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One day when I was making my way through Steam’s upcoming releases - knowing full well I had other things to do - I accidentally saw a game called Tom the Postgirl, and I couldn’t help but check its page because everything about this game intrigued me; who names a girl Tom? Why would anyone make a video game about delivering the post like it's some exciting thing to do? Well, it turns out that it can be really exciting, as long as you're nosy (and weird) enough.
The entire concept of this game was goofy and seemed rather entertaining, as long as it isn't your parcel and your house that is being peeped into. Can you imagine just sitting in your living room, doing whatever it is you're doing (I'm not judging) and suddenly getting the feeling that someone is watching you? I'm pretty sure the townsfolk of Tom's village got that feeling a couple of times; I'm just unsure why they ignored it.
This game might just be the embodiment of the saying "you never know what is going on in people's homes.", every door and window you find could hold something funny, unsettling, or something that’s a bit of both, as people consider their home a safe space. Well, lucky for us, Tom doesn't know what boundaries or privacy are, so no household was safe from her big, black, soulless eyes.
Tom the Postgirl brings an odd and creepy experience, dare I even say charming at times, and that makes it one really fun game.
Neighborhood watch
When you meet Tom, everything seems normal. A young girl who is probably looking for a job, nothing out of the ordinary. You soon find out that she is a new trainee for the post office, and her job is more or less simple: walk around the village and get the right parcels to the right people. Her name, as you might’ve guessed, is derived from the term “peeping Tom”, and that tells you pretty much all you need to know about the way she conducts her business while out in the field.
With her wide eyes and her red raincoat, she also resembles Red Riding Hood, a picture of endearing innocence, somebody who can't do anything wrong. After all, what's a little girl in a raincoat going to do to anyone?
But don’t let that fool you; Tom is a very strange girl, and most likely a deeply disturbed one as well. I mean, she is more or less a stalker, someone who goes around and has zero issues with looking into other people’s homes and uncovering their secrets. However, in Tom’s defence, the rest of the people from the village seem to be almost as weird as she is, if not more.
There’s no narration to guide you around, or words to listen to. Instead, the story is told through the scenes that unfold as Tom peeks around, and the game does that really well. The more you explore and walk about, the more things you’ll find out and notice, and that is how the story unfolds. There are a lot of strange secrets hidden behind those doors and windows. For example, one of the first houses you can visit is named the Kennel. You’d expect to find dogs there, right?
Wrong. It’s actually kids who, for whatever reason, behave as dogs.
The game has plenty of dark humour, and other things that border between funny and very weird. However, after you peep through a couple of windows, you’ll figure out why this might not be a game you should get for your kids, but should get for yourself.
It only looks kid-friendly, and usually games like that are a really fun time.
The story of this game is so unhinged, as the kids say, funny and weird, that it's really something that you should experience yourself, while some things you might expect, there are a lot of things that feel so odd but fit together perfectly. It's a storyline that will make you chuckle, or at least smile, especially the ending. This is a story that should be experienced in all it's weird glory.
Peek, deliver, repeat
Tom the Postgirl is a story-based point-and-click adventure, and it’s more or less linear and a simple affair. You grab your parcels and start going from house to house. Besides the post, Tom stumbles upon a little machine, which shows how many things you need to check out, which in general is helpful as you then know if you've peeped at everything worth peeping at. It is an odd-looking machine, though...
In every place you visit, there will be a couple of things to see, and the only way to do that most of the time is to peep through some windows…Or holes in the wall. Tom is also interested in a few things out in the open, such as bushes, statues and signs. Some of the things you won’t be able to see right away because you’ll be missing a tool, such as binoculars or a hammer, while other things will be hidden behind certain objects, such as a wooden board that you remove with said hammer.
You play through different chapters, and in each one you have a number of houses to go through and a side quest as well, which you can do but you don’t need it. It’s just for the giggles anyways. After you deliver the parcels and finish the side quest, you get to blow a horn which signals that you’re done with that section. One thing I disliked here is that if you move on, you won’t be able to backtrack to finish the side quest, but the game does warn you about that and gives you the option to visit specific chapters in New Game+.
After the horn is blown, the same dude that works with you at the post office comes in his van, throws you the parcels for the next section, and drives away. He’s just a chill guy. At one point, Tom gave him the finger, and I don’t know who was more confused by that, him or me.
The side quests are fun and definitely worth doing. In one of them, you need to find and gather lost chickens from a farmer whose barn burned up, and whenever you find one, Tom slaps a delivery address on it and kicks her into oblivion - oblivion being back to the farmer.
Now for the parcels, while your job is to deliver them, that’s not really the only thing you can do. The game gives you the option to become the almighty post overlord, and just open them. Screw the rules, you know, be a menace. After you observe the folks who ordered the parcels, you get to make the judgment call: do they even deserve their stuff? But beware, if you do decide to be a bad postgirl, there will be consequences. The game has multiple endings, and you can always choose to be good in one playthrough and bad in a different one. The post office is your oyster. And it’s also a great way to uncover details you might’ve missed the first time around.
Gameplay-wise, you won’t find much action here or any combat, but you’ll find a lot of weirdness and dark humour, on top of never knowing what you’ll stumble upon next.
Black, white, and nosy
Tom is done in a hand-drawn 2D noir style, which reminds me slightly of Cuphead. The animations give the whole village a retro feel, and the fact that everything is done in this calm and picture-book look just adds to the weirdness of the things Tom finds while looking through those windows. It's the contrast that does it for me; nothing seems out of the ordinary when you look at the screen, but then you find robo-people, kids that behave like dogs, and some weird church parties.
There is no dialogue in the game, the closest you’ll get is some weird mumbling that is supposed to resemble it probably, but it doesn’t need any dialogue, because this fits the overall aesthetic of the village and the odd residents perfectly.
The music is subtle and light, almost comical, and while I haven’t watched any of the old, silent Charlie Chaplin movies recently, I can imagine that kind of music appearing there. The original soundtrack is created by the Swiss composer and musician Aurélien Darbellay, and in combination with the black-and-white visuals, it all works so nicely together.
The game ran smoothly and without any hiccups on my machine, so no complaints here.
Postmarked weird
Tom the Postgirl isn’t a long or overly complicated game; there are a few things you need to pay attention to and do, and that’s actually all that is needed for it to be rather charming. It’s a fun and simple game with a lot of personality baked into it, and I couldn’t really find anything that’s not lovable or fun about it.
I came for a goofy game, and I left knowing far more about these villagers than I planned, or that I should know.
What’s even more impressive is that it all came from a studio that’s only made out of three people, and here we appreciate things like that. They managed to create a world full of some weird residents, tell a story without a single word of narration, and make me laugh at things I probably shouldn’t have laughed at. Don’t worry, they’ll get you too, I’m sure.
While Tom might not be the world’s best postgirl, she’s a great guide to a very strange little village, and overall charming if you can overlook her weird hobby.
Just, uhhh, maybe start drawing your curtains from now on.
The Good
Clever wordless storytelling- Dark, absurd humour
- Charming hand-drawn art style
- A light and Chaplin-esque soundtrack
- Possibility of multiple playthroughs
The Bad
Unfinished side quests can’t be revisited until NG+
