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Rush N’ Attack: Ex-Patriot l Review (XBLA, PSN)

These past few years have seen their shares of old franchises revived or “retro-revived” in some way. Whether it be Megaman 9 and Bionic Commando: Rearmed in 2008, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds in February, or heck… even Duke Nukem Forever, old names have been popping up about everywhere.

One such name that’s come up that a lot of people haven’t heard of is Rush ‘N Attack, (also known as Green Beret outside the US) an old sidescrolling action/shooter game initially released in arcades in 1985. 26 years later, its sequel finally hit Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network under the name Rush ‘N Attack: Ex-Patriot. This game keeps most of the original formula intact while giving the franchise a substantial facelift to bring it into the current generation of gaming. The real question is, though, does this classic formula age well?

Ex-Patriot puts you in the role of Sid “Wolf Spider” Morrow, a United States Special Operative sent on a mission to rescue a long-captured comrade from a Russian POW camp, as well as finding out if the Russians have returned to developing a new deadly missile containing a mysterious mineral called “ulyssium.” When the mission goes sour, Morrow and his squad are captured as well and have to find a way for him and his squad to escape the facility, all while finding out more about this “stealth missile” project. The plot is fairly straightforward and the game doesn’t do much storytelling. Cutscenes consist of unspoken dialog which usually doesn’t do much to develop the story and is far too easy to skip through accidentally, even if it’s not much of anything to read to begin with. The plot does have its pivotal points though these are usually reserved until later in the stage just before a boss fight.

At first glance, Ex-Patriot seems to take on the look of a simplified Metroidvania game. Although its linear, straightforward stages have little in the way of power-ups and secret passages that can only be traversed after you get said powers, the game introduces stealth tactics to spruce it up. The game introduces you to this system right from the get-go with all the nifty moves you can do to avoid detection such as sneaking behind an enemy, waiting in ambush inside a dark doorway or gap in the floor, pulling soldiers off of ledges, and so on. It’s a neat mechanic and is something that sets this game apart from today’s platformers. The game also encourages this type of behavior by awarding more points for a stealthy kill rather than a head-on confrontation or simply shooting someone.

Morrow’s weapon of choice are his knives. Guns, rocket launchers and flamethrowers alike are obtainable off of killed soldiers and, though they can be helpful in overwhelming situations, would result in a hit to your score. Ammo for each of these weapons dries up quickly, further encouraging the use of melee attacks. As you rack up kills, Morrow’s Systema-inspired fighting style improves, allowing you to execute various combos. Although these combos look neat when trying them out, they don’t seem to be very useful as most enemy soldiers will fall after just a couple of slashes, with a handful of enemies that will make you work for it by blocking your attacks. Grenades are also plentiful as you move about each level, though I found that you rarely ever need to worry about using them.

Certain support items can be picked up as you move through the game, such as the night vision goggles and a gas mask. Although you can find both multiple times, you only need to pick each up once, and even still I found that almost all dark and gas-filled passageways had a safer way around. Seeing as these passageways never yielded any other items such as health packs, body armor or pieces of ulyssium that increase your maximum health by a bit, I found these items to be a bit unnecessary in advancing through the game.

Bosses in this game are few, and can be both simple and frustrating at the same time. Ex-Patriot seems to go by a trial and error model, showing you where you need to go and what you need to do while leaving it up to you to find a way to get there. For someone like me, it is really easy to overlook a simple gameplay element such as climbing a wall to avoid certain death and watching my character crumple over in a heap of dead meat every five to ten seconds. Once you get by this initial barrier and figure out what you have to do, each boss becomes a bit easy to take down. The final boss in particular felt anticlimactic in the way it played out compared to the two fights before it, leaving the ending to feel a bit unfulfilled and maybe even rushed.

Ex-Patriot comes off as a short and linear game. Clocking in at 2 and a half hours it was never hard to find the main pathway through the level and any deviations were brief. I admit that for this type of game I was expecting a bit more dynamic experience, and it fell short in that regard. Killing enemy soldiers tends to become repetitive after a while, as most are easily dispatched with a couple of swings of Morrow’s knife or by pulling them off of ledges. Others will leave you dumbfounded by a slow-moving rifle shot that sneaks up on you and takes away half your health while you’re still a screen and a half away trying to get a stealth kill in on another enemy. Although the controls are responsive and somewhat precise, they can be finicky when moving up and down as Morrow will cling to any wall or ledge that he comes in contact with.

Despite its shortcomings, Ex-Patriot looks beautiful. Taking a page out of Shadow Complex and like many other games of this generation, this game makes use of the Unreal Engine to create unique environments that stand out from any other. A lot of detail went into making each Cold War-style level look run-down and old; No pixel was left untouched in this game. I wish I could say that this game appealed to my ears as like it did to my eyes but the soundtrack becomes fairly unnoticeable as you play through. Voices are minimal in this game, and wherever voice acting is present its insignificant and muffled, even for an ear untrained in Russian.

All in all, I was expecting more out of Rush N’ Attack: Ex-Patriot. Although the game had a lot of visual appeal and a really nifty stealth system, the novelty quickly wore out after the first level as no challenge or variance was presented when engaging enemy soldiers. Follow that up with a disappointing final boss and some minimal-yet-shoddy voice acting, and I could only recommend this game to the die-hard fans who grew up playing the first game in the series in arcades.

Check out the Rush ‘N Attack site HERE. It’s available now for $10 (US).

Original Article