This video is brought to you by Nvidia, delivering cuttingedge graphics technology like DLSS4, Path Tracing, and Nvidia Reflex. For games like Pragmata, Nvidia Tech delivers the highest frame rates, most immersive lighting, the sharpest image quality, and maximum responsiveness, so you know you're experiencing the game the way it was meant to be played. Click below or stick around to the end of the video to learn more. A quick disclaimer before we begin. Capcom have imposed a strict 10-minute limit on captured footage from the review build. But because I have a few more things to say, I have spliced in some extra trailer footage as well as footage from the demo level of the game.

Enjoy. Okay, so here's the pitch for Pragmata. Do you like the look and feel of modern-day Resident Evil games, but aren't down with the whole horror thing? Do you like the more measured, deliberate third person action of Resident Evil games, but prefer not to have to worry about ammo, health, and inventory management? Do you prefer to do your puzzle solving during combat rather than in between it? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Pragmata may well be for you. Perhaps that comparison feels like a bit of a reach. Maybe you're thinking to yourself, "Come on, man. Just because they're both made by Capcom doesn't mean

they're going to be similar." And that's true. Hell, this is the company that put out Dragons Dogma 2, Kunitsugami: Path of the Goddess, and Ace Attorney Investigations Collection all in the same year. And admittedly, I didn't go into Pragmata thinking to myself, "Hey, this really reminds me of Resident Evil." It was only after I had spent some hours with it and really got to grips with its core gameplay, storytelling, and progression loops that those similarities became apparent because it eventually becomes very obvious that in Pragmata, Capcom was leveraging all of its learnings and successes from the modern-day Resident Evil games, remixing those foundational elements to deliver something that feels

both entirely new, but also distinctly Capcom. The result is a tight, focused, clever, novel video game that is defined by how video gamey it feels. In a good way. Immersion is a secondary consideration for Capcom here in a game full of loot chests, multiple currencies, bingo boards, VR training missions, costumes to collect, and challenge rooms locked behind big red doors. At a time when most big budget games will go to great lengths to paper over this stuff, providing some in-world explanation for why shootable collectibles are left around for you to find, Capcom just said, "Fuck it." and pack pragmata full of things to find and do and collect and play with the intention that you play it all again in new game plus or at higher difficulty

levels the same way you would a Resident Evil game. Pack in a serviceable story, some unbelievably beautiful visuals, and some great unique puzzle-driven action combat. And Pragmata is yet another W notched for Capcom, albeit one that is unlikely to have the same commercial or cultural impact that other games in their portfolio have achieved. First chicken firewall control protocol. Well, something going down. Pragmata is a video game ass video game, and as such, it has a fittingly video game ass story setup. One that services not only the narrative, but also the gameplay loop. You play as Hugh, a member of a research team sent to carry

out repairs on a lunar base. The base, which is managed by a sentient AI, mines a special lunar material that is processed into something called lunar filament, which can then be harnessed to print basically anything you want. Oh man, I can't believe they can just print something that big. From that introduction alone, you can probably guess where this is headed. Soon after arriving, Hugh's team is killed, leaving him all alone. The AI overlord turns hostile and begins printing an endless number of robots to hunt down and eliminate Hugh. And due to their shielding, Hugh doesn't stand much

of a chance against them alone. Luckily, Hugh soon chances upon an android who looks like a little girl with hair extensions, and she's able to hack enemy shields, rendering them vulnerable. Slipping into his role as a father figure, Hugh quickly names her Diana. And between her hacking skills and Hugh's ability to shoot stuff, the two of them able to make their way through the hostile station with the hope of stopping the nefarious AI and getting safely back to Earth. Pragmata story is one that isn't going to win any awards for best narrative, but it's got just enough to keep you paying attention to what's going on. In the opening, the game smartly sets up some themes about

the nature of AI and the disposability of things in a world where it's cheaper to replace them rather than build them well the first time. You're right. Lim products tend to be on the delicate side, but it's just cheaper to rebuild something than to improve its quality. These themes aren't as well explored as they could have been throughout the rest of the playthrough since the story's focus soon shifts to the relationship between Hugh and Diana. It's very much what you'd expect in the sense that

there's a little robot girl who doesn't know what the ocean is and there's Hugh who feels the need to guide and protect Diana at all costs despite the fact that she's essentially made out of lunar rocks and her consciousness is just a really advanced version of chat GPT. We'll go and if you don't get hurt that means it's safe. Let's go. Sounds like a plan. The protective dad trope is well trodden territory in video games these days but there's one big difference here in Pragmata and that's the fact that Hugh is not a sad dad. In fact, he's quite cheery and encouraging and optimistic.

Where most of the other video game dads are nursing some secret trauma and endlessly wrestling with repressed guilt and rage, Hugh is often sounding off about how happy his home life was and how he always felt loved and supported. It's kind of nice to see a picture of video game fatherhood where the dad is able to properly emotionally regulate. I think Capcom might be on to something here. I'm counting on you, kiddo. Roger that. Outside of that, do expect a main villain to emerge, some plot twists to kick in, plenty of emails and holographs telling the story of what went down at the Luna base. Similar to Resident Evil, there's an Aplot

involving the main characters and how they get out of this mess. But there's also a more subtly told Bplot that explores how this mess came to be in the first place. So, if piecing together the mystery of yet another failed science lab appeals to you, then Pragmata has certainly got you covered. Wow, look at the size of that boat. It's It's attacking humans. Why? Where is Edos? Why isn't it doing anything? Now, look, I'm going to say something here, but don't judge me, okay? I'm I'm just being real. Pragmata does have a nice little story, which I enjoyed. It has some cool puzzle combat, which I really liked. It has a bunch of video

gamey stuff, like challenges and collectibles, which I really loved. But the thing I loved most about Pragmata is how this game looks. Sometimes a setting and an art style can be just enough to really capture your imagination and hook you. I think we recently saw it with the likes of Marathon and Arc Raiders. Cyberpunk had that going for it back in the day. Even Starfield's NASA Punk aesthetic is still cited as one of the biggest reasons that people love playing that game. For me, I always reflect on something outside the world of video games, and that's the movie Prometheus. Is that a great movie? Highly debatable, but I just love watching it because its rendition of human and alien sci-fi

technology is just so captivating. Pragmata is similarly captivating, delivering one of the most beautiful and intricate sci-fi settings I can ever recall experiencing. The amount of work that Capcom's artists have put into this is truly astounding. The suit that Hugh wears is so detailed that I often caught myself staring at its little flourishes during cutscenes. The design of each of the enemies is so intricate that you will probably boot up the model viewer just so you can get a better look at them. And the various weapons that Hugh is able to print and equip just look sick as hell. The real standout, though, is the environment design, which manages to feel both overwhelmingly expansive

and painstakingly intricate at the same time. Early shots of the Luna base show how massive it is, and it definitely pulls from popular imaginings of what a Luna base could or should look like, but at no point do Capcom allow themselves to be constrained by that. Yes, there are plenty of sterile looking hallways and labs lit by fluorescent light and monitor glow, but there's also an entire section modeled on New York City's Time Square for some reason. And another that's a manufactured natural biome where you're fighting in green space and climbing trees to progress. They're even better locations than these, but Capcom have asked us not to show them to you. And fair enough, because they're each

wonderful surprises when you reach them. Exploration in Pragmata is fairly limited given that most of the spaces are strictly linear affairs and a ping system allows you to immediately see all of the nearby hidden collectibles. But what the game lacks in exploration, it makes up for in striking visual style and density. Given how good this looks, you may be wondering how well it runs. And the good news is that this is yet another game utilizing the RE engine in the way it was meant to be utilized. As a result, you can expect absolutely incredible PC performance. Better than what we got in Resident Evil Reququum, to be honest, which was already a really high watermark on a high-end PC at 4K

max settings, ray tracing off, DLSS off, I was getting 140 FPS. That is insane for a game that looks like this. Turning DLSS to balance got me to around 180 FPS. If I turned on rate tracing, then it dropped a little to around like 150 FPS, which is still a lot of frames. The real hit comes when you enable path tracing. But even then, I was still getting a very solid 70 fps at 4K with DLSS set to balanced. And that is actually how I did my entire playthrough since the path tracing improvements are absolutely worth it if your system can handle it. While we're on the topic, I also tested Pragmata on the Humble Steam Deck, and it got decent enough performance, dropping everything to low

and with FSR enabled. The image is pretty blurry, but it is playable and you can expect around 40 FPS in internal spaces and around 30 FPS in the more expansive areas. Fairly regular frame drops. However, I would say that you can play this on a Steam Deck at a pinch, but it's by no means an ideal experience. And given how good this game can look, I think you're better off waiting to experience it on some more performant hardware. Y Combat in Pragmata is actually a lot simpler than it looks, but owing to regular contributions to the weapon, ability, mod, and enemy pool. The combat loop is gradually iterated on throughout your entire playthrough to always provide a rewarding sense of challenge

and progression. If what you're seeing here doesn't make too much sense, then don't worry, because like I said, it is pretty simple. Aiming down sights on an enemy brings up both a targeting reticle and a hacking menu. Using the face buttons on the controller allows you to navigate this hacking grid. The more nodes you move through before reaching the final activation node, the more damage or status your hack will inflict. So, it's a constant struggle to input as much as possible before the enemy hits you, which resets your hacking progress to zero. So, you really don't want to get hit.

The yellow hacking nodes you see here are where Diana's gameplay loop gets interesting since each of these nodes does a specific thing that you can utilize to maximize efficiency. Some of them will freeze enemies in their place, link them so they all get hacked at once, overheat them so they can be crit faster, confuse them so they'll attack each other. The list goes on. It's possible to stack into a hacking focused build where a big portion of your overall damage comes from hacks. Though that is a lot harder to pull off than a build focused on Hugh's firepower. So, while Diana handles the shields and status effects, Hugh handles the running and the gunning. When foes are vulnerable, Hugh unloads his

considerable arsenal into their lunar filament shells. With each enemy having a unique weak spot to incentivize careful aim over spray and prey, there is an ammo economy to worry about, but weapons drop freely from fallen foes with the intention that you use them rather than hoard them. And coupled with the need to dash to avoid enemy attacks and prioritize targets based on their abilities, combat achieves a really nice, engaging rhythm. It's not slow like a survival horror game, but nor is it frantic like Vanquish. It's a steady middle ground that allows you to think strategically and react while giving you time to do that. It's never particularly challenging on the standard difficulty,

and you will need to wait until the hard mode unlocked at the credits before the game really starts to push you. But it's nice and fun and novel in the sense that no game I can think of has ever delivered a combat experience quite like this. Yeah, let's do this. While the aesthetics are what I loved most about Pragmata, its most endearing quality is how unashamed it is to just be a good old-fashioned video game. The story and combat are both engaging enough, but arguably the most engaging loop is the hunt for collectibles and currencies that upgrade your character or that unlock new outfits or story beats. A press of the X button pings the map, instantly highlighting nearby collectibles, so you'll never struggle

too hard to find them. And a UI screen at your home base shows how many collectibles remain in each section of the map. The stat boost, weapons, and mods you unlock all meaningfully enlarge the combat gameplay loop or give you more survivability so you can push further into the lunar base without having to constantly retreat to the safety of your homebased shelter. A particular treat are the VR training missions, which also award valuable currencies while delivering playful remixes of traditional combat scenarios to the point where some of the most fun you'll have with Pragmata will be these training missions.

Perhaps now you can see what I mean when I made the Resident Evil comparison in the intro. This is a thirdp person action adventure game about a big corporation that builds something dangerous and then lost control of it. There's a big focus on premium presentation here. The levels are all linear, broadly speaking. There's some light puzzle solving. There's a combat loop that promotes smart positioning and precise aim, and there's myriad gamey elements that show Capcom's continued belief in old school charm. Leon S. Kennedy is literally racking up points in the most recent Resident Evil game so that he can cash them in for weapons and ammo. Pragmata has a similar approach with all of its currencies,

collectibles, and secrets. It is, after all, just a video game, and Capcom seemed to take great pride in that fact, where other publishers will work a little or a lot harder to try to make us forget that we're holding a controller in our hand. This is Capcom reflecting on what people love about Resident Evil games and then applying those lessons to a different setting, a different story, a different combat model, and it all works brilliantly. As you can see, I have very few complaints when it comes to Pragmata. It's an extremely well-made game. It looks stunning. It plays well. Doesn't try to be anything it's not. And it fully embraces the things that it is. As I've said in the past of Capcom when

they put out stuff like Exop Primal and Kinugami, it's nice to see Capcom putting out games like this. Smaller, weirder titles that feel like double Aiz games with AAA level presentation and polish. With all this praise, you may be wondering, why is this only a recommend instead of a strong recommend? Well, the truth is I liked Pragmata, but I didn't love it. And that's okay, by the way. Sometimes you can play a great game and not fall in love with it. And for me, this is one of those times. I think the story stuff was nice, but the predictability of the story and how unexplored some of the more interesting

themes were did leave me wanting more. I thought the puzzle solving combat was fun and novel, but also feel like it didn't really hit its stride in the core game since the most interesting combat challenges were typically relegated to the VR training missions. More than anything else, outside of the stunning visual design, I never found myself really connecting with any part of Pragmata that made me like desperate to play more of it or feeling like I need to convince everyone to play this thing right now. It's a nice little game. It's wellmade. I enjoyed it. I recommend it, but I also think it's missing that X factor that might make people really fall in love with this thing. Still, I

think it's a great starting point for a franchise, and I would absolutely be day one on a sequel for this. There's a lot here that can be built on, and I really hope Capcom do that. For now though, Pragmata is definitely worth checking out. At whatever price point feels comfortable to you, I recommend it. So, Pragmata is a really well optimized game that runs well on a variety of hardware, but it's also the sort of game that has a lot more to offer if you're playing it on the right hardware. Hardware like that from this video sponsor, Nvidia. Nvidia GPUs are the undisputed market leader because when it comes to raw processing power, nothing comes close to what Nvidia's 50 series GPUs can produce. But Nvidia do a lot

more than just hardware. They've also delivered a suite of graphics technologies that push that hardware even further, delivering higher frame rates, better image quality, better lighting, and more responsiveness. The headline feature for this is DLSS4 and Nvidia's advanced super resolution technology. Not only does this deliver a sharper image while reducing load on your hardware, but you can also take your frame rates even higher thanks to multiframe generation. In Pragmata, for example, I was able to get an average of around 240 fps while playing at 4K resolution max settings, path tracing enabled, all thanks to DLSS. And speaking of path tracing, all this headroom allows you to enable Pragmata's most impactful setting, path tracing.

This is a suite of advanced lighting settings that totally transform the look and feel of the game, delivering sharper resolutions, better volutric effects, more immersive field lighting, and so much more. It's a real system hog, but thanks to the power of DLSS4 and frame generation, you can turn it on and experience Pragmata the way Capcom intended. Finally, Pragmata also supports Nvidia Reflex, which is technology that reduces latency, making gameplay feel snappy and responsive, something super important in a game like Pragmata, where split-second reaction times are key. For years now, Nvidia has been the market leader in graphical tech for the simple reason that they've never stopped innovating. And DLSS4 frame generation,

path tracing, and NVIDIA Reflex are all examples of Nvidia's relentless pursuit of the best possible visuals and performance in the games that matter to you. If you're interested to learn more, I've left a link to the Nvidia product page below, showcasing all the benefits that Nvidia Tech brings to Pragmata and also highlighting a special bundle that Nvidia are offering right now where Pragmata is bundled in for free when you purchase certain GPUs. A big thanks to Nvidia for sponsoring the video and thank you for watching it.