Capcom’s got a new IP on the horizon with Pragmata, and the demo is now available to play ahead of release. Ever since its first reveal, this game has intrigued me, and so I hopped into this demo to see what it’s like. It’s only short, around twenty minutes or so, but here are my initial impressions.
Pragmata’s so pretty
Firstly, this game is very pretty and incredibly detailed, as to be expected from an RE Engine game. Capcom seem to have really learned how to get the most out of this game engine in recent years, which has me excited to see more of the game environments. Our main characters, Hugh and Diana, look absolutely fantastic with incredible attention to detail. Pragmata also has a good variety of enemies for what is clearly a very early part of the game.
The tutorial is also very good. It slowly adds in new elements as they naturally arise and then leaving you to figure out how best to utilise them. It gives you all the information you need without holding your hand, meaning you need to learn and master the combat yourself, which I found very satisfying.
This is particularly evident when you learn to boost dodge and realise that you can use this boost outside of combat to vastly increase your traversal prospects. I felt so empowered once I figured this out, and movement suddenly clicked together for me, becoming a lot more enjoyable.
Controlling your Hugh
Pragmata controls incredibly fluidly as well. Movement, gunplay, and exploration all feel very reactive and tightly knit. However, this game does suffer when using keyboard and mouse controls. My first playthrough used these controls, as I generally prefer a mouse for shooters, but the keybinds became so numerous and complex that it felt more like an exercise in frustration. I could do it, but it didn’t feel good.
My second playthrough was with a controller, and this was when everything clicked for me. It definitely appears to be a game designed primarily for controller use, with keyboard controls a bit of an afterthought.
The basic flow of the demo is that you’re working your way to the top of a tower in order to lift a lockdown and power up the station you’re currently on. Along the way, you will pick up some weapons and chips that are used when hacking enemy robots to inflict additional effects. These can be hacking more than one enemy or dealing extra damage. At the top, you engage in a very fun boss fight against a robot that looks straight out of a Metal Gear game.
There is no room left in your bag
My main criticism is that your inventory for these chips and weapons is so small. You can’t pick up multiple copies of the same weapon to have the ammo stack, so you have a very small limit. I often found myself rushing around picking up a gun and firing its four shots. Then I would run around the combat arena to find another copy to fire the next four shots. Rinse and repeat. It definitely helped combat feel manic and dangerous, but was also more frustrating than exciting at times.
The same goes for the hacking chips; only one type can be held at a time, which was a bit of a nuisance. I’m interested to see how this translates to the full game, at least, but cautiously so. There are also respawn terminals that you can activate in case of death, but that will also act as fast travel points in the full game. This tells me that the game won’t just be a linear experience, which could be very exciting. We’ll have to wait for the full release to find out though.
Does it perform well?
Like any good PC game, it also comes jam-packed with a huge number of options to customise your experience and ensure the game runs well for you. I ran the game at max settings on a 3060Ti with Nvidia DLSS enabled and experienced little in the way of performance hiccups. So for most people, you should be able to run this game with no issues. It is recommended to run the game from an SSD, though, as there is a lot of loading involved.
At the end of the demo, you unlock the scribble suit for Hugh. This is essentially a skin where Diana has drawn pictures all over Hugh’s suit. You also unlock a picture that Diana has drawn. But what do these pictures mean? I have to know!
Overall, I’m very excited for the release of Pragmata. It’s the first game in quite a while to really grab my attention like this, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it when it releases on April 23rd.
Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: PC (Steam, Epic), PS5, Xbox Series S/X, Switch 2
Played on: PC
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