PRAGMATA SKETCHBOOK Demo Impressions

A Man and An Adorable Android 

The full premise of PRAGMATA is currently unknown, but from what I have gathered from trailers, this demo, and Capcom’s own website, players will take control of Hugh Williams a member of a dispatch team sent in to investigate a facility on the moon. While there, Hugh will discover Diana and her ability to hack AI systems around her to aid Hugh in combat.

What this leads to in actual gameplay is a mix of chaotic and frenetic, yet fun shootouts with AI lifeforms and robots. In the demo, it was very quickly demonstrated that just shooting at the robots was not going to ensure I was going to leave a combat encounter alive. Each shot did minuscule damage until Diana chirped up about aiding Hugh in their fight. What this leads to is a grid-based puzzle system where a player must navigate to the end of a quick maze while also dodging and maneuvering out of the way of enemy attacks. Once the puzzle is solved, an enemy will be weakened, allowing Hugh’s shots to do a ton more damage and ensure both his and Diana’s survival. In other words, it feelsl like playing Pac-Man, with a gun to your head

Diana is able to hack other systems as well. From doors and elevators to larger control systems, it is very evident that she will be more than just an adorable battle companion.

So far, the demo shows that there are other combat options, such as power-ups you can collect to do more damage when hacking in battle, and guns that stun enemies so you can take advantage of their weak points. After enough damage is done you can also utilize Diana and Hugh’s abilities to cinematically shift the battle more in your favor. While these combat options are both exciting and fun, they feel like we are just scratching the surface of what’s to come in PRAGMATA.

I chose to play with both keyboard and mouse and will be sharing my thoughts based on those controls.

PRAGMATA definitely has an adjustment period as solving a puzzle while in a high-energy gun fight with advanced AI trying to kill you isn’t something that is intuitive right away, but it does feel good once you get into the rhythm. I did have to rebind Diana’s hacking ability as my mouse does not have the side buttons that are currently set up as the default primary binding. Luckily, the game does have a secondary binding that resolves this issue. If you plan on picking up the demo or full game on PC, it may be worth it to spend some time rebinding keys depending on your personal preferences and setup.