Hacking and Shooting through Pragmata
To be very honest, I didn’t even know about Pragmata until the June 2023 trailer. I kept up with it in passing – it looked really cool, and even with how prevalent the father/daughter trope is in games now, the premise and the aesthetic had me curious about how it was going to turn out. Flash forward to the demo that came out about four months ago; playing it was when I knew we had something special on our hands.
More than anything, it’s the core gameplay loop that got me. Hacking during real-time combat is a unique concept, and it can be something you’re immediately wary of. That inherent question of “When does this get annoying?” is something that might rest in your mind, especially since that mechanic is core to everything you do in this game. Playing through the demo – titled Pragmata “Sketchbook”, alleviated those concerns on some level. It was a short burst, so I had yet to see the full picture, but in that short burst I really felt they had something special going. I decided to opt out of the other pre-release material, hoping to experience the game fresh on my first playthrough.
Fast forward to about 2 and a half weeks ago, when I finally got to sit down and play it, I had those concerns alleviated. This game feels good to play, it’s fun, it’s fast, it’s chaotic, and maintains this really tight balance of moving, shooting and hacking where none of it feels like they’re working against each other, but rather, really perfectly two parts of a whole, in sync. The way the button mapping is done on the controller elevates that feeling too by having the face buttons be your hacking navigation – which mirrors the hacking segment always being on the right side of the screen.
Before getting into that, let’s give Pragmata context. The story stars Hugh, the last survivor of a group of engineers for the Delphi Corporation sent to their station on the Moon, the Cradle to find out why communications with Earth have ceased. It’s here that he meets Diana, an android (referred to as the titular Pragmata) in the shape of a little girl. It’s from here that they decide to work together and find a way to contact Earth (and then, of course, things go sideways).
As you explore the various environments in this game – from a very almost sterile lab, to a 3D printed haphazard recreation of Times Square, to a plant laboratory, to a mining area on the moon and then a secret research facility – Diana asks Hugh about these recreations and their relation to how they are on Earth, as well as how he used to be, and that’s the center over how they bond. To that end, narratively I feel like it uses a lot of low-hanging fruit, easy ways to make me care and feel invested in these characters and their relationship, and I think it works.
The thing I’ve tried to contend with is whether it particularly matters whether the story has a lot to say, and my conclusion, at least with this game (and games of this caliber), is… not really. Sure, it would’ve helped, but ultimately, it is just a framing device for the gameplay, and since it excels there, I don’t think it matters that the story is a little weak.
That said, I do wish Pragmata had done more with its themes. There’s an offhanded conversation in the opening while Hugh’s fellow Engineers are still alive, where one of them looks at the Cradle and talks about how it’s cheaper to replace and rebuild rather than build something of good quality at once. Throughout the story, a lot of the conversation seems to be about nostalgia in a way – what do you hold on to, and when does it exceed to the point of being a bad thing? It’s interesting that it asks these questions, but the player is left to simply linger on them, rather than ever being given a real conclusion to that train of thought.
However, what it does wonderfully is never really get lost in trying to make everything diegetic. Sometimes things just are the way they are because it is a video game, and this game owns that. It’s a refreshing change of pace from what we’re used to with these big-budget games.
Pragmata was co-directed by Cho Yong-hee (art director for Resident Evil 3 Remake, weapon designer in Nier Automata, character designer on Metal Gear Rising Revengeance) and Yasuhiro Anpo (co-director of Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 4 Remake), and you can really see both of their influences in this game.
To speak to the former, the whole aesthetic and every location is just perfect. It’s really easy to fall into the trap of white sterile spaces within sci-fi games, but there’s so much intentionality in everything. For example, the way the hub, known as The Shelter, slowly turns from a sterile lab of sorts to a sort of blend with a child’s imaginative bedroom as you collect REMs (Real Earth Memories) give it a really homely feeling. The first area, the Solar Power Plant, is the most traditional sci-fi as it goes, and even that is by design. Seeing the 3D printed Manhattan in the Mass Production Array left me in awe, with its structures that grew vertically and horizontally, intentional copy and pastes and repetition that you can see within pictures generated by AI. The overgrown plants and the beautiful projected beach of the Terra Dome. Having to navigate through a series of mining locations on the surface of the Moon while you’re being chased by a robotic rendition of the sandworm from Dune, and finally the secret lab covered by what is essentially space mold, it’s all gorgeous and beautiful and they’re locations I will keep thinking about.
For the latter, you can tell he’s involved because of how tight the gameplay feels. The movement is very similar to the likes of Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 4 Remake, where your aim feels right, and all your weapons feel right, but at the same time, movement can be a little sluggish. To Pragmata’s credit, the sluggish nature of it really sells just how heavy Hugh’s astronaut suit is, and the open world areas don’t feel punishing in that regard. You just really feel it in the simulation missions, some of which involve platforming and in which failures feel like less the fault of the player and more the fault of a sluggish and loose movement system.
Beyond that, the gameplay is where this game comes together. Pragmata allows a lot of player expression, but before I explain that, it might be worth clarifying what the game’s core loop is like.
At the Shelter, before you embark on a mission, you can choose your loadout, which consists of your weapons, your hacking nodes, your modifiers, and your type of hacking. As you progress through a mission, you’re greeted by these little safe points which let you go back to the Shelter to heal and regroup before returning. It’s at the Shelter where you can spend your four currencies – Lim, Upgrade Components, Pure Lunum, and Cabin Tokens – that you unlock during your mission, to unlock and upgrade your gear. Whenever you die in this game, you’re returned to the Shelter, too. You can also take part in Training Simulations in the Shelter, where completing different objectives gives you different currencies as rewards.
It’s through these various currencies that you unlock a vast array of player expression. Weapons (for the most part) and hacking nodes have to be first collected in a mission before you can unlock them at the Shelter to take with you anytime. Mods can only be unlocked while you’re out and about or by spending Cabin Tokens on the bingo board. You use Lim (which is granted to the player by just exploring, opening chests and killing enemies) and on some occasions, Pure Lunum (which the player can get by opening chests and completing special objectives on the Training Simulations) to unlock and upgrade your weapons, nodes and various abilities. You use the Upgrade Components to upgrade three things: health/defense, primary weapon attack/reload times and hacking damage. Both of these the player can do how they so fit, so ultimately players can create builds to suit a variety of playstyles.
At the beginning, the player can only carry around four different weapons (one of each type: primary, attack, tactical and defense), but eventually this increases to two of attack and two of tactical. Each serve a specific purpose: Primary is your basic damage dealer, attack is your DPS, tactical has a variety of utilities like trapping enemies in a specific location, making the hacking matrix smaller so it’s easier to hack, placing nodes down, and defense are things like placing down a bubble shield, throwing a decoy, or having drones spawn around you.
Similarly, the player starts with only being able to carry one hacking node (these are bonuses that, when passed through in the hacking matrix, are used up and gives the player certain benefits) but can go up to three. These benefits include making the enemy take more damage when exposed, freezing the enemy in place on a successful hack, and lots more.
In combat, when the player runs out of ammo on any of the weapons (sans primary) or hacking nodes, those get discarded, and the only way to get them back is to find a replacement in the environment. Graciously, the game provides you with replacements while going around and especially within combat encounters. A good player has to make use of everything, although during my playthrough on the standard difficulty, it was rare that I had to really make use of my full arsenal. What I did love is how before certain encounters you come across a machine that will let you choose between two weapons of your choice (either an assault or a support) and they’re very specifically there because they will be useful in that scenario. Broadly, you can use any weapon you choose and make it work (me personally, I stuck with my trusty shotgun, the Shockwave Gun) throughout my entire playthrough), but there are weapons that are definitely better in specific scenarios, and I found that experimentation really fun.
The combat arenas are perfect. There was never a moment where I felt like the game was being unfair, every encounter is designed with the mechanics in mind. Early on, in the Solar Power Plant, you’re greeted to the very first yellow zone, one of the two high-intensity combat arenas in the game. It’s a tight little corridor, and as a player you wonder how you’re going to survive, especially with two enemy types, one of which is a big bulky sphere that pounces on you and does a little AOE. The game gives you the Stasis Net, a tactical weapon that when shot at traps enemies in place. It’s an intuitive little way of explaining exactly how you use the various tools at your disposal, and it’s something that gets repeated as you play – these lessons are especially important in the Red Gate Zones, the other high-intensity combat arenas that you can only access through Red Gate Keys, where survival rewards you with special gear.
They’re also never boring. Sometimes they’re tight, sometimes they’re wider; you can play with the elevation at times. Enemy variety is also fresh; just as you think you’re bored of one type of enemy, you’re introduced to another. Sometimes even an upgraded version of a previous foe. But they all have a very specific flow, pattern, rhythm, that you have to look out for and weave through to give you ample time to hack them and take them out. Again, it’s a very strong balancing act where every variable at play has to be just right for it to work, and they make it work.
The boss battles, too, are just so fun. Something really cool is every tool you use against regular enemies is something you can use on the bosses – they too attack your decoys, they too get smaller hacking matrices upon getting hit by your tactical weapon, you can overheat them by using the right nodes, etc. At no point did I feel restricted or have to stick to a specific playstyle. Pragmata let me play with the Hugh and Diana that I designed up to the very end. Each boss is unique too, each with their own song and dance that they do and it’s a great time figuring out their patterns, adapting, and then finally beating them.
It’s some strange marriage of Nier Automata and Vanquish, all while maintaining a strong identity of its own and I love it.
All of that being said, it is a shame that as a result, sitting down to play the hardest difficulty, Lunatic, that you unlock after beating the game, isn’t as enjoyable. While I went in expecting differently designed encounters, what I got was a more bullet-spongey combat system. Granted, you can unlock most things you need early on from the start in this mode, it just doesn’t push the core to it’s max as I expected.
I do love the post game though. Once you beat the game for the first time, you are greeted to Unknown Signal Mode. While I won’t spoil what it pertains to, I will say that every mission it throws at you is a delight, and I especially love the combat section at the very end of that last mission.
Pragmata is a game that I went into thinking I would like it a lot, and I came out of it with something I love off the merits of its mechanics alone, similarly to how I feel about Resident Evil. It’s short and sweet, long enough to keep you happy without overstaying its welcome, while having gameplay that I just want to go back into and fully master. It feels risky to put a game out like this, especially with it being a fresh IP, but I loved it, and I really hope we see more of this style of puzzle shooter gameplay.
PRAGMATA
Release Date: April 17, 2026
Developer: Capcom
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, Microsoft Windows
[Review code provided by Capcom for the PlayStation 5]