I am delighted to have been proven tremendously wrong.
On the hunt for an escape back to Earth, Hugh and Diana are forced to contend with the station's hostile rogue AI, IDUS, who sends waves of militarised robots to eliminate them.
It firmly sets itself apart, however, via its central gimmick of hacking.
Just as a horror like Resident Evil creates tension in its atmosphere, solving these puzzles on the fly evokes a similar feeling through its combat, causing even the easiest fights to feel stressful.
This system is very cleverly augmented by a system of nodes. By passing through certain marked points on the grid, you can increase your damage or apply a variety of status effects on your opponents.
Hugh also uncovers a serious arsenal of weapons throughout his journey, offering everything from straight damage to holographic decoys that can be used to lead bots into laser traps.
The early hours are often quite easy, with specifically denoted trial rooms providing the bulk of the challenge.
The way Pragmata rewards your skill and your smarts makes for one of the best combat systems I have ever experienced.
View oEmbed on the source websiteAlthough the combat was stellar from start to finish, I spent much of my playthrough far less enthused by Pragmata's story.
The idea is fine, but the writing of these scenes is often quite stilted, and when combined with Hugh's overly friendly tone lend him an uncanny air, and one that almost makes you wonder if he is the robot.
Hugh and Diana's relationship felt forced enough, in my eyes, that I was reminiscing on the five minutes of banter between Hugh and his crewmates in the opening scene, wondering if perhaps Pragmata would have been better if he simply had an inanimate suit to do his hacking for him.
Of course, the main themes are not hard to grasp – you spend the entire game fighting against a hostile rogue AI after all – but the narrative threads that run under the surface betray a more nuanced fear.
Notes and logs dotted around the facility tell the stories of Delphi's former employees.
Later on, however, things begin to devolve. As is the case with many corporations, the pristine public faces obscures more sinister goings-on.
It is not difficult to draw parallels between Delphi and contemporary tech companies of our world whose AI capabilities are already being put to use in conflicts across the globe.
Considering the clunky exposition Hugh spouts to Diana in the early hours, I was glad to see Pragmata pivot into these deeper themes later in the game.
Initially, I thought Hugh and Diana were Pragmata's one big drawback, but by the end of our time together, I could happily say that this is a story that comes together in the end.
View Green Video on the source websiteI am always happy to be proven wrong about a game, and Pragmata may turn out to be the biggest surprise of the year for me, and certainly the most welcome one.
It doesn't overstay its welcome, and I am already itching to jump into a new game for another round.
Pragmata releases on 17 April 2026 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2.
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