Multitasking is hard. You wouldn't solve a crossword mid Call of Duty game, or bake a cake with one hand while playing League of Legends with the other. In Pragmata, though, multitasking is at the game's core, and it works remarkably well. For the most part, Capcom's new IP is standard linear action game stuff. As Hugh, you make your way through a futuristic space station, shooting robots to rid the place of an aggressive AI threat. However, with your own AI companion, Diana, hanging onto your back, the combat is complex, unique, and genuinely exciting.
When you aim at an enemy, you have two things to think about. Primarily (and perhaps unsurpsiringly), you shoot at enemies with whatever gun you have equipped. But, then a hacking puzzle tile will also appear on the right side of the screen. By using the face buttons on your controller, you traverse a hacking maze mini-game, passing through points to add damage multipliers and reaching a set point to complete the hack. With that hack puzzle complete, Hugh can do significantly more damage to his foes.
It's a really smart addition to basic shooting mechanics, and the fact that it's happening in real time makes it even more effective. Your eyes bounce back and forth like you're watching tennis, making sure you're hacking as quickly as possible, but also positioning yourself to take advantage once the robots are weakened. You're controlling both Hugh and Diana, coordinating their skills to take enemy robots down as efficiently as possible, meaning that she feels more like an actual character than a glorified backpack.
Pragmata isn't a slow game either, and you're rarely faced with just one target at a time. There's a real tactical element to combat, closely managing when you hack enemies to ensure you're not vulnerable while you do it. It shines in the particularly hectic encounters, adding a level of stress to what is, in part at least, pretty standard third-person shooter action.
Variety comes in the form of the weapons Hugh has in his arsenal and the quality of the boss fights. While his assault rifle is the focus in combat, I also used electrified guns, shotguns, and even weapons that shoot decoy robots to distract enemies. Rather than adding them to your inventory for the rest of the game, you can pick them up as you progress through an area, using the set amount of ammo that comes with it before moving on to something else. It forces you to use different approaches, and Pragmata's combat ensures you can't progress easily by just using the default weapon.
Playing for a couple of hours, I also got a glimpse at how hacking develops, too. I unlocked a skill that sometimes adds a killswitch tile to the hacking minigame, some enemies have weak points that unblock parts of the hack path, and the scale of the hack changes depending on the strength of the enemy you're fighting. Since Diana's hacking ability is used so regularly, I'm excited to see how it evolves further as you progress. While some evolution happens in the section I played, it'll need to keep up that pace of change to ensure combat isn't a slog.
Thankfully, the pace is kept high throughout. Combat sections and set-pieces come thick and fast, movement is quick, and you unlock genuinely useful upgrades relatively regularly. All of that, combined with how fast your fingers are moving to hack everything and anything, makes it difficult to slow things down in Pragmata to appreciate the visual style and environmental storytelling.
What I didn't see much of yet is that world and story. There are obvious hints at an emotional relationship between Hugh and Diana, which I'm sure will come to a head later in the game, but the strange world doesn't get much of a chance to shine so far. I think an introduction to the characters will be important, too: Hugh is generic at face value, and Diana can be overly naive, but the perception of that may change with the overarching narrative.
Without the storytelling, though, I came away shocked by how great Pragmata feels to play. Tightly designed linear triple-A action games are rare nowadays, but the combat in Capcom's game is something I've never played before.