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Rush N’ Attack: Ex-Patriot Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Rush N’ Attack: Ex-Patriot Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

Cheap Revolution

From the early twentieth century all the way through WWII, propaganda was a pervasive part of life in the Soviet Union. Perhaps the most iconographic medium used were hand-painted posters, championing the figure of the socialist worker in a would-be utopian communist society, and decrying everything from the bourgeois class to (later) fascism. The most striking element of these pieces was the stark simplicity of their designs, with bold, hand-painted imagery and strong, clear text. One look at the promotional artwork for Vatra’s twenty-plus-years later sequel to Rush N’ Attack, Ex-Patriot, and it’s pretty evident that this is exactly the kind of look they were going for.

Rush N' Attack: Ex-Patriot Screenshot

But the game is confused. Though it’s a nice thought, for what it’s worth, that it appears they wanted to use this sort of art style to help sell the aesthetic and mood of the game, it doesn’t make sense. If Ex-Patriot is supposed to be a re-visitation to the Reagan-era Cold War and all the Hollywoodized-Red 80’s stereotypes that come along with it (and despite being set in present day, it basically is), the use of such propaganda had switched hands, now being the tool not of the crumbling Soviet empire, but the revolutionaries who wanted to end it. The last major use of nationalist posters and signage was during a brief revival during the 1960s, when the USSR was still heavily involved in the Cold War—that particularly characteristic Soviet atmosphere didn’t really exist in the same way it had earlier in the twentieth century by the time of Gorbachev’s presidency.

Though this has no bearing on Ex-Patriot itself, it is emblematic of its muddled design. The original Rush N’ Attack (or Green Beret, as it was initially known in the arcades) was a run and gun shooter that felt a little like Contra, only with a heavy focus on melee. Ex-Patriot sets itself up like a stealth game, which is a good idea considering you’re generally limited to your prison shank. Playing as Morrow, an escaped military POW and part of a crack spec ops team sent in to extract another prisoner who’s been rotting in the gulag since before the fall of the Berlin Wall—you can sneak up on enemies and perform bloody stealth kills, as well as hide in the shadows to avoid guard patrols. That’s all well and good, but the game doesn’t really actually play like a stealth game.

Rush N' Attack: Ex-Patriot Screenshot

There’s no Metal Gear-esque alert system that respawns enemies if you’re seen; you can’t hide bodies of the dead, so if there’s more than one guard patrolling an area it’s impossible to not arouse further suspicion; perhaps most offensively, the enemy AI is so atrociously, insultingly stupid that there’s really no point in even sneaking around. Walking on just about any surface in the dilapidated prisons, barracks and underground facilities that make up Ex-Patriot’s bland palette of level design creates clunky footsteps, which none of your enemies can hear, even when you’re right behind them. Without a risk-reward system for playing stealth, there’s no incentive, so right off the bat half the game’s mechanics are basically thrown out the window. I almost immediately abandoned skulking in the darkness for aggressive assaults on my adversaries, and the only difference was that I was probably able to get through the game quicker. The brain dead enemies only serve to make the dull combat something to do as you move from point A to point B. Yawn.

Rush N' Attack: Ex-Patriot Screenshot

Another big disappointment with Ex-Patriot comes from what initially appear to be significant design similarities with Epic’s MetroidVania-ish title Shadow Complex. Don’t let Vatra’s use of 2D exploration deceive you—this is nothing like Jason Fleming’s adventure, and just because the environments you traverse are big enough to use a map doesn’t mean you’ll actually need to (read: you won’t). Players hoping for even a dash of non-linearity will be letdown, because the progression in Ex-Patriot is as straightforward as it gets, making any extra of hidden paths you find to various locations feel more like wasted level design window dressing rather than much of anything significant or useful. To add further insult to injury, the game’s three chapters divide the levels up, so once you’re finished with a section, there’s no going back. To be fair, the game offers a modicum of entertainment seeing what sorts of environments you end up going through, as well as mindlessly taking out a bunch of baddies. Some of the weapons you can pick up (good for only a few rounds before it’s back to your knife) are also fun, though largely you’ll feel like you’re just going through the motions.

Rush N' Attack: Ex-Patriot Screenshot

When it comes down to it, though, Ex-Patriot just feels unpolished and perhaps even unfinished. Cutscenes are mix of sparse, lazy motion-comics (a recent annoyance whose frequency in games is starting to grate heavily on my nerves) and horrible, near PS2-era pantomimes, with comic bubble text and sporadic but equally annoying squawks from c-rate voice actors. Animations are sloppy, making Morrow and your Soviet foes feel as though made of plastic, particularly during combat. More than once I ran into bugs that stuck me between a wall and an attacking enemy, and even had the game outright freeze on me in one instance. The finicky platforming often suffers from too-precise interaction points, meaning that grabbing a ledge requires more use of forward momentum than it should (seriously, why can’t Morrow just grab an overhang from directly underneath it?), though jumping itself feels and controls with a good degree of precision. Even the blood is unnaturally cartoony and bright red, lending a certain cheap quality to Ex-Patriot’s proceedings.

At least the game looks decent. It’s not going to blow you away by any means, but Vatra’s dank, rusty corridors, suffused with moody lighting and steam or fog effects make for some nice visuals in places, even if the Russians themselves resemble cartoon robots (or caricatured Helghast). This is pretty ho-hum though, and really, what’s the point of playing a game where the enemies are still thoroughly convinced that it’s 1986?

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 3.2 Graphics
Close-ups reveal the game’s warts (and horrible character modeling) but there are some nice dilapidated environments that make you feel the economic squeeze that eventually befell the Soviet Union. 2.3 Control
Morrow controls fine for the most part, but combat is a button-mashing bore and grabbing ledges is unnecessarily obtuse. 1.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
The grisly sound of stabbing a guard repeatedly in the back (or my personal favorite, slashing their legs) is nice, but the voice acting is awful (why even have it when everything is in text?), and I don’t even remember hearing the music. 2.5 Play Value
You may have a modicum of fun clambering around and slashing guards, but Rush N’ Attack: Ex Patriot is a cheap, tepid re-visitation to a game that wasn’t all that memorable to begin with. 2.4 Overall Rating – Poor
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 – 1.9 = Avoid 2.5 – 2.9 = Average 3.5 – 3.9 = Good 4.5 – 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 – 2.4 = Poor 3.0 – 3.4 = Fair 4.0 – 4.4 = Great 5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

  • Fight behind enemy lines to rescue your team in this sequel to Rush N’ Attack.
  • Perform stealth kills by getting the drop on your enemies.
  • Explore environments to discover secrets and pick up extra items.

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