I loaded up a recent Pragmata demo in blissful ignorance – or, at the very least, regular ignorance – of the depth of feeling surrounding its central hacking system. The need to shut down robotic baddies’ defences before giving them the ol’ semi-auto handshake is, it seems, widely enough perceived as a potential dealbreaker that Capcom have recreated it as a browser game. As if to whisper a reassuring “No, look, it’s not that fiddly,” into sceptical ears ahead of release next year.
I get it. Described in the abstract, it does sound like you can have a little third-person shooting, as a treat, but only after you finish your tile-colouring minigame. After actually playing Pragmata, though, I’m firmly on Team Hacking: besides being rich with upgrade potential, it doesn’t interrupt the action so much as conduct it, specifically to a tempo that feels refreshingly unique by over-the-shoulder standards.
