I finished PRAGMATA weeks ago, and I still can’t believe I almost cried at the end of the game despite spending most of my playthrough focused on the combat and exploration rather than the story itself.
Going into the game, I had already played the demo, so the combat was something I had a decent grasp on from the very beginning. Not much was revealed about the relationship between William and Diana, so all I got was a father-daughter experience, which I just took as something cute. Even then, the full game managed to surprise me with how much variety it offers in combat encounters, weapons, abilities, exploration, and even the emotional attachment it had me with its story.
Combat and Weapons
The game’s combat is probably the most unique I have experienced in recent years. It blends puzzle-solving with real-time combat in a way that constantly keeps you engaged. Every enemy encounter requires some level of thought, especially because hacking is such a core mechanic.
There are a variety of weapons available throughout the game, with each one unlocking as you progress through the story. More importantly, each weapon serves a distinct purpose, so there is very little redundancy in the arsenal.
My personal favorites were the Grip Gun, Shockwave Gun, Stasis Net, and Drone Hive.
The Grip Gun is the default pistol and remains surprisingly reliable throughout the entire game. While its damage output is below average, it compensates with an excellent recharge speed. It can eventually be replaced by the Pulse Carbine, an automatic rifle, but I found it underwhelming. The rifle’s damage felt too low, making enemies take longer to defeat. The Pulse Carbine seems better suited for peppering enemies with sustained fire, while the Grip Gun performs adequately in both damage and utility, making it far more reliable overall.
The Shockwave Gun serves as the game’s shotgun. It is easily one of the most efficient damage-dealing weapons available, provided all pellets connect with the target. Naturally, its damage comes with trade-offs in range and spread, but I rarely found this to be an issue. Most enemies move slowly, and their attacks have obvious wind-ups that make dodging and repositioning relatively easy.
While the Grip Gun and Shockwave Gun focus on raw damage, the Stasis Net serves a support role. It traps and effectively stuns enemies, making them vulnerable to hacking and follow-up attacks. Although it is initially introduced as a crowd-control tool, ammunition is generally plentiful enough that I found myself using it against single dangerous enemies as well.
The Drone Hive rounds out my list of favorite weapons. It provides consistent supporting damage and can significantly help during longer encounters. However, its effectiveness depends heavily on the enemy’s exposed weak points. Without hacking enemies first, the Drone Hive struggles to deal meaningful damage, preventing it from becoming an overpowered “fire-and-forget” solution.
Beyond weapons, players also gain access to Mods, Abilities, Hacking Nodes, and Hacking Modes. These systems provide plenty of opportunities for experimentation and creative combat approaches. While I do not have particularly strong opinions about most of them, the Multihack Node stood out as an essential upgrade. It allows hacks to spread between nearby enemies, and any additional nodes applied during the initial hack also transfer across affected targets.
Pulling off successful hack chains and combat combinations against large groups of enemies feels incredibly rewarding. Some players may become frustrated with how much hacking is required to defeat certain enemy types, but that mechanic is part of the game’s identity. It is something players will simply need to embrace if they want to fully appreciate what PRAGMATA is trying to achieve.
The game even made me wonder whether adding melee combat would have improved or weakened the overall design. The current system feels so unique that introducing traditional melee mechanics may have disrupted its identity.
Boss Fights
The boss fights deserve special praise.
They all possess unique identities that tie directly into the locations where they are encountered, making each confrontation feel fitted to where we find them. Certain notes, enemies, or even environmental assets leading to the boss fight also tease what kind of boss we were about to face in that specific level.
One boss that truly had me awestruck was the Creator boss in the Mass Production Array level.
Not only was the design itself unique and eerie, but it also reminded me of Bloodborne somehow. Pragmata’s bosses evoked different feelings within me whenever they revealed themselves, ranging from amazement and enthusiasm to fear and mild panic.
Aside from being visually appealing, the bosses also constantly introduce new mechanics and combat challenges. The variety among them prevents the encounters from feeling repetitive and allows every weapon in our arsenal to shine, as some may fit certain fights better than others. Still, the boss fights are not locked to specific mechanics that hinder you from using certain weapons; it is really just that some fit particular encounters better than others.
Simply put: every major boss encounter feels distinct, both mechanically and visually.
Exploration and Level Design
Outside of combat and story, PRAGMATA features numerous environmental puzzles that significantly contribute to the game’s overall length. The levels themselves are decently large but mostly linear, so the exploration experience, barring the puzzles, feels fairly short and quick. If exploration were the only focus, the game would likely be much shorter than the roughly 12 hours it took me to complete it.
Occasionally, the game breaks away from its linear structure through hub-style areas that require players to explore multiple branching paths before unlocking progression to the next major location. Two levels come to mind with this hub-style map design: the Mass Production Array and Terra Dome.
Moving away from the level design itself and more toward the visuals, the Mass Production Array, which serves as the second major area, ended up becoming my favorite location in the entire game due to its New York City replica theme.
Despite my high praise for the levels, unfortunately, this is also where I have my biggest criticism of the game.
The Worst Part of the Game: The Map
The Shopping District section in the Mass Production Array level made me realize just how much I disliked PRAGMATA’s map system.
The map is simply too small to be useful. Important details are difficult to interpret, certain areas do not accurately reflect the actual environment, and there is no option to zoom in. To make matters worse, the map does not track the player’s precise location and instead only indicates the general section of the area they are currently exploring.
This becomes particularly frustrating for completionists; which is a must-do. Achieving 100% completion (excluding the Mini Cabin Buddies collectibles) is required to unlock the True Ending. While obtaining full completion is generally manageable, the map system often turns collectible hunting into a more frustrating experience than it should be.
Had the map been improved, I honestly think I would have very little to complain about.
Story and Characters
I admittedly did not spend much time reading every note, email, and collectible document throughout the game. I skimmed most of them and focused primarily on gameplay.
Despite that, the ending still hit me incredibly hard.
PRAGMATA seems less concerned with overwhelming players with lore and more focused on making us feel and be part of the budding relationship between Hugh Williams and Diana (D-I-0336-7). Hugh’s care for Diana gets reciprocated in many ways, often expressed by his desire to show Diana experiences from Earth that she is missing out on. Diana, despite not being a true human, portrays many characteristics a child would have, particularly wondrous curiosity.
Still, if you want to find out more about the backstory of the lunar base, the catastrophe that destroyed it, Diana’s origins, or just the wider lore of PRAGMATA’s world past Hugh and Diana’s relationship, you will have to make an effort to collect the game’s lore items. Fortunately, most of them are found along the main paths of each level and are not particularly difficult to obtain.
Personally, even after finishing the game, I am still incredibly curious about several unresolved mysteries. I want to know who the Architects are and the true identity of Mr. K, the individual involved in developing something that helps Hugh later in the game.
Another thing to note with the characters is the facial animations. The animators really deserve tremendous credit here, as they did an incredible job expressing different emotions of the characters in both subtle and extreme ways. The performances and expressions made the ending hit far harder than I expected.
Is PRAGMATA A Good Game? Is PRAGMATA Worth It?
PRAGMATA concludes with a gut-wrenching farewell between its main characters. Despite not being fully invested in their backstories for roughly 80% of my playthrough, the ending still managed to affect me emotionally.
That alone says a lot about how effective the game’s character work ultimately becomes.
I would absolutely welcome a sequel or DLC. The Unknown Signal post-content feels like a deliberate setup for future stories, and I desperately want Capcom to follow through on it.
More importantly, I want answers. I want to know more about the Architects, I want to know who Mr. K really is, and I want to spend more time in the world of PRAGMATA.
PRAGMATA is one of the most unique games I have played in years. Its blend of hacking, puzzle-solving, and real-time combat creates an experience unlike anything else currently available. If it were not for the horrendous map system, I would easily give it a 10/10.
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