After getting my hands on Pragmata during Summer Game Fest a couple months ago, not only was it one of the biggest surprises of the show, I’d call it one of the best games and demos at the show.
This was even after the fact that the reps at Capcom made us stop playing as soon as we reached the area’s boss. During our latest session with the demo, thankfully, we got to fight that boss.
My opinion hasn’t changed.
From what I can remember, this was the same demo presented to us at SGF, so if you want to know all about that experience, definitely give my first hands-on a read.
Nice to see you again, Diana.
Has it improved? I can’t tell. Pragmata was actually the first demo I played while at SGF this year, and it was a super rushed experience because during my appointment, there were more journalists than demo stations, and time was limited. I watched fellow staffer, Myles Obenza, go through the demo and as soon as a station opened behind him, I rushed through the demo remembering what he did and tried to do it faster.
This session was obviously far more relaxed. We were seated (which was nice) and I was going to say the game looked a lot more crisp, but it’s worth noting that the build was running on Performance Mode on a PS5 Pro. I don’t have one of those, nor do I plan to get one, so who knows what’ll happen once the game actually ships?
Now before getting to the boss, I’ll just quickly go over how the game is played. Pragmata is a third-person shooter that sets itself apart with a hacking mechanism handled by Diana, the little girl on Hugh’s (the protagonist) back. Simply shooting at enemies is useless. In order to actually inflict damage, you have to hack them first. As you aim your weapon, a grid-like hologram appears on the screen where you have to guide your cursor to the hack icon using the face buttons to move across the grid (on PS5, triangle goes up, circle goes right, X goes down, and square goes left), avoiding red/warning icons along the way to the hack point.
Think of it like solving a quick puzzle to unlock the ability to cause damage. You would think it’s troublesome, especially when considering that you still have control of the movement of your character with the left stick, but it works really well. Bioshock and Helldivers II have similar mechanisms, but this was outside combat. Either way, once you got the hang of it, it typically only took one cracked puzzle to be able to shoot an enemy down.
For some reason, this puzzle seemed harder the second time around.
When it came to the boss, it took way more than one successful hack to take it down. It went about the way you expect—hack the boss, pew, pew, pew, and repeat. Of course, that’s easier said than done. The hacking grid was bigger, it had spaces on it that spelled disaster, and you also have to worry about the boss tackling, shooting, or launching missiles at you. You can’t sprint with the hacking UI pulled up either, so when you run away, that also means you have to start the hacking process over again.
At this point we already had two more powerful secondary guns at our disposal to wreak more havoc on the boss, but these are big mechs. They take a while to kill.
As I continued to slowly but surely land my hits on the boss, a cutscene played that showed Diana getting impatient. From here, we went into Overdrive Mode by pressing both sticks down, which really intensified our offense. Eventually, we were able to neutralize the boss’ shields, but as I brought the boss down to a sliver of health (which it also did to me), I ran out of ammo. Your default gun automatically replenishes your shots, but I was anxious and had NOTHING.
Look at all the shiny new icons in the hacking grid!
To make matters worse, I had to hack the boss again. Luckily, successful hacks hurt the enemy, and that’s all it took to finally take it down.
It was an intense bout, but it felt good taking that robot down. It felt especially awesome because it was the only demo I played at Capcom that day where I didn’t die.
All this goes without saying I simply cannot wait to jump into Pragmata for real when it comes out next year. Capcom has simply been on a tear, and they’ll really make headlines if they can make this new IP a hit right out of the gate.
After getting my hands on Pragmata during Summer Game Fest a couple months ago, not only was it one of the biggest surprises of the show, I’d call it one of the best games and demos at the show. This…
After getting my hands on Pragmata during Summer Game Fest a couple months ago, not only was it one of the biggest surprises of the show, I’d call it one of the best games and demos at the show.
This was even after the fact that the reps at Capcom made us stop playing as soon as we reached the area’s boss. During our latest session with the demo, thankfully, we got to fight that boss.
My opinion hasn’t changed.
From what I can remember, this was the same demo presented to us at SGF, so if you want to know all about that experience, definitely give my first hands-on a read.
Nice to see you again, Diana.
Has it improved? I can’t tell. Pragmata was actually the first demo I played while at SGF this year, and it was a super rushed experience because during my appointment, there were more journalists than demo stations, and time was limited. I watched fellow staffer, Myles Obenza, go through the demo and as soon as a station opened behind him, I rushed through the demo remembering what he did and tried to do it faster.
This session was obviously far more relaxed. We were seated (which was nice) and I was going to say the game looked a lot more crisp, but it’s worth noting that the build was running on Performance Mode on a PS5 Pro. I don’t have one of those, nor do I plan to get one, so who knows what’ll happen once the game actually ships?
Now before getting to the boss, I’ll just quickly go over how the game is played. Pragmata is a third-person shooter that sets itself apart with a hacking mechanism handled by Diana, the little girl on Hugh’s (the protagonist) back. Simply shooting at enemies is useless. In order to actually inflict damage, you have to hack them first. As you aim your weapon, a grid-like hologram appears on the screen where you have to guide your cursor to the hack icon using the face buttons to move across the grid (on PS5, triangle goes up, circle goes right, X goes down, and square goes left), avoiding red/warning icons along the way to the hack point.
Think of it like solving a quick puzzle to unlock the ability to cause damage. You would think it’s troublesome, especially when considering that you still have control of the movement of your character with the left stick, but it works really well. Bioshock and Helldivers II have similar mechanisms, but this was outside combat. Either way, once you got the hang of it, it typically only took one cracked puzzle to be able to shoot an enemy down.
For some reason, this puzzle seemed harder the second time around.
When it came to the boss, it took way more than one successful hack to take it down. It went about the way you expect—hack the boss, pew, pew, pew, and repeat. Of course, that’s easier said than done. The hacking grid was bigger, it had spaces on it that spelled disaster, and you also have to worry about the boss tackling, shooting, or launching missiles at you. You can’t sprint with the hacking UI pulled up either, so when you run away, that also means you have to start the hacking process over again.
At this point we already had two more powerful secondary guns at our disposal to wreak more havoc on the boss, but these are big mechs. They take a while to kill.
As I continued to slowly but surely land my hits on the boss, a cutscene played that showed Diana getting impatient. From here, we went into Overdrive Mode by pressing both sticks down, which really intensified our offense. Eventually, we were able to neutralize the boss’ shields, but as I brought the boss down to a sliver of health (which it also did to me), I ran out of ammo. Your default gun automatically replenishes your shots, but I was anxious and had NOTHING.
Look at all the shiny new icons in the hacking grid!
To make matters worse, I had to hack the boss again. Luckily, successful hacks hurt the enemy, and that’s all it took to finally take it down.
It was an intense bout, but it felt good taking that robot down. It felt especially awesome because it was the only demo I played at Capcom that day where I didn’t die.
All this goes without saying I simply cannot wait to jump into Pragmata for real when it comes out next year. Capcom has simply been on a tear, and they’ll really make headlines if they can make this new IP a hit right out of the gate.
by Danreb Victorio
