Pragmata is the game I forgot that I needed. While I’ve been out of the Resident Evil loop for quite some time and would be curious if more recent games reflect this mentality, Pragmata very much reminds me of Resident Evil Revelations, a game that I got partially because I wanted a graphical powerhouse for my Nintendo 3DS and ended up adoring because of its pacing, variety, and absurdity. In a similar way, I needed something that felt a bit more premium on my Nintendo Switch 2, and Pragmata’s demo did a great job of selling its potential. Like a good demo, it also doesn’t give away too much of its narrative and gameplay conceits, so starting and playing a hefty chunk of Pragmata over the weekend was a surprise and delight.
While enemy variety isn’t incredibly varied, it’s the thoughtful combination of environmental design and the number of enemies that keeps Pragmata feeling consistently fresh, though the slow trickle of new weapons also helps things also. The great thing about a science fiction game is that the weapons get increasingly cool: you start with a pea shooter, then a shotgun, then a grenade launcher… and you eventually get your railgun, decoy spawner, concussive shield, mini rockets, and autonomous drones. The one thing that feels only a bit underbaked is Diana’s hacking system, which has sorts of strange modal variations and a chip system that is much more random than the loadout prep system would lead you to believe. In my opinion, the game could have leveraged less health packs (especially with the evasive movement Hugh possesses) and more chip slots, though I understand dispersing them throughout the hacking planes might have been too extreme a task.
Jeez, I’m not doing a great job of explaining the hacking. I will say that the targeting system is elegant and allows for much more freedom of action than I initially thought. I was a bit worried that breaking eye contact would reset a hacking plane, but your progress on multiple enemies is saved if you should have to break line of sight due to evasive measures. It’s a bit unfortunate that the D-Pad and the weapon wheel are on the same side of the controller, as switching guns mid-hack can be a bit cumbersome, but I also think the appeal of Pragmata is its clunkiness. Even if you are supposed to be controlling two characters simultaneously, their controller real estate makes them feel like a single unit, and it’s satisfying to get more proficient with their particular quirks. There are a couple of things you can do to make the game feel a bit less flow-chart-y: it can sometimes feel like the gameplay is always “Execute your Diana actions first, then deal damage with Hugh,” but some of the modal modifications you can make to Diana’s side of things can make dealing damage during a hack more rewarding. There’s also some weapons that Hugh possesses that work well as pre-Diana actions, such as dropping decoys, knocking enemies off their feet, and some neater, weird mid- to endgame options. I do think the Right Bumper is unfortunately underutilized in gameplay, which is weird since the Left Bumper is used consistently throughout the game, becoming a full-on contextual attack in the final act. Said contextual attack is also far from a permanent solution, with Hugh having to do some fast shooting in order to properly capitalize on exposed enemies.
While the data logs in the game are pretty light fare and inconsequential overall, the narrative is well-paced, to the point where I am reminded that games don’t have to be these protracted, grind-heavy experiences in order to justify their price. Rather, a game can present a nice, ten to twelve hour narrative and enough novel scenarios to still feel premium. The story is twisty enough to satisfy some, but I found it a bit predictable in its main hooks, with a third act introduction of some context that is hinted at environmentally, but still feels like a late trickle. The nature of the environments you visit never really feel justified, save for the lunum mines that are impressive from a scale and gameplay expansion standpoint. Still, the lack of environmental context is excused by the fun inherent in the scenarios: why do we have a wonky, 3D-printed version of a city being stalked by giant toddler robots? Why am I exploring varied biosphere simulations? Because it’s fun.
There’s a couple of ways that Pragmata pads its playtime and limited environmental space: its chock-full of collectables tucked in every corner, an extensive and sometimes unreasonable set of training missions, and a few progression gates- both literal and metaphorical- that you’ll have to double-back on in order to unlock. But all of these things are easy to access, with a pretty generous scan feature that shows your direct proximal relationship to items in the environments. The map could be a little less obscure, but every location is linear and telegraphed enough that it’s never too tedious to get where you’re going. I do wish you could fast travel between emergency exits a bit more immediately instead of having to return to the Shelter in order to pop up somewhere else in the same environment. The game leans heavily on making sure your initial loadout can get you where you need to go, so it’s somewhat excusable, but its also pretty generous about giving you weapons before and even during enemy encounters. This loadout feature is a core part of the game’s challenge: for half of the campaign (and even after that point, though slightly lessened) you will have to complete a sequence of encounters with a limited set of tools, and whatever scattered extras the game is willing to offer you in a certain arena. The fast travel system works for the forward momentum of the campaign, less so in doubling back.
In some ways, Pragmata is a movement shooter, if only because Hugh’s thruster dodge makes him a lot more slippery than one might expect upon first impression. With the amount of evasive opportunities you are given and how range focused the encounters are, you’ll be zipping around arenas and avoiding enemy attacks on the regular. One of the game’s most intense boss fights pits you against a highly mobile enemy with a number of area-filling attacks, but it all feels as if its in good fun. Verticality is not Pragmata’s strong suit, however, and the few areas that do possess levels often prove a bit more cumbersome than one might hope. You can avoid a larger enemy early on in the campaign simply by climbing up on a ledge that it could very easily surmount, itself.
…I should have just put this in reader reviews.
Topic: 6th Annual NWR Four on Four (Read 11418 times)
