The last time I played Pragmata, I came away delighted by how it was inserting a truly new idea into a very familiar genre, building a hacking minigame into the fabric of third-person shooter combat. Almost a year later, my second playthrough – two hours long, set within the game’s second chapter – has me no less impressed, but now focused on how Capcom has approached everything around that new mechanic with a sense of unabashed joy.
If you need a reminder, Pragmata centers on Hugh – an astronaut stranded in a Lunar base – and Diana, the mysterious child-android he discovers there, with a deep connection to the base’s systems (and its many malfunctioning robots). Playing as both simultaneously, you travel through ever-more unexpected sections of the base, fight against enemies using both guns and hacking, and try to get Hugh home while unravelling the mystery of exactly what’s caused all this.
Where my first demo was very much a primer on how combat works, this second section gives a far clearer picture of how the game beyond it will play out. I begin the demo in a hub area that acts as a tram station to all the other parts of the base we’ll need to visit. Immediately, it makes clear that progression is a far more in-depth proposition that it might have first appeared.
Two separate upgrade stations allow me to not only improve Hugh’s stats and his weaponry, but to improve Diana’s hacking abilities, add mods to my loadout to alter playstyle, and unlock entirely new abilities. Even at this early stage of the game, there’s far more to unlock here than I can feasibly afford at this point, and it quickly incentivises you to choose to play in a specific way you enjoy best. For me, that was in making Diana’s hacks as powerful as possible, but quickly I saw options for being more of a ranged weaponry expert, or a character that thrives most when up close and personal.
Every save point in the wider game lets you travel back to the hub to make changes to your loadout, showing just how much the developers want you to experiment, tinker and improve – visiting the hub shouldn’t be a response to the level you just played, but the last section of a level. Picked the wrong weapon for the enemies you’re finding? Just earned a new and useful-sounding mod? Picked up enough currency to get that next upgrade? There’s a very low barrier to making those changes mid-playthrough, and playing how you want.
There’s more to this hub than just menus, however – and it’s here that Capcom really shows the wider personality it’s building into the heart of this game. Pragmata is a deeply video game-y video game, throwing ideas and systems at you with a sense of abandon. There are multiple sections of the hub to unlock, from a costume-changing wardrobe to detailed schematics of your enemies. There’s a friendly robot who offers you bingo cards to unlock even more new items and cosmetics. And there’s a museum-like gallery of unlockable items from humanity’s past for Diana to play with.
And then there’s Diana herself, who wanders the area, responding to what you’ve been doing in the wider story and offering chances for you to have a quick chat. After chatting enough, I was treated to a genuinely lovely cutscene where she offers Hugh a crayon-drawn portrait of the two of them. It could easily slip into being throwaway or mawkish, but there’s a knowing silliness to so much of Pragmata that helps it all feel part of a wider picture.
And that sense of fun translates into the levels themselves. Almost immediately after I begin, Hugh discovers that the base’s owners have attempted to recreate an entire section of New York on the Moon – and this is the setting for the entire level to follow. Hugh and Diana travel down gorgeously neon-lit, Times Square-like streets, constantly switching you from combat, to platforming, to puzzle-solving as you travel. Along the expected path through the level, there are unlockable challenge rooms, secret areas to discover, and dozens of items to collect.
Along the way, I was introduced to several new weapons that show how your approach will begin to vary across the game: a chargeable rifle lets you take out enemies from far longer distances – but the key is that you’ll almost always need to get close for a hack before it becomes truly effective; a grenade launcher-like weapon may not do an enormous amount of damage, but can knock down most enemies, letting you get in multiple hacks and weakpoint blasts as they struggle to recover; and a decoy support item can send enemies running away from you – or into triggerable environmental traps.
You get the sense that Capcom truly understands that this is a game first and foremost, regularly offering new ways to play with it, rather than just use its mechanics to ferry you from one story beat to the next.
The fact that the new enemies I met were consistently more bizarre than the last definitely helps that vibe, too. Initially, we saw humanoid walkers, stomping mech-like enemies, and drone-like flyers. Then it all became a bit more… disturbing. There are misshapen, gigantic humanoids who have a horrible habit of unfolding their entire face, blooming into a cybernetic flower that blocks your hacks until the petals are shot off. Then there’s a building-sized boss built like a musclebound ant, with a screaming Mantis face, and the horrible ability to unwrap its long neck to crush down things inside.
It’s another flourish of pure fun – sure, we could have designs that reflect the actual work these robots did on the base… but what if they were just bonkers? There’s something oddly nostalgic about a game truly indulging in being a game that I’m responding to. It’s not breaking the fourth wall, or being meta, it’s simply being what it wants to be.
And that’s ultimately what’s left me so excited to see the full game – if these are the early parts of Pragmata, how much stranger, how much more unexpected, and how much more fun could the rest end up? I love that Pragmata so clearly loves being a video game – and I desperately want to see what else it has in store, because I just can’t guess at this point.
Pragmata comes to Xbox Series X|S on April 17.
PRAGMATA Deluxe Edition
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
Early Bird Bonus:
・Hugh Outfit – Neo Bushido
・Diana Outfit – Neo Kunoichi
Play as Hugh and Diana in samurai and ninja inspired costumes from the Sengoku Period.
The above content may also become available at a later date.
——————————–
The Deluxe Edition is a bundle that includes the main game and the Shelter Variety Pack.
Shelter Variety Pack Contents:
・Hugh Outfit – Heavy Lifter
・Hugh Outfit – Lunar Cat
・Diana Outfit – Mecha Builder
・Diana Outfit – Fluffy
・Weapon Skin – Grip Gun DS
・Shelter BGM – Memories Are You (Lo-fi Ver.)
・Shelter BGM – Dawn (EDM Ver.)
・Shelter BGM – Shelter (Jazz Ver.)
・Diana Gesture – Drowsy
・Diana Gesture – Pumped Up
・Diana Gesture – Stepping
・Data Library – Artwork
Capcom’s newest IP—PRAGMATA. It is the near future, and protagonists Hugh and his android companion Diana, must work together as they make their way through the cold lunar research station.
*Ray tracing is not supported on Xbox Series S.
*The licenses for the items in this set can be purchased individually. Please be careful of duplicate purchases.
©CAPCOM
PRAGMATA is a trademark and/or registered trademark of CAPCOM CO., LTD. and/or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries.
PRAGMATA
CAPCOM CO., LTD.
Early Bird Bonus:
・Hugh Outfit – Neo Bushido
・Diana Outfit – Neo Kunoichi
Play as Hugh and Diana in samurai and ninja inspired costumes from the Sengoku Period.
The above content may also become available at a later date.
——————————–
Capcom’s newest IP—PRAGMATA. It is the near future, and protagonists Hugh and his android companion Diana, must work together as they make their way through the cold lunar research station.
*Ray tracing is not supported on Xbox Series S.
*The license for this product is also available as part of a set. Please be careful of duplicate purchases.
©CAPCOM
PRAGMATA is a trademark and/or registered trademark of CAPCOM CO., LTD. and/or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or other countries.
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