Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot Review

Originally released in 1985, Rush’N Attack told the story of a CIA task force deployed to Russia. Their mission was to investigate intelligence that powerful nuclear missiles were being developed using a newly discovered resource (Ulyssium). After successful sales and a strong fan base, an arcade sequel was released in 1989. Since then however, Konami have done nothing with the franchise, until now. Set fifteen years after the original, Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot is a stealth-action platformer. Sargent Sid Morrow (AKA Wolf Spider) is again deployed to Russia as new reports of Ulyssium usage have been unearthed. Travelling through nuclear bases and underwater stations your mission is to stop the Russian threat by any means possible.

The gameplay is reminiscent of that in Shadow Complex, a game many regard as the best Xbox Arcade title to date, and uses standard platform controls. There are three levels in the game. Though this sounds low, they are very long and offer around an hour and a half worth of gameplay each. Add onto this a ranking system for each level, collectables to be found and points scores based on kill styles and progression speeds, and the game offers a fair amount of replay value. As you progress through the levels, you encounter a limited variation in enemies, and three bosses. Using hidden corners and holes, you can perform stealth kills which will always instantly kill the enemy. You can also jump straight into combat and attack using light and heavy attacks. The action would be incredibly stale if it was not for the powerful combo moves that you unlock throughout the game. These become incredibly handy to dispatch enemies as efficiently as possible.

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The platforming elements in the game are a close match to parkour. As well as jumping from ledges and climbing ladders, you also have the ability to climb high walls and hang from ledges, from where you can perform some deadly stealth kills. You may find however that due to a poor tutorial, the techniques take some getting used to.

There are several things that the game does badly. For starters, there is a real lack of weapons and items. Although you pick up enemy weapons (an assault rifle, rocket launcher and flame thrower), you get barely enough ammo to kill to enemies. As well as this, there is an issue with weapon pick-up. Sometimes enemies will drop guns, sometimes they won’t. It seems to be completely random and non-uniform. Though the idea to encourage stealth gameplay is understandable, it would have been far better for the developers to give players better melee weapons and throw guns out of the game entirely. The items you pick up are useless since they are barely used. You receive night-vision goggles early on in the story, but throughout the game I used them about twice. You also receive a gas mask, but barely equip it either. More useful items would have been greatly appreciated.

Though five hours gameplay sounds like a lot, when you are repeating the same processes over and over again, there really isn’t a great variation on offer.  Although it attempts to allow the player to be as free as possible, the game is quite linear and you often won’t backtrack to areas for any good reason, except when you get lost with the confusing way-markers.  Another problem is the difficulty. In general, the game isn’t too hard, but there really are a limited number of checkpoints. If you die, it’s not uncommon to find yourself having to repeat the past five minutes just to get back to where you were. This becomes especially annoying if you find a section you struggle on. Added to this is the extreme difficulty of the final boss; for some reason it is much harder than anything else in the game. Though final bosses are generally the hardest in games, the change in difficullty is overly vast.

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The games graphics are good and while you occasionally see some rough edges, but on the whole they look smooth. The problem with the level design is that they are built on the same textures repeated over and over, offering little variation as you progress through the game. The sounds in the game are what you would expect from an arcade game and no more. One disappointment with the cutscenes is the lack of voice acting, and the poor quality of what exists. The story really would benefit from more.

Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot has the potential to be much better than it is. Taking into account all of the negatives, the title provides a good few hours of fun. It just doesn’t have the qualities or polish that great games such as Shadow Complex do, and though the campaign is fairly long for an Arcade title, the repetitive nature of the game severely reduces its gameplay value. It’s definitely not a bad game, it’s just not a good one either.