Pragmata Review

I’m in a big moon mood these days. I mean, you ever look at that thing? There’s just this giant sphere in the sky! It’s cool! And sometimes we send people there, like with the Artemis II mission that is ongoing as I write this. Neat!

I’m just going to take a strong guess here and assume that I’ll never go to the moon. That’s why I appreciate Pragmata for letting me have an incredible lunar adventure.

But that neato setting is just one part of what makes Pragmata special. Capcom, the company that invented the modern third-person shooter with Resident Evil 4, has created another exemplar of the genre. It’s done so by mixing snappy over-the-shoulder shooting with maze-based hacking.

Hugh, a regular dude in a bulky space suit, handles the shooting, while Diana – an android modeled to look and act like a young girl – takes care of the hacking. You have to juggle both while also dodging an onslaught of killer robots. Have you ever played The World Ends with You or Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure? I’m a big sucker for when you have to essentially play two games at the same time, and Pragmata delivers exactly that.

These systems also interlink with each other in interesting ways. For example, an enemy might grow some shields on its head that also block Diana’s hacking grid. You need to shoot them off its body in order to clear her way.

The moving around feels pretty good too! Hugh is heavy, as you’d expect from a guy wearing a bulky space suit, but he also has thrusters that make him surprisingly agile. Jumping and dashing while you platform or dodge enemies is just as fun as all that hacking and shooting.

So Hugh and Diana are fun to play as, but they’re also endearing characters. Yes, Pragmata is very much a dad game. The story revolves heavily around the father-daughter relationship that evolves between them. But it manages to avoid some of the more predictable “sad dad” tropes that have become a bit too common in gaming in recent years. Hugh is not some angsty, tortured soul. The relationship between them actually feels more natural because it’s sweeter. It’s the kind of paternal bonding that you’d expect to develop in this kind of isolated experience.

Diana is, shockingly, not annoying! She’s bubbly and cute, but in a way that manages to feel authentic and, gosh darn it, adorable. I mean, there’s a point where she draws a crayon picture of herself and Hugh for you if you talk to her enough, and it’s just really stinking sweet. It helps that Diana actually sounds like a real girl, and not some adult doing a voice. You can also give her some presents of earthly things like an RC car or slide. They decorate the hub area, and it’s fun to just watch Diana interact with these items as her curiosity about Earth grows.

Also, while Diana can be a bit chatty (in a way most children are), she’s not some obnoxious sidekick. She’ll give you useful information, like letting you know when jumping will help you dodge an enemy attack, but she’s not going to give away the solution for a puzzle before you have a chance to figure it out yourself.

You probably won’t need that kind of help anyway. Pragmata’s combat gets intricate and its puzzles are interesting enough, but nothing is overwhelming. The game does a good job of slowly building on top of its systems. You start off with a basic pistol and straight-forward hacking, but you’ll be switching through a huge arsenal of weapons and other abilities by the end.

You initially are just on the moon to check out what you think is a basic communications problem. Well, after a lunar quake, you lose your team, begin realizing that something is horribly wrong and every human on the station is maybe dead, and soon discover Diana. Uncovering these mysteries about what happened on the station and where Diana, an advanced android who looks and acts like a small child, comes from will carry you through most of the narrative.

Getting through the main scenario won’t prove too difficult, but you’ll find extra challenges. Back in the cabin, your main hub area, you’ll eventually get access to special challenge missions. These could involve battles or platforming challenges. You’ll want to do these just because they’re fun, but you also get a lot of rewards from them that will help you upgrade your characters, weapons, and abilities. And as you progress through the story, new unlockables and other sections of your hub station will open up.

You’ll also find a bunch of those upgrade materials if you spend time exploring levels. If you’re the sort of player who wants to 100% every area and find every item, you’ll have a good time here. You’ll even have more to do once you beat the game, though I won’t get into specifics.

It took me about 13 hours to complete the campaign. It’s comparable to how long it takes me to finish a modern Resident Evil. Boy, I’m glad that Capcom is making these kinds of focused, triple-A games.

Besides, if the game was much longer, it might start to feel a little stale. If Pragmata has an issue, it’s with variety. The game does dole out some new weapons, abilities, and enemies as things progress, but it’s not enough to shake things up significantly. It’s also not a game with a lot of set-pieces or minigames, so you don’t have much to break up the usual shoot-and-hack gameplay loops aside from the occasional puzzle.

Granted, that shooting and hacking feels so good that I didn’t really want much to get in the way. And the story offers enough intrigue to keep things from getting dull, as do the constant parade of collectibles and upgrades.

The setting manages to not feel stale. Yes, it’s all on a moon base, but it still offers some good variety. A lot of it has that clean, white, science lab aesthetic, but you’ll also find a whole area that looks like Times Square. That’s because this moon base is researching a special lunar material that researchers can use to 3D print just about anything. That’s how you get a sort of half-finished New York City or lush forest on the station.

It’s rare we get a new IP from a big publisher like Capcom these days, especially one with production values like this. It’s a risk when you could just keep pumping out Resident Evil remakes and sequels while making guaranteed money. Well, this risk pays off. Pragmata is exhilarating, emotional, and … some other word that starts with “e.” Engaging? Engaging!

I guess you can say this game has a lot in the E-Tank. Yes, I really forced that Mega Man reference.