Review: Rush’N Attack: Ex- Patriot

Rush’N Attack is back with more soldier slaughtering than you can imagine!

Developer: Vatra Games
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3 [Xbox 360 reviewed]

Back in 1987 Konami brought to life a classic side-scroller that has stood the test of time and dared to imagine a world where a single guy with a 2 inch blade could take out the entire Soviet Union. It’s 2011 and while the Soviet Union is long and dead, killing bad guys will never go out of style and Konami knows this: thus we have Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot, a next-gen re-imagining that once again dares to let a single guy with a blade take on an army!

Ex-Patriot sees one playing the role of Morrow a “badass knife assassin” (He’s actually called that in the game!) sent in take out a super weapon and generally wreck sh*t. Like many well laid plans, Morrow and his team it seems are not badass enough as they’re immediately captured (Doh!). It’s not the greatest of stories but then again, this is Rush’N Attack, not BioShock. 

As Morrow, you’ll knife your way through an open map similar to Epic/Chair’s Shadow Complex, only with no where near the amount of weapons and goodies to find. Ex-Patriot is all about stealth pick up and play combat, not seeking out weapon upgrades and at this it excels. 

You’ll hide in closets, under grates and even over ledges quietly waiting to pounce and stealth kill an enemy. Of course if stealth isn’t your thing, you can always go in knife a stabbing!

Combat in Ex-Patriot for the most part is fun. It aims to be arcadely like its predecessor  but also tries to ride the edge of being more by adding huge expansive levels. And while I appreciate the ambition,  it becomes at times a bit frustrating due to some sloppy platforming controls. Morrow would sporadically decide he didn’t want to cling to a walkway above or take his sweet assassin time when I needed him to jump to a near by platform. There’s a real floatyness and delay to the jumping mechanics that as a whole just annoyed me at times. Not enough to take break the fun of the constant combat, but enough to notice and die… a lot. 

Ex-Patriot offers a good bit of shanking and combat for its small asking price of $10; lasting gamers a good 4-5 hours. Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot isn’t one of the prettiest or deepest games on XBLA but for those looking to spend a few hours shanking soldiers and reliving a small taste of the absurd arcade feel of the original, then Ex-Patriot is worth a download. 

Galaxy Minute

-Take on Russia with a huge bowie knife

-Stealth kills feel brutal and satisfying

-Platforming is hit or miss at times due to some control issues

-Did I mention the shanking? Yeah, there’s a hell of a lot of shanking