Pragmata review – To the moon and back

Capcom has been on a roll for years now, putting out banger after banger. However, it's primarily stuck to its core franchises, the ones around for decades that the company could always fall back on if all else fails.

But with Pragmata, Capcom finally left its comfort zone and tried to do something new by establishing an altogether different IP, setting, and story that, though heavily inspired by past experiences, feels fresh and innovative.

And thankfully, that stellar streak adds another game to its tally. Pragmata is an impressive, incredibly fun, and quite ingenious title in its core gameplay loop, one I never expected to grip me to the degree it did. Add to that its heartwarming, wholesome story, and you've got yourself what's probably one of Capcom's best games of all time.

Here is our full review.

Pragmata takes place on the Moon, which really hit differently amid the Artemis 2 flight to our natural satellite. Screenshot by Destructoid Pragmata takes place on the Moon, specifically a man-made base called the Cradle, where a corporation called Delphi had discovered and started mining a new ore, producing a material called Lunafilament, which can essentially 3D print anything that comes to mind.

At one point, the Cradle went silent, prompting Hugh Williams, the protagonist, to go and investigate the facility alongside his team. Things go south rather quickly as the base's AI system IDUS goes rogue, leading to Hugh being separated from the rest of his crew. Among the ruins, he is recovered by Diana, a so-called "Pragmata," a type of sentient android, and together the pair begins their journey of finding out what happened at the Cradle and returning home to Earth.

The game thrusts you almost immediately into one of the most unique and interesting settings ever put on screen. The Moon and the Cradle are mysterious, enriched by the presence of Lunafilament and the rogue IDUS that gives rise to hostile robots crawling out of 3D printers with the sole intention of taking you and Diana out.

It's packed with action, with fights awaiting the pair around every corner, but the vacuum of space and the setting itself lend the game a tinge of cosmic horror that permeates its otherwise compelling atmosphere (or lack thereof). Diana and Hugh navigate all sorts of environments, from run-of-the-mill space sci-fi facilities to entire Earth-like biomes made out of Lunafilament, prompting you to always go out and explore and progress just to see what else you'll run into.

At the center of your adventure is the Shelter, as the game features a level-based design similar to that of Devil May Cry 5, though with a central hub added on top. You can either progress to various "fast travel" points on the levels or return to previous ones to explore them more and get all the collectibles, of which there are loads.

Diana is probably the best part of Pragmata, and her whole story is a special tug at the heart. Screenshot by Destructoid As Diana and Hugh form a strong familial bond where Hugh slowly embraces a fatherly role to Diana, who behaves as and is modeled after a child, you are also given opportunities to make the kid happy by bringing her various presents that you can discover and collect. The bond between them is so strong and emotional and grows so naturally that I found myself going out of my way constantly just so I could make Diana as happy as she could be—and I rarely step out of the beaten path in games like this one! So that should tell you a lot.

She is one of the most realistically behaving children in a video game ever, and her whole story in the game made me reconsider my parental desires as I genuinely would love to have a daughter now that I have played through Pragmata. It's so heartwarming to see her look around and learn about Earth and the world around her, seeing as she is a child who spent most of her existence in a vault before meeting Hugh.

Hugh teaches her physics and tells her of his home, our little blue marble floating through space, and it's just so eyewatering to experience that I cannot even begin to describe it.

Playing the game amid the Artemis 2 mission really gave me an extra angle to look at the game from, and I found appreciation for parenthood and our precious planet that I never had before, having been a bit pessimistic and skeptical all my life. I could genuinely call Pragmata a life-changing experience, though that will vary significantly from player to player. It did have a profound effect on me, though, and I thank Capcom for it.

I won't tell you much else about the story for the sake of spoilers, as Pragmata is a very short game. It spans some 10 hours or so, akin to many other recent Capcom games, but it contains loads of additional modes that you unlock after beating the game for the first time, as well as numerous collectibles and achievements that hunters will rejoice to pursue. There is also a New Game+ mode alongside cheats and additional weapons to unlock, but I'll get to those in the next section.

Diana softens enemies up, and Hugh feeds them some lead. And lasers. Screenshot by Destructoid Speaking of guns, Pragmata has a dual gameplay system where you simultaneously play as both Hugh and Diana. Hugh is your main guy, so you move around the world using him and, of course, using traditional weaponry. He starts off with a handgun, which later is upgraded to an AR, but can find various support "units," as the game calls them, each serving a different purpose.

For example, there's a shotgun that can do tremendous damage, but only from up close; a Photon Laser that deals amazing damage from a distance but needs time to heat up; a Riot Blaster that throws enemies off balance in an area of effect; there are drones that can help out and distract enemies, and more. All of these can either be found in the world or equipped in the Shelter once they've been unlocked and the respective bosses defeated.

Diana, on the other hand, is the hacker. By holding down Alt (I played the PC version) while aiming down sights, you open the hacking menu, which you navigate with your mouse, hitting various nodes as you go. The nodes you start off with are basic, and they "open" enemies, making them vulnerable to gunshots while also doing damage on their own.

Later nodes, found in the world or unlocked, upgraded and equipped in the Shelter just like the guns, can do all sorts of effects, from confusing robots into attacking each other, exposing them to extra damage, freezing them in place, and so on.

You can perform hacks and shoot at literally the same time, and while at first that seems a bit daunting, once you get the hang of it, it turns into one of the most satisfying gameplay experiences I've ever had. Constantly hacking and handling multiple enemies with Diana to make them more manageable while blasting them with Hugh's weapons is tremendously fun to do, even if there are multiple enemies attacking you at the same time.

There are loads of ways to upgrade and refine your characters at the Shelter, while materials can be either found in the world or obtained via challenges. Screenshot by Destructoid The more enemies there are, the better it is, since Diana can do some wild stuff once you unlock certain special moves, abilities, and hacking nodes.

Aside from regular enemies, stretching from common "Walker" robots to invisible spider-like creatures, there are numerous boss fights, each greater than the last. I didn't die even once during my initial 10-hour playthrough, so they're all rather easy, but I can't say some of them didn't pose a significant challenge. It's just that the bosses on Standard difficulty give you a lot of wiggle room, and Diana can really do a number on them using certain nodes, allowing you to heal, recover, and reposition with relative ease.

Diana's hacking is also a necessary tool for progression, as she can unlock terminals (often there are puzzles and doors that need solving, and Diana's hacks are the means to that end), remove certain barriers, and so on, meaning she is essential to overcoming all of the game's challenges, and not just in fights.

Back at the Shelter, new guns and upgrades can also be unlocked via CABIN, an AI system that lets you play Bingo using CABIN Coins, earned by giving Diana gifts, finding them in the world, or winning them in the training simulator, where you have to perform various challenges for awesome rewards.

In many ways, Pragmata feels like the culmination of various Capcom projects and is especially reminiscent of the more action-oriented Resident Evil games, though I can't say there also isn't a bit of Kojima mixed in here, as there is an overall "weirdness" to the game that can only be found in Japanese games and especially among Kojima's more recent outputs.

Watching Diana have fun with the stuff you gave her and seeing her learn about humans and the world gave me a whole new perspective on parenthood. Screenshot by Destrctoid To close the review off, I have to once again mention the totality of emotion that dominates the game. Hugh and Diana are one of the most interesting protagonist duos I've ever encountered, and as the game goes by, even if its story is rather brief, they become so close to each other that every moment they spend together tugs at your heartstrings.

It's been a while since I've seen such a relationship in a game, and it reminds me a lot of The Witcher 3 and its Geralt and Ciri, but I could just as easily see folks reminiscing about Joel and Ellie from The Last of Us games. Truly, Pragmata belongs among the greats, as I found myself really caring about Diana and Hugh both.

Capcom makes good games when it comes to gameplay, and its stories are nothing to scoff at, but Pragmata genuinely feels like the best story Capcom ever told, and what's interesting is that it's also probably one of the simplest. The grand scale is there, sure, to a certain extent, but as opposed to every other Capcom game that is set amid world-ending events, Pragmata falls back into a more grounded, character-oriented story, and it works like a charm.

The post Pragmata review – To the moon and back appeared first on Destructoid.