As the title suggests, Tom the Postgirl puts you in the shoes of a tireless postal worker whose job is to deliver mail to the residents of a small community. Nothing unusual about that, you might think – except that Tom has a peculiar fondness for spying on people and playing pranks on them. Moreover, she even goes so far as to open others’ mail from time to time. Dirty little girl!

Overall, this premise works surprisingly well. What initially appears to be an ordinary, everyday setting gradually reveals its stranger side through Tom’s nosiness. The seemingly respectable residents hide dark, sometimes downright psychopathic secrets behind the walls of their homes. Of course, curiosity is only human, so perhaps Tom can hardly be blamed for poking around… Right? Well, the game’s comical finale makes it clear that even such obvious things aren’t quite what they seem at first glance.

The game offers a complex decision-making system.

Delivering mail constitutes the main objective, but Tom the Postgirl also features a handful of side missions. In one of them, you have to win a garden competition. As it turns out, all’s fair in love and gardening, including a little sabotage to make your rivals’ gardens look a bit worse. The side missions can get pretty weird, but sadly, there aren’t many to enjoy. The game takes place across just a handful of small maps, and the entire experience should take no more than two hours to complete. In other words, this is a very short game.

The title relies on dark, crude, and often downright outrageous humor. Most of the jokes land, although was hard to shake the feeling that the developers occasionally went a little too far. Personally, I didn’t like the gags involving the rather questionable (to put it mildly) treatment of animals.

Living by hippie ideals.

The gameplay itself has very little to offer. I expected something of a classic point-and-click adventure, with areas to explore, items to collect, and puzzles to solve. Instead, I got a kind of walking simulator in which you simply move around and click on interactive objects and locations. The developers themselves describe Tom the Postgirl as a “walk and stalk” experience rather than a point-and-click adventure. Fair enough, but some engaging puzzles would really add more depth to the gameplay.

One of Tom the Postgirl‘s biggest strengths is undoubtedly a highly original, hand-drawn art style. The backgrounds are rendered in black and white, while key elements – including the protagonist’s coat – stand out in a striking, vampire-red hue. At first glance, the game looks oddly innocent, almost as if it had been drawn by children with crayons. Don’t let that fool you, though: playing it feels like stepping into some seriously messed-up adult cartoon.

Still life.

Another aspect I particularly enjoyed within the visuals, was the grotesque animation. The way the characters perform even the simplest actions often puts a huge grin on your face. The environmental sound effects also deserve praise. The game doesn’t really feature spoken dialogue, so you won’t hear the characters talk, but there’s still plenty to enjoy on the audio front.

Tom the Postgirl stands out thanks to its distinctive art style, thoroughly awful (but undeniably original) protagonist, and bizarre sense of humor. Unfortunately, the gameplay itself offers very little to write home about. It’s essentially a walking simulator built around clicking on interactive objects. On top of that, the game turns out to be very short, making it more of a one- or two-sitting experience.

Time to poke around a bit.

Fortunately, the developers seem well aware of these limitations and have priced the game accordingly. At launch, it costs around $9, which makes it a fairly affordable little oddity. For that price, it’s probably worth giving it a try.

Tom the Postgirl is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Tom the Postgirl was provided by the publisher.