Game: Rush'N Attack: Ex-Patriot

Platform: Xbox 360, PS3

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Vatra

ESRB: M

Genre: Stabby Platformer

Players: 1

What's Hot: Bad guys with knife-gauntlets, platforming shows great potential in some areas

What's Not: Pointless combos, long grinding chapters, ugly visuals, boring levels

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Review by: Brian Rowe

The timing of Rush'N Attack: Ex-Patriot couldn't be better. Red Dawn fever is sweeping the video game landscape and games such as Bionic Commando Re-armed 2 and Konami's own Hard Corps: Uprising have shown that fans are aching for action-platformers with classic roots.

Morrow and his band of knife-wielding operatives were sent to a Russian compound to rescue a fellow soldier. The mission failed, leaving Morrow to fight his way out of captivity and punish those responsible. His superiors have other plans and order Morrow to steal some Ulyssium – an alien mineral left behind by the Tunguska event in 1908. It's a fun premise, but it can't overpower the dismal presentation and boring gameplay.

Ex-Patriot retains some visual elements of its predecessor, including some very familiar props and environments, but coated with a layer of 2.5D fugly. Vatra obviously draws inspiration from Bionic Commando Re-armed, but can't pull of the look. The character and environmental models are distinctively last-gen and slathered with kaleidoscopic lighting indicative of the PS1 era. I kept flashing back to the prison escape in the game Apocalypse, starring Bruce Willis, except that game actually rocked.

While there's nothing seriously wrong with Ex-Patriot's level-designs, there's nothing particularly inspired about them either. New challenges are few and far between and backgrounds rarely offer the impression that you are making any actual progress. There are times when the levels open up to reveal multiple routes, such as a ventilation shaft that bypasses a group of enemies, but don't even think about comparing Ex-Patriot to Shadow Complex. Whereas the latter game rewarded explorers with new gear, Ex-Patriot rewards crafty players with the ability to skip large chunks of stages. Surely I'm not the only one who finds this odd.

Having shortcuts seems especially bizarre when you consider that combat is your main source of points, but then again, Ex-Patriot can't get a grip on what type of game it wants to be. There are only three chapters, and the target time for the second chapter is a whopping hour and 45 minutes. You might expect this from an action-adventure title, but Ex-Patriot is an action-platformer about maximizing points. At least you know that there won't be much competition on the leaderboards.

Combat is undoubtedly the worst part of Ex-Patriot. A knife can be a deadly weapon in the right hands (i.e. Riddick), but judging from Morrow's performance, I'm guessing that most of gaping wounds are self-inflicted. Racking up points unlocks multiple combos, which might be better if they served tactical purposes. In the case of one combo, the first strike actually knocks the enemy too far back for the second strike to connect. Did anyone actually try these moves out? Combined with a block function that only guards in one direction and muddy response times, combat is often best avoided. If you have the misfortune of getting trapped between two enemies, you can do little but watch as Morrow ping-pongs helplessly back and forth. Morrow is incredibly agile, capable of running up walls, crossing massive gaps, and hanging from ledges. You get a sense of what Ex-Patriot could have been, but hazards like fire-spewing vents and landmines serve as constant reminders of Morrow's imprecise jumping skills and his maddening habit of sticking to every wall within arm's reach. He's less like a cat, and more like a far-sighted gecko.

Rush'N Attack: Ex-Patriot feels very much like a game that was pulled out of the 'canceled projects pile' of 1997 and touched up with a few layers of Bondo. It's outdated, with features from other games haphazardly bolted on, and other concepts that simply don't work. There are a handful of exciting battles and set, but a few thrilling minutes can't make up for four hours of boredom.

Brian Rowe is Sr. Editor at GameShark and also manages our YouTube Channel and Twitter and Facebook pages.

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