Pragmata, Capcom’s new sci-fi third-person shooter, is set on the moon, but a decent chunk of the early game takes place in New York City’s Times Square. Well, not the real Times Square, but a 3D-printed version using special moon-based technology. It’s very similar to the real thing, with yellow cabs populating its streets and gigantic billboards peering down at astronaut Hugh and android Diana. But there are some key differences that make it so much better than the one a short train ride away.
Ask any New Yorker about Times Square, and they will sneer in disgust. No one who lives in the city goes there willingly, unless the AMC on 42nd Street is the only one showing a new film you want to catch at the only time you’re available. Instead, we scuttle around beneath Times Square, too cautious and experienced to show our noses in the tourist trap. Traveling to Times Square is often a requirement for getting elsewhere in the city, as so many of the MTA’s major train lines intersect there.
Why do we detest going to Times Square? Tourists. So many tourists. Obviously, tourists are unavoidable in New York — over 65 million flocked to NYC last year — but they gather en masse in Times Square to gawk at advertising, buy overpriced chocolate at the M&M store, and take the same pictures for Instagram that everyone else takes for Instagram.
Contrast that with the streets of Pragmata’s lunar Times Square. There’s nary a soul in sight. Hugh and Diana can wander around without worry of being caught in a tourist’s selfie or being blasted with Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind,” which is inexplicably playing at all times on 42nd Street. They do have to worry about killer robots controlled by a rogue AI, I guess, but, I don’t know, man. I bet those robots at least know how to correctly walk on the sidewalk.
