Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot

Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot comes alive when you stop treating its knife as a backup weapon. Sid Morrow moves quickly, enemies often fall in a hit, and the best stretches turn into a tense forward sprint through guards, ladders, platforms, and alarms. The shift from the old arcade game to a 2.5D structure keeps the action direct while giving encounters more room to breathe.

Its rescue-and-sabotage plot is functional Cold War pulp, but the real hook is deciding whether to sneak through a dangerous section or turn it into a frantic melee rush. Health, checkpoints, temporary guns, branching routes, and unlockable combos give the campaign more forgiveness and variety than its predecessor. It is a solid fit if you want an aggressive side-scrolling action game where getting close is usually the point.

Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

The first hour makes a clear argument: get in close. Ex-Patriot is a run-and-gun platformer, but Sid Morrow’s knife is the heart of it, not the weapon you reluctantly use after ammunition dries up. He moves at high speed, many standard enemies can be dropped in one strike, and that creates a satisfying sense of momentum when you are slipping between attacks instead of trying to patiently clear a room from a distance.

That pace has a little more texture than a straight left-to-right brawl. You can slide into attacks, climb to reach enemies on higher platforms, descend ladders quickly, use elevators, and pull off brutal finishers. Rifles, grenades, and rocket launchers offer welcome temporary firepower, but they work best as a change of rhythm rather than a replacement for the knife. The health bar and health pickups also make this much less punishing than the original’s one-hit deaths, while automatic checkpoints prevent a bad fight from becoming a major setback.

Stealth gives certain areas a second flavor. Hiding in a dark passage or slipping past guards can earn better points through stealth kills, while being spotted can trigger an alarm and force you to race through what remains. That push-pull makes the mini-map useful: it shows an abstract layout and enemy positions, so you can make a quick call rather than blindly walking into trouble. Alternate level paths and unlockable combos add replay value, though the game is at its most convincing when it lets you improvise under pressure instead of asking you to play cautiously for score.

Graphics

The game uses 3D visuals on a 2.5D plane: you travel horizontally and vertically through a prison, laboratory, and nuclear base rather than freely roaming in depth. Occasional close-ups accompany certain kills, putting extra emphasis on the knife work. The side-on view keeps platforms, ladders, and enemy positions easy to parse when the action speeds up.

Story

Morrow enters Russian territory fifteen years after the Cold War to find Rory Gibson, a Harvest team member abandoned after an earlier mission. Gibson had been investigating Ulyssium, a material tied to nuclear-missile power, and the rescue is quickly joined by a more urgent question: has Russia restarted the nuclear program?

It is straightforward covert-ops material, delivered through short scenes between action rather than an elaborate narrative detour. That suits the game. You are not here to untangle a dense conspiracy; you are here to push deeper into hostile territory with a concrete objective and escalating stakes.

The three locations give that mission a clean progression, from prison to laboratory to nuclear base, and each ends with a boss. The story mostly serves as the reason to keep moving, but it does so efficiently and keeps the focus where it belongs: on Morrow’s dangerous advance.

Overall Experience

Ex-Patriot understands what made Rush’n Attack memorable: an enemy at arm’s length should feel like an opportunity, not merely a threat. Its modernized health system and checkpoints make that philosophy easier to enjoy, while stealth, alarms, branching paths, and borrowed guns stop the knife combat from becoming a single-note routine.

Frustration is most likely to set in when a planned stealth approach collapses and the game turns into a hurried escape, especially if you were trying to maximize points. But that is also where its best energy comes from. The quick movement and single-hit takedowns encourage recovery: adapt, cut through the opposition, and get to the next checkpoint.

Give it a chance if you want a compact, close-quarters action platformer with a Cold War mission wrapped around it. It is a better match for someone who enjoys decisive melee aggression and brisk level runs than for anyone chasing a deep stealth game. For release and series background, see the Rush’N Attack: Ex-Patriot history.