Criogenz

After sinking some time into Pragmata, I have to say I'm really pleasantly surprised. Putting aside all the hype about Diana, the game itself really is a throwback to 6th & 7th gen third-person action game design. It scratches the itch for that era of gaming in the same way actual retro games do. Ordinarily, you'd need to play games from that era to have a similar experience. Biggest criticism I've seen is that the combat is "repetitive," but I don't see this as a negative at all. Current-gen single-player games are too reliant on novelty and "hype moments," amounting to forced "variety" that doesn't form a cohesive experience. Pragmata's combat loop rewards your attention and reflexes, you actually have to be conscious of positioning and the game doesn't feel like it's on cruise control. There's no auto-targeting and no rigid over-the-shoulder camera lock. It actually expects something of you as a player. You get into a groove, you learn enemy behaviors and get into a flow that feels like there's room for you to refine your play. It reminds me very much of the original RE4, which had a similar loop of stunning/downing enemies before finishing them off with flourishes. RE4 was very "repetitive" as well, but getting into that groove, upgrading Leon's weapons, playing around with different loadouts, etc. was what made it satisfying to play. Pragmata brings that back in way that I'd never have expected from a AAA publisher in 2026. Boss designs are also really fun. I haven't finished it yet, but I hope there's some kind of boss rush mode or that one will be added. As for the level design, it's pretty much tailor-made for me and the kind of single-player experience I want. The levels are mostly linear, but are sort of structured like dungeons in an adventure game. Lots of nooks & crannies to find extras, lots of optional areas that you can totally ignore if you want to just get on with it, or can be revisited later with new abilities. Mercifully, the game also doesn't force too many cutscenes on you. The story isn't heavy-handed or presented in a "cinematic" way, you just get very brief cutscenes in between the action. There's a little bit of walk & talk at the very beginning, but after that the entire game progresses on your own terms. It really sells itself as replayable in the way 6th/7th gen single-player games did. For once, I am actually excited to see a company as big as Capcom taking a risk on something like this, not just on a new IP, but on this kind of game. I am very pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying it, and at the fact that a game like this would even be developed today. I don't like putting numerical ratings on games, it feels tedious to me, but this is definitely a game that I'll revisit the same way I still revisit old games from the era being called back to. It's classic "games as games first" design, and in 2026 that's truly experimental and risky. I'm really happy that the game has sold so well, because it hopefully means that we'll get more of this.

Here comes THE DRAMA. Opening only in theaters April 3.