Over the last few years, Capcom has done an exceptional job of solidifying its lineup of big, long-running franchises. The likes of Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter have all been on strong and consistent runs, an impressive thing given the current strain of uncertainty that runs through the games industry. And now the developer is using that momentum to launch an ambitious new property called Pragmata.
The game takes the bones of Resident Evil’s slow-paced action and merges it with a sci-fi world that explores everything from lunar colonization to artificial intelligence. It has some genuinely great ideas, including an incredibly unique combat system and disorienting levels that are like three-dimensional AI slop, but they’re buried under a familiar structure and a story that relies heavily on sci-fi tropes. Pragmata could become something special over time, but this first game plays things too safe to really stand out.
As is often the case with stories like this, Pragmata begins with a small team investigating a disturbance at a lunar outpost. When they arrive, the place is eerily quiet and empty, and soon enough one of the investigators — a man named Hugh — finds himself separated from the rest of the team. Eventually he meets up with what appears to be a young girl, but is in actuality an experimental android named Diana. The two pair up to figure out what’s going on and find a way back to Earth. Getting in their way is a rogue AI that now controls the colony and seems to have a distaste for humans, turning every bot into a murderous machine.
Image: Capcom
Despite the obvious Resident Evil DNA, Pragmata isn’t straight-up horror, though it does get spooky. Instead, it’s more of a fairly traditional third-person action game. Hugh gets all kinds of futuristic weapons that mostly represent the traditional video game arsenal, including a shotgun and a missile launcher. But the game also gives you plenty of ways to customize how you approach combat. You’re constantly getting materials that let you upgrade Hugh’s suit and weapons, which lets you focus on your own particular playstyle. I really liked throwing a holographic decoy that would distract enemies, letting me sneak around with close-range weapons to blow them away.
The main twist is how Hugh and Diana work together. The little android is always riding on his back, and when battles start you’re essentially playing as both of them simultaneously. Diana can hack into enemies, weakening them while Hugh shoots. At first, it feels strange; hacking is like a minigame where you have to move a cursor through a grid to reach an enemy’s weak point. But the action doesn’t stop while you’re doing that, so you have to pay attention to avoiding attacks and shooting at the exact same time. It’s a real “pat your head while rubbing your stomach” type of situation, except here you’re completing a strange maze while fighting murderous robots.
The combat is easily the best part of Pragmata. Not only is it completely unlike anything I’ve ever played, but every aspect is well tuned: The weapons feel great, the enemies are varied and often terrifying, and the customization options are plentiful. I also appreciate that Pragmata has very generous checkpoints; there are multiple spots in each area where you can head back to your shelter, a very Death Stranding-inspired space that lets you catch your breath, chat with Diana, and upgrade your gear.
Image: Capcom
But aside from that there isn’t much interesting going on. Mostly you’re just exploring the colony to turn on power stations and unlock doors (which lead to more power stations) in order to make your way back to Earth. The story doesn’t help much. There’s a lot about Pragmata’s setup that could speak to our current moment, given that it’s set on the Moon and features a deadly AI villain. It even explores the impact of a new element that makes it possible to 3D print basically anything. At least initially, it seems like Pragmata is using these concepts to go to some interesting places. One of the early areas you explore is a 3D-printed version of New York, but designed by an AI in ways that don’t actually make much sense. There are yellow cabs melted into the ground and shop windows that appear upside-down and inaccessible. It’s like AI slop made physical, a hallucination that you can explore.
But that scene is an outlier. Outside of a few key moments, the story relies entirely on well-worn sci-fi tropes, which means it’s constantly reminding you of other, more original tales. The company that runs the colony, for instance, is basically Alien’s Weyland-Yutani, a group that uses the lawless nature of space to run morally dubious experiments. The relationship between Hugh and Diana echoes just about every story about an artificial being that wants to be human, from Pinocchio to The Terminator. Hell, there’s even an enemy that’s basically a robotic Dune sandworm.
Worse still is that most of the actually interesting narrative bits — like the sheer callousness of the tech corporation, or the way so many employees shift their responsibilities to AI — only appear if you choose to read the many optional notes lying around or listen to talking holograms. If you want to get anything out of Pragmata’s story, you have to dig for it.
This is especially frustrating because there’s a core of a really unique game in Pragmata. It’s well crafted and has a handful of fresh ideas. But at the same time, it feels too derivative. This isn’t an uncommon thing in games; there are plenty of brand-new franchises that struggle to form an identity at first before cutting loose in a sequel, like the progression from Watch Dogs to Watch Dogs 2. Hopefully something similar happens with Pragmata. Capcom has shown a real knack for developing its franchises, and Pragmata feels achingly close to joining that list.
Pragmata launches on the Switch 2, PS5, Xbox, and PC on April 17th.
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