolled when I learned that their newest product, Flesh and Wire, is not only taking the name from the cancelled 1998 game of the same name, but RWS is only now capitalizing off Postal 1 now that the iron is ice cold and stiff as a board.
Need I remind you that for the longest time, the studio would constantly and consistently toss 1997 aside for how edgy it was, and Redux for its ‘poor sales numbers’? Maybe Redux would’ve performed better if they marketed it as much as they did for Postal 4, or didn’t make the 1997 original free-to-own.
Flesh and Wire sees the player taking the role of Angel, a survivor of Postal Dude, Sr.'s rampage way back in 1997 as she hunts him down and shoots her way through legions of law enforcement, cultists and whoever else stands in her way. I’m going to go out on a limb and assume she gets her face mashed by some dude in a black coat during the opening of the game and the twist ending is that Dude Sr. wasn’t responsible for her mental scarring. Cue the ‘You fucked up my face’ scene from Hunt Down the Freeman.
They re-invented Hunt Down the Freeman. Holy shit.
It’s almost endearing watching Running with Scissors try to make a game that tries to take itself seriously, even more starring a victim of a mass shooting. Do I think they’re going to pull it off? No. Do I think they’re going to treat it with the gravity the setting needs? God no. One of Angel’s abilities is wrapping barbed wire around her wrists and using them like brass knuckles. It’s tuff as hell but giving that ability to a character who, unlike Dude Sr. (fucking hell), is confirmed to be mentally unstable is an insane choice.
Which leads me to the Flesh and Wire and, subsequently, Postal 1997’s new lore. It’s a cult. A cult is the reason why Dude Sr. and Angel went off their rockers.
1/2
