A few days ago, at the Summer Game Fest: Play Days event in Los Angeles, Capcom gave me an opportunity to play the unique, and potentially divisive, upcoming sci-fi, third-person shooter Pragmata, which is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, and PC next year.
What follows are my impressions of this game.
Now,
what we got to play was very brief, and short on context, but Pragmata is clearly set in the far future, and seems to take place in a facility called The Cradle where some malfunctioning robots — of which there are many, and many different kinds — consider you to be a threat.
Which, you’d think, wouldn’t be a problem, since you’re a soldier, or maybe a security office, named Hugh, and Hugh has a gun.
But as Hugh (and you) quickly learn, his gun is no match for the ‘bots. When Hugh first faces off against one, he practically unloads his gun into it, but barely makes a dent.
Good thing he has a helpful little buddy.
Aiding you in surviving Pragmata is Diana, an android who looks like a 3- or 4- or maybe 5-year-old girl in an oversized puffy parka, but can actually hack the robots and cause them to temporarily lower their defenses.
For instance, when the robots are humanoid in shape, Diana can make them open up their faces like in that scene from Ghost In The Shell. Once exposed, you can target their less protected components.
Diana can also hack terminals to open doors and raise platforms, which helps you get around. You can also use your jet boots to jump and hover over chasms too far to jump.
The thing about Diana’s hacking in Pragmata…
is that you — by which I mean you, the player, not Hugh — actually do the hacking. Sort of. You see, hacking in Pragmata is not like solving a puzzle in other games. Which is good since time doesn’t stop when you’re hacking.
Instead, when you aim at an enemy by using iron sights, it brings up a grid with a piece you can move, and a spot representing the node that initiates the hack. You simply move to that end point to hack the ‘bot and lower its defenses.
The grid also has optional, but helpful, nodes that add time to the hack’s effects. So if, for instance, you go through 5 nodes on your way to the last one, the hack will last longer than if you only go through 2 nodes or none. You’ll even be able to find nodes that last even longer, if you search around a little.
Moving around the hacking grid…
is also different in Pragmata than you might expect. That’s because instead of using the directional pad, you use the face buttons: square, “X,” “O,” and triangle on PlayStation; “A,” “X,” “Y” and “B” on Xbox. You also don’t have to click on those time extending nodes; you just move onto them and then move along.
Suffice it to say, this mechanic isn’t like special abilities in some games that are optional and don’t really pay off so you don’t bother doing them. And not just because you can’t miss the hacking device when you aim at some robot’s head. If you don’t hack a ‘bot, it will take a lot of ammo to destroy them.
And therein lies the other rub: you don’t have a lot of ammo. Ever. The Shockwave Gun, which is like an assault rifle, only ever has 5 shots, while the Stasis Net, which can stun ‘bots, only has 6.
Now,
Hugh does have a pistol, the Grip Gun A, which has unlimited ammo. It’s just that the ammo takes time to recharge, and you only ever have 6 shots, so…
Which brings me to something you need to understand about Pragmata. It’s clever and unique and esoteric. And because of that, not everyone is going to appreciate it. For instance, because the guns have limited ammo, and thus don’t need to be reloaded, the “X” (Xbox) and square (PlayStation) buttons, which most shooters use to reload, are used to set off your scanner. Which may not seem like a big deal, but I guarantee you I’ll be instinctively hitting the “X” or square buttons repeatedly when I play, just out of habit.
Still others won’t like that they can’t just blast the ‘bots and ignore the whole hacking thing.
Some people are also going to be annoyed by Diana,
whose speech and mannerisms are cutesy. Though, for me, I found it made me want to protect her like I would any little kid. Kind of like how making BD-1 in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor small and pet-like made me care more about its well-being.
Though I did notice something. While I only got to play Pragmata for about 20 minutes, I never actually worried about Diana’s safety. Or, more accurately, she was never in a position where I should’ve been worried about her. While she rides on my back like how Yoda rode Luke in The Empire Strikes Back, neither she nor my character said anything if I turned my back to a robot. Which makes me wonder if she can be hurt in the game?
And while we’re on the subject, is she always on my back, or can I ask her to, say, jump down and climb through a small hole to unlock a door like Leon does with Ashley in Resident Evil 4? Also, can she revive me when I get hurt, like she does when we first meet? And is Hugh going to make a joke about how, when hacking, Diana holds out her hand like Yoda does when he uses The Force, or is this one of those stories where no one’s seen Star Wars?
So many unanswered questions.
I guess we’ll have to wait until this game comes out for PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, and PC next year to find out.
