It's the dead of the Russian winter, and you're tasked with infiltrating a secret military compound. Your goal? To try to save a member of your team who is imprisoned on the grounds, and has been for fifteen years - ever since he was first sent in during the Cold War. The secondary goal is to make sure that the Russians haven't been working on a new missile program, without the rest of the world knowing. If so, do whatever you can to sabotage the experiment before it becomes a threat to the United States and, eventually the rest of the world. If you choose to accept this mission, then it's you without any support. Interested, soldier?
Developed in the Czech Republic by Vatra Games and published by Konami, Rush n' Attack: Ex-Patriot is a sequel to the popular 1985 Nintendo game, Rush n' Attack. It's a downloadable action game, which sends players into hostile Russian territory with little more than a knife and the clothes on their back. It seems that Russian miners found a formerly unknown material known as ulyssium, which they've used to develop powerful nuclear missiles. You're the only person who can put an end to it and save your former ally before it's too late. Being the only man inside enemy lines, means that your main task is to complete your objectives without causing too much attention. Due to that, stealth plays a bit part within the experience.
The action within Rush n' Attack takes place in side-scrolling fashion, as gamers look at the world in 2.5D. It is structured a lot like Shadow Complex, where each level is a 2D maze, filled with tons of hidden areas. Players must work their way from one end of the levels to another, completing objectives along the way, such as finding bombs, destroying nukes and freeing prisoners. Instead of being gun heavy like most games of this type, Vatra Games decided to make it more of a melee combat centric experience. Due to this, the main character (Sargeant Sid Morrow - call sign, Wolf Spider,) predominantly utilizes a knife to take out his opponents. Though guns are picked up at certain points of the game, they usually have a very small amount of ammunition and can only be used for a brief amount of time because of that.
Although the original game it succeeds was a very fast-paced action game, Ex-Patriot features a slower pace with much more methodical gameplay. Each of the game's three lengthy missions takes place in a different part of the base, where gamers must utilize stealth to try to take out enemies without being noticed. Becoming noticed doesn't mean it's game over, but you don't earn as many points for taking guys out in open conflict. The scoring system awards stealth kills with the highest amount of points possible, and it's important to complete as many as you can if you ever hope to earn an S rating on each level. Stealth kills also make the game a lot easier, as they are on hit kills. You can perform them with either X or Y, with the former being used for light attacks and the latter for slower/stronger attacks.
Players can run and slash their way through the game if they'd like, but it's quite tough, especially on veteran difficulty. Enemies are challenging to fight as they block a lot, with a lot of them holding powerful weaponry. It's your choice, but keeping to the shadows and planning surprise attacks from sunken doorways, ceiling hiding spots and other hidden areas is recommended. Of course, there are three different difficulties available, with the option to choose easy, medium or hard. Hard is required to earn an S-rating, however. You're also graded based on your completion time, as each mission has a par time that must be achieved in order to get a good rating. Boss battles take place at the end of each mission, and they can take a little while. The first two are well-designed, but the last one was unfortunately very poor.
Extra-curricular exploration is rewarded through the in-game scoring system (and an achievement,) if you are able to find each of the 36 ulyssium crystals hidden throughout the campaign. There are twelve to be found in each mission, so a lot of your time will be spent scouring air vents and tiny crevices in order to try to find every single one of the blue, glowing crystal formations. Unfortunately, in an odd and frustrating design choice, the crystals that you find are only linked to one playthrough. This means that you must find them all in one run to get the achievement. There is no opportunity to go back and play the missions again with your collectible statistics, despite the fact that the game features a level select option. This was discovered after finding 35/36 of them. Most of the time though, they're quite easy to find, although some require valiant exploration.
In addition to its exploration, stealth and combat, the game also features some basic switch puzzles. Sometimes you will need to flick a couple of switches to lower radioactive fluids in a room, so that you can get progress. Other times, you'll need to use switches to open doorways, or find key cards that will open them for you. The puzzles aren't anything to write home about and never push the envelope, but they make you explore the world a lot. Sometimes the use of a gas mask or night vision goggles will be required, though they're quite easy to come by. You only need to pick them up once, but can find them in several places as you make your way through the levels.
The game's campaign is quite lengthy, with its three missions lasting more than one hour - with two hours being the average, experienced on veteran difficulty. The maps are quite large and there is a lot to do that will keep you busy for quite a while. Plus, there are some really challenging sections. Its combat system works pretty well, but there are times where the controls aren't as precise as they could have been, allowing for input lag during the odd block attempt. The game's structure and core gameplay are quite generic, but there is some fun to be had, despite repetitive gameplay. The problem is that it never evolves at all, so you're doing the same things over and over again, only with the ability to use a couple more gadgets at the end of the game. It would have been nice if there was more variety to the experience, and a more fleshed out combat system, because most encounters boil down to pressing X or Y to attack a few times, blocking, and then repeating that. There are several combos that you can use if you feel like it.
Rush n' Attack: Ex-Patriot looks pretty good, with detailed environments and relatively shiny visuals. Though there is a noticeable lack of variety within the locations, leaving most areas within the game looking quite similar and dull. The game's character models are reminiscent of those found in the Bionic Commando: Re-Armed games, as most of the time you're just up against basic enemies who look identical. Each character model looks okay and animates pretty well, but there's nothing unique or memorable about them. Though it looks quite basic, it also looks impressive in some ways. The only two cutscenes to be found are at the beginning and end of the game, and are hand-drawn in a comic style. They were pretty well done, and it would have been nice to have seen more of them.
Ex-Patriot's sound is another mixed bag. Since a lot of the game relies on stealth, audio isn't an overly prevalent aspect. There is an original score that sounds decent, but silence is used quite often, and is relatively effective in setting the mood for the type of game that it is. The sound effects work is generally pretty good, with quite a few of them utilized, however there are some that can become grating. The most annoying one would be the old-school death grunt that occurs when your main character is taken out in battle. It got quite annoying after a while. Most of the time, you'll hear your knife hitting the enemies' metal claws, gunfire or explosions. Sometimes alarms as well, as you can be spotted by security cameras, which will close down the area you're in, allowing multiple enemies to come at you at once.
The game's storyline is particularly macho, and is told through the use of dialogue screens. The two conversing characters' images are shown, with dialogue bubbles stretching out beside them. This is a missed opportunity because it's incredibly generic and takes players out of the experience. One of the weirdest things about it is the fact that, if you press A to progress the conversation, it will skip to the next character's bubble instead of skipping to the end of the current dialogue bubble. Most games allow you to press A to fast-forward scrolling text, but this is something new. If you press A to skip through something during a conversation scene, the only way you'll be able to read what was said during the skipped dialogue is to squint to see the muted gray tones that the text has been reduced to in the background. Only the current dialogue that is being spoken is shown in full black.
Overall, Rush n' Attack: Ex-Patriot is a mediocre experience. There is a lot of potential that wasn't realized within the game design, and the experience is quite mediocre overall. Though, despite its issues, Rush n' Attack isn't a bad game - it's just one that doesn't push the envelope at all. There is nothing memorable or exciting about the game, when it's compared to other games within its genre, though most of its mechanics work pretty well, apart from the terrible final boss fight. If you're looking for something new to play and you like this type of game, then it's worth trying. However, it's not for everyone, despite its moderate price tag.
Rating: 5.5/10
Rush n' Attack: Ex-Patriot was released on March 30th for XBOX Live Arcade. It is also available on the PlayStation Network. The price tag comes in at 800 Microsoft Points or ten American dollars.
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