From early on, I could tell Pragmata was going to represent a level of “locked in” we don’t see terribly often in games lately, even one by a team as flush with talent and cash as Capcom. To be fair, these are the people putting muscles on top of muscles and jiggle physics in places they’ve never been with Street Fighter 6, or re-re-reinventing survival horror with recent Resident Evil titles. Not every decision they’ve made this decade has hit well, nor has every release on a wider scale, but Pragmata really represents the best collective creative mind the company is capable of when it comes to nailing new IP with cool ideas, which is something I feel they haven’t done in over a decade. The best part? This particular team is younger, which is indicative of the mega-dev’s future as well.
I loved Exoprimal personally for what it was, played the hell out of it for a few months, and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess represented interesting, unique sixth and /or seventh-generation gaming with a new sheen very well. Pragmata is absolutely targeting the masses, though, and not even in a trite, watered-down, lowest common denominator sense. In every subjectively measurable way, this game is turbo-charged, immensely enjoyable, and such a profoundly well-executed experience that it’s already shortlisted for the top of my Game of the Year list.
Taken seconds before utter destruction
You, reader, likely already have feelings about it, maybe cautious optimism, unbridled curiosity, or hype. Maybe you’re more skeptical, and I get it, I was too, but I’m here to say that no matter what category you fall into above (or a secret fourth one I didn’t name), Pragmata deserves a chance, and I’m willing to bet it nukes your expectations if you’re into the genre foundations it utilizes.
You play as Hugh Williams, a man part of a research crew sent to investigate the Cradle on the moon after communication with it goes silent. Established by Delphi Corporation, it’s a huge complex of stations and sectors doing science and engineering with a material called lunafilament, forged from lunum ore found during lunar exploration. It can, as you’ll see, make many, many things, including the Cradle itself and even convincingly real facsimiles of stuff from Earth. Surely, the corpo scientists and personnel are using this power for good, right?
Once you get to the Cradle, a catastrophic earthquake (moonquake?) happens jettisoning Hugh’s crew into space, killing his captain, and reconfiguring the station AI IDUS to be hostile to any lifeform. This sets him on a path of survival and finding the android D-I-0336-7, known as a Pragmata, or rather she finds Hugh after he plummets and gets knocked unconscious. Thus, the most unlikely pairing must navigate the Cradle and find out what the hell is going on.
Diana’s excitement at being named instead of numbered shows a humanity buried deep within
As a third-person shooter enthusiast, Pragmata looked solid enough. It was the hacking and odd inclusion of a child-like character that threw me off. Finally getting into the game, which luckily doesn’t drag its feet, and feeling how it all works and coalesces was downright impressive. The action comes as second nature, rock solid and tactile, especially when you factor in the DualSense’s adaptive triggers. Things just work, and you never feel like you’re struggling to control the game, even when things get tense. All that and more is what inspires me to make the following bold statement: this game, with how mechanically tight and focused it is, represents a quality I can’t remember experiencing at this relative level since Resident Evil 4, if not the original, then definitely its stellar remake. I can’t help but also draw comparisons between it and Dead Space with the isolation and atmosphere it evokes, and some of the design choices that call to mind the GOAT TPS action game Vanquish, which was made by Capcom alumni as well.
A big part of that is the framework in which it operates. This is masterful third-person action against a myriad of AI-controlled bots that test your reflexes, aiming, and hacking skills, all of which are quick micro puzzles. What starts as simple 4×4 grids in which to navigate to break open enemies and make them vulnerable, turn into Euclidean matrices and mazes by the end. You are challenged at nearly every turn, never quite overwhelmingly, but you will want to do everything in your power to keep up with the demand.
The Cradle itself is an awesome environment for Pragmata to unravel in. The sectors you visit are surprisingly varied; not all sterile, pristine white walls and floors to navigate ad nauseam. The first big sector you visited was an experimental area where cities from Earth were replicated with streets, cars, shops, and more. You find it in shambles due to the events at the beginning of the game, so you see a fractured reality, raw matter glitched to ominous levels, breaking the illusion Delphi was going for. Capcom stated this area was made to appear as if it were made uncannily by generative AI, but it was made by humans so as not to compromise the creative integrity of the game, which is, *whew*, very refreshing in a time where bullshit slop shortcuts of all kinds are the rage. I couldn’t help but get shades of Control and its upcoming sequel here with the beautiful, off-putting fragmentation, so the work paid off.
While the graphical fidelity is very impressive, design and direction are what make Pragmata so good
This alone makes exploring worth it, chasing that curiosity of “what could possibly be around this corner?” There’s a lot to uncover, many secrets, side paths, optional fights, and resources to enhance Hugh and Diana as they march toward their goals. Luckily, Diana has a scan ability that can reveal locations of many of these things, but it’s up to you to blaze the trail to it. The pause screen map, which isn’t so much a map as we’d expect but a layout of the sector you’re in, also helps track what you can find in each area which is a godsend honestly, but it doesn’t track upgrade components which I found odd. I would have appreciated that very much.
The methods by which you achieve all of this are so satisfying. Hacking is one thing, tweakable to your playstyle using different nodes that can increase damage or freeze bots in place for easy targeting, but the weapons are where the combat lives. Hugh gets a sizable arsenal, paced well throughout Pragmata‘s story. Your primary unit Grip Gun is a mainstay, but you get specialized attack units with limited ammo that help fill out gun archetypes like the railgun-like Charge Piercer or my favorite, the Shockwave Gun which is a shotgun with immense power. I took it throughout my entire playthrough and never tired of hacking a bot, putting its barrel to the chin (or closest approximate), and blowing them straight to robo-hell.
Tactical units help with crowd control and other, well, tactics later on, key when you’re beset with more than a few bots at a time which is often toward the end. Finally, you have defensive units that add to interactions with bots like distracting them with a holographic decoy and other utilities. All of these units are upgradeable through the game’s Shelter hub as well as long as you have the resources. It really opens up the combat potential of Pragmata the more you get and find optimal uses for. You’re never locked into your loadout for long either, there’s escape hatches littered through each sector so you can retreat back to the Shelter, upgrade, change units, and most importantly, heal and replenish your repair cartridges. I do wish you could travel from hatch to hatch instead of only to the Shelter though.
Just a fraction of your bot burners
The sound is incredible as well. I played both with headphones and listening from my TV’s speakers and there’s a lot of attention paid to the acoustics of the sounds you hear, emulating the warbles and fizzles of a living space station, or the cold deafening hum of space itself. Diana’s footsteps slap on the ground of the Shelter where she plays and talks to Hugh. Weapons are imbued with ferocity and a technical advancement that complements the hard sci-fi setting. The music is also deceptively good, leaning heavy on twinkling, danceable electronic beats that flourish in battles and get the blood pumping, or eliciting calm for the layered theme of the Shelter. There’s also some prime emotional manipulation at play when a somber piano is used during key moments of the game. I love how all the sound gets slightly muted when you hack enemies only for it to pop back into full fidelity when complete to give the combat an even more kinetic feel.
If the action is the soul of Pragmata, Hugh and Diana’s relationship is undoubtedly the heart. What starts as Hugh, understandably, fight-or-flight-minded, seeing Diana as a means to an end with her hacking abilities, gradually turns into attachment, protection, and valuing her like a human. Easy enough, Diana is very lifelike, innocence and curiosity intact, just like a real kid, elation at the most simple pleasures, no knowledge of capitalism or taxes – the good life. There are several reasons for much of her design and existence, too, like why she’s barefoot or wearing the oversized coat she is. This touching dynamic carries the game just as much as the gameplay itself, along with the overall plot, which is worth going into even if you know little about it. I haven’t yet said, and will not say much, you can’t learn or surmise from trailers, plot synopses, or the widely available Sketchbook demo. I’d recommend keeping it that way, even if you think you know what happens!
The two quotes at the beginning of my review are part of a little exchange between Hugh and his doomed teammate Nicholas in the intro of the game. While Hugh seems skeptical of children and having his own, it’s obvious signposting for his time with Diana of course. More importantly and relevant to this review, Nicholas’ sentiment on not trading his daughter for anything mirrors my sentiment on Pragmata itself. The harrowing mission creep Hugh experiences makes for an expertly-built narrative with compelling characters and a total clinic on game design that I wouldn’t trade for much of anything else out there. Even if you’ve seen elements of this game done before, Pragmata represents the apex of them.
I question your humanity if you don’t feel something when you see Hugh and Diana’s interactions
The game took me a bit under 14 hours to complete on Normal difficulty and, as is customary, unlocks a New Game+ and a harder difficulty. These alone would be enough to justify its value at a merciful $60 USD because they are expected in most cases, but there’s so much more to do after you beat it. Even the base game gets expanded from your completed file to add new things to do, tougher challenges, and new weapons to get if you wish, and believe me, you will want to play more immediately after if it hacks your mind like it did mine. This is on top of everything else on offer like the numerous collectibles and all the training simulations you can play in the Shelter that are reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid‘s VR missions.
Capcom’s really been hitting more often than not lately with their offerings, so much so that they’re probably the only AAA game dev that I feel okay supporting with my money and time for now. It’s a massive turnaround from their turbulent 2010s where they often floundered and missed opportunities that should have been slam dunks based on their history (we’re all still reeling from Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite). Now astounding franchise entries, awesome game collections that preserve legends of gaming, and experimental IPs are proving that we’re far from their “Crapcom” low point and still solidly in the gilded “Capgod” era. Even after all that, I think Pragmata is the crowning jewel of all their amassed talent and good decisions, ideas, and creativity so far in the 2020s. It’s really that good.
Absolutely floored
For me, the biggest compliment I can pay a game like this is wanting to keep playing it right after I roll credits, with no break. I’ve put in an additional five hours so far, chipping away at the leftovers, trying new difficulties, and simply enjoying what’s all here. It’s one of the greatest surgical melds of intense, twitchy action gameplay and on-the-spot mental puzzle-solving, rewarding personal expression and experimentation. The rest is veritable icing on the proverbial cake. It’s because of all this and much more that I feel justified giving it the score I am. Not only is it the only one that makes sense, but it’s the one it deserves; not representing perfection per se, but reflective of its ideas and how well they were executed. It was an honor to play and write about it, and I’m confident most others will feel the same.
In every subjectively measurable way, this game is turbo-charged, immensely enjoyable, and such a profoundly well-executed experience that it’s already shortlisted for the top of my game of the year list.
From early on, I could tell Pragmata was going to represent a level of “locked in” we don’t see terribly often in games lately, even one by a team as flush with talent and cash as Capcom. To be fair, these are the people putting muscles on top of muscles and jiggle physics in places they’ve never been with Street Fighter 6, or re-re-reinventing survival horror with recent Resident Evil titles. Not every decision they’ve made this decade has hit well, nor has every release on a wider scale, but Pragmata really represents the best collective creative mind the company is capable of when it comes to nailing new IP with cool ideas, which is something I feel they haven’t done in over a decade. The best part? This particular team is younger, which is indicative of the mega-dev’s future as well.
I loved Exoprimal personally for what it was, played the hell out of it for a few months, and Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess represented interesting, unique sixth and /or seventh-generation gaming with a new sheen very well. Pragmata is absolutely targeting the masses, though, and not even in a trite, watered-down, lowest common denominator sense. In every subjectively measurable way, this game is turbo-charged, immensely enjoyable, and such a profoundly well-executed experience that it’s already shortlisted for the top of my Game of the Year list.
Taken seconds before utter destruction
You, reader, likely already have feelings about it, maybe cautious optimism, unbridled curiosity, or hype. Maybe you’re more skeptical, and I get it, I was too, but I’m here to say that no matter what category you fall into above (or a secret fourth one I didn’t name), Pragmata deserves a chance, and I’m willing to bet it nukes your expectations if you’re into the genre foundations it utilizes.
You play as Hugh Williams, a man part of a research crew sent to investigate the Cradle on the moon after communication with it goes silent. Established by Delphi Corporation, it’s a huge complex of stations and sectors doing science and engineering with a material called lunafilament, forged from lunum ore found during lunar exploration. It can, as you’ll see, make many, many things, including the Cradle itself and even convincingly real facsimiles of stuff from Earth. Surely, the corpo scientists and personnel are using this power for good, right?
Once you get to the Cradle, a catastrophic earthquake (moonquake?) happens jettisoning Hugh’s crew into space, killing his captain, and reconfiguring the station AI IDUS to be hostile to any lifeform. This sets him on a path of survival and finding the android D-I-0336-7, known as a Pragmata, or rather she finds Hugh after he plummets and gets knocked unconscious. Thus, the most unlikely pairing must navigate the Cradle and find out what the hell is going on.
Diana’s excitement at being named instead of numbered shows a humanity buried deep within
As a third-person shooter enthusiast, Pragmata looked solid enough. It was the hacking and odd inclusion of a child-like character that threw me off. Finally getting into the game, which luckily doesn’t drag its feet, and feeling how it all works and coalesces was downright impressive. The action comes as second nature, rock solid and tactile, especially when you factor in the DualSense’s adaptive triggers. Things just work, and you never feel like you’re struggling to control the game, even when things get tense. All that and more is what inspires me to make the following bold statement: this game, with how mechanically tight and focused it is, represents a quality I can’t remember experiencing at this relative level since Resident Evil 4, if not the original, then definitely its stellar remake. I can’t help but also draw comparisons between it and Dead Space with the isolation and atmosphere it evokes, and some of the design choices that call to mind the GOAT TPS action game Vanquish, which was made by Capcom alumni as well.
A big part of that is the framework in which it operates. This is masterful third-person action against a myriad of AI-controlled bots that test your reflexes, aiming, and hacking skills, all of which are quick micro puzzles. What starts as simple 4×4 grids in which to navigate to break open enemies and make them vulnerable, turn into Euclidean matrices and mazes by the end. You are challenged at nearly every turn, never quite overwhelmingly, but you will want to do everything in your power to keep up with the demand.
The Cradle itself is an awesome environment for Pragmata to unravel in. The sectors you visit are surprisingly varied; not all sterile, pristine white walls and floors to navigate ad nauseam. The first big sector you visited was an experimental area where cities from Earth were replicated with streets, cars, shops, and more. You find it in shambles due to the events at the beginning of the game, so you see a fractured reality, raw matter glitched to ominous levels, breaking the illusion Delphi was going for. Capcom stated this area was made to appear as if it were made uncannily by generative AI, but it was made by humans so as not to compromise the creative integrity of the game, which is, *whew*, very refreshing in a time where bullshit slop shortcuts of all kinds are the rage. I couldn’t help but get shades of Control and its upcoming sequel here with the beautiful, off-putting fragmentation, so the work paid off.
While the graphical fidelity is very impressive, design and direction are what make Pragmata so good
This alone makes exploring worth it, chasing that curiosity of “what could possibly be around this corner?” There’s a lot to uncover, many secrets, side paths, optional fights, and resources to enhance Hugh and Diana as they march toward their goals. Luckily, Diana has a scan ability that can reveal locations of many of these things, but it’s up to you to blaze the trail to it. The pause screen map, which isn’t so much a map as we’d expect but a layout of the sector you’re in, also helps track what you can find in each area which is a godsend honestly, but it doesn’t track upgrade components which I found odd. I would have appreciated that very much.
The methods by which you achieve all of this are so satisfying. Hacking is one thing, tweakable to your playstyle using different nodes that can increase damage or freeze bots in place for easy targeting, but the weapons are where the combat lives. Hugh gets a sizable arsenal, paced well throughout Pragmata‘s story. Your primary unit Grip Gun is a mainstay, but you get specialized attack units with limited ammo that help fill out gun archetypes like the railgun-like Charge Piercer or my favorite, the Shockwave Gun which is a shotgun with immense power. I took it throughout my entire playthrough and never tired of hacking a bot, putting its barrel to the chin (or closest approximate), and blowing them straight to robo-hell.
Tactical units help with crowd control and other, well, tactics later on, key when you’re beset with more than a few bots at a time which is often toward the end. Finally, you have defensive units that add to interactions with bots like distracting them with a holographic decoy and other utilities. All of these units are upgradeable through the game’s Shelter hub as well as long as you have the resources. It really opens up the combat potential of Pragmata the more you get and find optimal uses for. You’re never locked into your loadout for long either, there’s escape hatches littered through each sector so you can retreat back to the Shelter, upgrade, change units, and most importantly, heal and replenish your repair cartridges. I do wish you could travel from hatch to hatch instead of only to the Shelter though.
Just a fraction of your bot burners
The sound is incredible as well. I played both with headphones and listening from my TV’s speakers and there’s a lot of attention paid to the acoustics of the sounds you hear, emulating the warbles and fizzles of a living space station, or the cold deafening hum of space itself. Diana’s footsteps slap on the ground of the Shelter where she plays and talks to Hugh. Weapons are imbued with ferocity and a technical advancement that complements the hard sci-fi setting. The music is also deceptively good, leaning heavy on twinkling, danceable electronic beats that flourish in battles and get the blood pumping, or eliciting calm for the layered theme of the Shelter. There’s also some prime emotional manipulation at play when a somber piano is used during key moments of the game. I love how all the sound gets slightly muted when you hack enemies only for it to pop back into full fidelity when complete to give the combat an even more kinetic feel.
If the action is the soul of Pragmata, Hugh and Diana’s relationship is undoubtedly the heart. What starts as Hugh, understandably, fight-or-flight-minded, seeing Diana as a means to an end with her hacking abilities, gradually turns into attachment, protection, and valuing her like a human. Easy enough, Diana is very lifelike, innocence and curiosity intact, just like a real kid, elation at the most simple pleasures, no knowledge of capitalism or taxes – the good life. There are several reasons for much of her design and existence, too, like why she’s barefoot or wearing the oversized coat she is. This touching dynamic carries the game just as much as the gameplay itself, along with the overall plot, which is worth going into even if you know little about it. I haven’t yet said, and will not say much, you can’t learn or surmise from trailers, plot synopses, or the widely available Sketchbook demo. I’d recommend keeping it that way, even if you think you know what happens!
The two quotes at the beginning of my review are part of a little exchange between Hugh and his doomed teammate Nicholas in the intro of the game. While Hugh seems skeptical of children and having his own, it’s obvious signposting for his time with Diana of course. More importantly and relevant to this review, Nicholas’ sentiment on not trading his daughter for anything mirrors my sentiment on Pragmata itself. The harrowing mission creep Hugh experiences makes for an expertly-built narrative with compelling characters and a total clinic on game design that I wouldn’t trade for much of anything else out there. Even if you’ve seen elements of this game done before, Pragmata represents the apex of them.
I question your humanity if you don’t feel something when you see Hugh and Diana’s interactions
The game took me a bit under 14 hours to complete on Normal difficulty and, as is customary, unlocks a New Game+ and a harder difficulty. These alone would be enough to justify its value at a merciful $60 USD because they are expected in most cases, but there’s so much more to do after you beat it. Even the base game gets expanded from your completed file to add new things to do, tougher challenges, and new weapons to get if you wish, and believe me, you will want to play more immediately after if it hacks your mind like it did mine. This is on top of everything else on offer like the numerous collectibles and all the training simulations you can play in the Shelter that are reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid‘s VR missions.
Capcom’s really been hitting more often than not lately with their offerings, so much so that they’re probably the only AAA game dev that I feel okay supporting with my money and time for now. It’s a massive turnaround from their turbulent 2010s where they often floundered and missed opportunities that should have been slam dunks based on their history (we’re all still reeling from Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite). Now astounding franchise entries, awesome game collections that preserve legends of gaming, and experimental IPs are proving that we’re far from their “Crapcom” low point and still solidly in the gilded “Capgod” era. Even after all that, I think Pragmata is the crowning jewel of all their amassed talent and good decisions, ideas, and creativity so far in the 2020s. It’s really that good.
Absolutely floored
For me, the biggest compliment I can pay a game like this is wanting to keep playing it right after I roll credits, with no break. I’ve put in an additional five hours so far, chipping away at the leftovers, trying new difficulties, and simply enjoying what’s all here. It’s one of the greatest surgical melds of intense, twitchy action gameplay and on-the-spot mental puzzle-solving, rewarding personal expression and experimentation. The rest is veritable icing on the proverbial cake. It’s because of all this and much more that I feel justified giving it the score I am. Not only is it the only one that makes sense, but it’s the one it deserves; not representing perfection per se, but reflective of its ideas and how well they were executed. It was an honor to play and write about it, and I’m confident most others will feel the same.
by David Rodriguez
