Pragmata [Review]

By making everything secondary to the movement and the combat system, Pragmata soars high as a great action game. It is always a gamble to have innovative controls just to end up as gimmicky, but it is not the case here. There are problems, though, and because the combat is so pristine, issues are easier to spot.

From the start, there's a bleak ambiance to the world of Pragmata. An overly militaristic and extremely corporate aesthetic that felt suffocating. It's true: there's no air in space. Hugh just arrived at a private facility on the Moon, and an unprecedented accident divided him from his crew, being left unconscious.

I didn't exactly like all the visuals. Not that they weren't incredible from the beginning, because they were, but the main character design – and the whole tech astronaut vibes – was uninteresting to me and I didn't particularly like how Hugh looked. I liked most of the enemies looks, though, and the bosses are particularly awesome.

The second main character is Diana, a special robot that not only could save Hugh's life after the accident, but can also hack enemies, making them vulnerable to his bullets. Hack enemies with Diana, shoot them with Hugh. It is simpler than expected, and that's because of great controls and precise movement.

Hugh is a pleasure to move around, and having gyro-aiming made hacking, dashing, and damaging enemies easy and intuitive. I really do think that the motion controls here augment the experience considerably, and they worked flawlessly, every time.

Precise dodges and clutch jumps were always easy to perform and the game really challenged me, but also made it easy to spot where I could do better when I died. It is a fun system, that makes this whole thing unique.

The challenge rooms were really fun and could highlight how all the gameplay elements can work well together while facing enemies and hazards. All the stages are full of small rewards behind some light platforming as well, but the exploration can feel underwhelming and somewhat uninteresting due to the repetitive aesthetic of the sectors.

A big problem of the game lies with its story. A cookie-cutter generic sci-fi adventure that has nothing new to present. I got the feeling that the story was created after the gameplay, and while that's not a problem alone, they couldn't really find a way for this game world and story to be better integrated and more unique.

Although I didn't like Hugh's appearance, I absolutely adored his voice acting, with fantastic and heartfelt deliveries that made the relationship between him and Diana that more believable.

There were great moments with Diana too, mostly on the last act. Still, the story is nothing much and very dull, but great dialogues and deliveries made the relationships way more convincing.

As the game progresses, the combat gets more and more expressive, with mods that can change the way that both Hugh and Diana play. The hacking can get really spicy with interesting boosts and nodes that creates effects in the enemies, like making them fight each other for a while or overheat during battle, including bosses.

The way that the enemy bots interact is pretty cool, and the whole "hacking" fantasy was well achieved. Another big win here is with the boss fights. While there aren't that many, all of them are remarkable and bombastic, requiring fast reflexes and rapid thinking. It is rewarding to make big combos and do big damage. Numbers go up!

Pragmata had also a great pacing, with interesting yet simple upgrades, tons of different weapons for both offense and support. The game cleverly makes the arsenal limited, so throughout the stage I needed to use and experiment with the different equipment given to me.

Unfortunately, not only the story is bland and generic, but the characters beyond Hugh and Diana are also… Missing? The game can sometimes feel very empty, and not only because of its light cast, but also because of the somewhat empty corridors that connect the interesting rooms between the stages.

Every encounter is nice and fun, both with the bosses and smaller enemies, but the stages themselves aren't always equally as good and can feel too repetitive.

Clocking at around 17 hours to finish the game doing all the "challenge rooms", training missions, and most of the exploration, Pragmata squeezed the most of its story with great gameplay, visuals, and voice acting.

Pragmata is fun and entertaining, even if too forgettable, due to a story that sometimes gets in its way. Playing it, though, it is a great time, and one of the best action games of this generation, generic designs and all.

8.5/10