Out Of Retirement
Vatra Games s.r.o. was a Czech video game development company based in Brno, Czech Republic. Its parent company was British gaming development network Kuju Entertainment. The company was founded in 2009 when Kuju Entertainment was seeking developers to establish new sub-division studios while also consolidating their existing studios.
At this time, several developers from 2K Czech were in the process of retiring. These developers decided instead to form a new studio, which became Vatra Games. Vatra would partner with Konami as their sole publisher, with the agreement to develop sequels and revivals for existing Konami franchises. Konami was beginning a slow process of winding down internal development to focus on publishing and other business ventures.
Yes, It’s Pronounced “Russian”
Vatra’s first work was a revival of Konami’s Rush’n Attack franchise. Rush’n Attack: Ex-Patriot is a platform game and a sequel to the original 1985 game Rush’n Attack. The game follows Sergeant Sid Morrow, an American special agent sent with his team to recover a prisoner from a secret Russian military base.
Prior to its release, Rush’n Attack: Ex-Patriot drew comparisons to Shadow Complex and Bionic Commando Rearmed by the media. On release, the game received mixed to ‘unfavourable’ review scores. Critics targeted the gameplay, graphics, and level design. Several reviewers said that the game attempts the ‘Metroidvania’ formula of open exploration, but fails due to its linearity.
Sales data during the game’s first week revealed that only 652 players had scores on the game’s leaderboard, the lowest opening week for any game in the month of March 2011. Comparatively, the highest opener, Beyond Good & Evil HD, reported 41,629 players. Konami viewed the game as a failure, yet remained hopeful that a revival of a more popular, modern franchise would yield better results.
Bring The Rain
The team’s second and final project was Silent Hill: Downpour, a 2012 survival horror game in the iconic franchise. Downpour centers on Murphy Pendleton, a prisoner who enters the town of Silent Hill, periodically entering the ‘otherworld’, leading him to unlock repressed memories. The game reuses the traditional third-person view of the older games in the franchise. It released in March 2012.
Silent Hill: Downpour received mixed or ‘average’ reviews from critics, who praised its atmosphere, story and return to the series’ survival horror and exploration roots after the action-heavy linearity of Silent Hill: Homecoming, but criticised its monster design, combat and technical performance. However, an early patch fixed many of these technical issues.
In July 2012, four months after the March release of Silent Hill: Downpour, Kuju Entertainment terminated its contract with Vatra Games after the lackluster review scores and disappointing sales of their two released games. The studio was financially unable to self-sustain, and in September 2012, Vatra Games was declared bankrupt, closing its doors permanently.
