Video Gamers Podcast - Pragmata, Replaced & Mouse PI – The Triple Deep Dive Episode! – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and Ace are each bringing their own deep dive to the table this week, breaking down three very different experiences in the world of gaming. Ryan tackles the mysterious sci-fi journey of Pragmata, Josh explores the gritty pixel world of Replaced, and Ace steps into the stylish chaos of Mouse PI. We dig into what makes each of these video games stand out, how they play, and whether they live up to the hype. From gameplay mechanics to art direction and overall feel, this episode is packed with honest impressions and plenty of insight, as the guys compare notes across these standout titles. If you love hearing fresh takes on unique video games and want a mix of info and entertainment, this is one gaming episode you won’t want to miss from the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, Jigglepuf, Phelps and NorwegianGreaser, Dettmarp and Night Wizard63   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, PeopleWonder, Bobby S.   Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/videogamerspod⁠ Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.gg/h2cHKAvSmu Follow us on Instagram:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/⁠  Follow us on X:⁠ https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod⁠  Subscribe to us on YouTube:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1⁠    Visit us on the web:⁠https://videogamerspod.com/⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let's talk groceries, specifically your groceries. With Instacart, you want your groceries just the way you like them, right? Well, the Instacard app lets you do just that. They have a new preference picker that lets you pick how ripe or unripe you want your bananas. Shoppers can see your preferences up front, helping guide their choices. Instacart, get groceries just how you like. Hello, fellow gamers, and welcome to the Video Gamers podcast. Replaced.

Mouse P.I. Progmata? What's a gaming podcast supposed to do? How on earth do we cover so many games when they release this close together? Well, we do our first ever triple game review episode. That's what. That's right. We have each played one of these and we'll be breaking down all three on this epic episode. but first some introductions are in order. I am your host, Josh, and joining me, he couldn't help himself after my on-point impressions of Diana that completely sold him on Pragmata, so we broke down and dove in and he's ready to talk about one of the hottest games this year. It's Ryan.

The red circles! That was you. over and over and over and over. Anybody that's been listening to this podcast for a while, 100% thought Ryan was on mute during that pause. Oh, 100%. Like 100% thought Ryan was on mute. He wasn't on mute.

He was just trying to get the voice right. He was building the nerve to drop that voice. He kind of sound like Toad. Yeah, you did. That kind of sound like Toad. And join. us. We all knew Mouse P.I. was at the top of his hype meter. But is it everything he dreamed about? Or will this game be his first big disappointment of the year? It's Ace. Well, we're going to

crack that case wide open. I promise you that. I have a feel like there's, I cannot see a world where Ace is disappointed in Mouse PI. Like, like, I don't, I feel like you don't get hyped for games, Ace unless you know you're going to like them a lot? Like, has there been a game that you've been really hyped for that was like utterly disappointing to you? The last 10 Assassin's Creed's okay, that's fair. But that's on you at this

God, that's on you. That's on you. Yeah, I was saying, that's a really good point. Oh, hey guys, big news, I'm hyped for the next one. Fool me one, shame on me. Fool me 10 times plus remasters, shame on you. Yeah, no, I kind of have a pretty good sense. Yeah, you kind of did, but I was going to let you get away with it.

I was like, that's not shame on you. Wait a minute. Oh, my goodness. I kind of have a pretty good sense about what I like in a video game. So if I picked it. But you've never been like disappointed A's where you're like, this game's not what I thought it was going to be. No, not often. Wow.

That must be nice. Yeah. You can't talk down on indie devs, Josh. You cannot say anything negative. I know. I'm sorry. That's the rules. Every game is amazing.

Every game is made with love. Every game has the best intentions. Think of the devs. Think of the devs. Every game in the world. I was disappointed with Blueprints, but I also wasn't the one gunning for Blueprints. You weren't hyped for Blueprint.

Yeah, I wasn't hyped for Blueprints. At all. We made you play Blueprints. And the Nays is like, I hate you guys from making me play this game. Dang, what's the midnight walk. I was a little disappointed with the midnight wall. Oh, that's a good one. That's the one.

I was excited for that too and I was disappointed. Yes, that is the one. If you read the comments on that short, apparently you guys just hate art. Don't, don't go to that short. It's just, hey, you hate art. Don't. What is, what is the deal with that where you can't like just, it's not like we were, or crazy demeaning or said these horrible things. We're just like, hey, this is what we feel.

We like these parts. We didn't like these parts. We feel this way. And everyone's like, you can't say anything bad about anything anybody likes. Otherwise, you're just the worst person ever. The issue came about when John said stop motion animation was unnecessary. That is where the issue came from. That wasn't any of us were saying.

That was not anyone here. Okay, but that was also it cost them a lot of money and that's probably why it was $40. I would just like to point out I wasn't even on that episode. No, you were spared from the daggers on that one. But oh my gosh. I think he's right. We still get comments on it. We still get comments on it.

Everyone, every time I see a comment pop up, and I know the little, like, image. I don't even have to know, like, the short. Like, I can just see the image. And it's always like, oh, who are these guys? You guys don't know what are. You suck. Yeah. Please don't ever have a microphone again.

It's a cost microphone. Too bad, sucker. It's cheap on Amazon. Yeah, exactly. I don't know. These mics are pretty expensive. Yeah, these are kind of work. We need to sound good for the people.

You know, smooth. Yeah. Oh, yeah. this is getting weird now welcome in everybody to the video gamers podcast we have never done this before we have once once in the history of the show done a double deep dive uh does anybody remember what that episode was i bet it's ace because i remember i remember is everything yeah i remember yeah do you remember what that episode was ryan i don't remember yesterday dude i know right didn't even remember that we were recording today uh also it is ryan's birthday

You're not getting by without us giving you a birthday shout out on the show, Ryan. Dude, how's it feel to be 48, Ryan? You know, I already suffered the last year because I, I am turning 38 today. I thought I was 38 for the whole last year. And I'm not even kidding. I would have, I would have bet anyone money that I was 38 years old for the last entire year. And so now I'm just going to be 38 again. I lost my whole 37th year of my life.

You got a free year. What's just like miss count? Yeah. Math's hard, Ace. Math is hard, dude. I know. I was born in the year 2000. It's whatever the last two letters are.

Well, that's easy for you. For you. But when you got like, you know, an eight, like if you're born in like, you know, 2008 or I was born in 88, then it wraps up. Right. And that's hard, man. Because now you've got to add two and then you got to count past that. It's the, dude, it's a lot of math.

Ridiculous. So. I don't also just think about the day I was born or whatever. But yeah. So it was, yeah, it was a whole year of 38, but I was not 38. Well, we asked Ryan what he wanted for his birthday. And he said, I want to give the listeners everything that they've been asking for. And we have had people saying, are you going to cover replaced?

Are you going to cover mouse PI? Are you going to cover pragmatta? And we kind of went, it will cover maybe one or two of them because we can't play all these. And then, because of Ryan's birthday wish, here we are covering all three of these games for the people. So Ryan, thank you for this. Yeah, happy birthday to, Ryan and everybody out there. Also, the other duo episode was Starry Valley and Outer Wilds. It was, yes.

That was the other one. Well, that was where Paul and I, and that was the birth of the Force of Friend because I made Paul play Outer Wilds and he made me play Starter Valley. And then we both heard him in death. made for a funny episode at the same time. And then Ryan, you know, it is your birthday. And I know that you're, you know, you're a humble man and you would never say that you want people to leave reviews for the podcast for your birthday. But I know that you've voiced that to Ace and I many, many times where you're like, dude, if people want to get me something, they can just leave a review for the podcast. If they're on Spotify, Ryan was like, bro, if they just leave five stars, it's the best birthday present they could give me.

and you don't want to disappoint this man. He doesn't have many years left. I mean, at this point, you really, I mean, leave, leave the man a review. Every day I'm closer to death. But Ryan, for your birthday, you said, I want to read a review, guys. So I think you have one for us? I do. I do.

It's another amazing five-star review from, uh, kitty, kitty, meow at one, two, three. Amazing name, by the way. Very, very good. It is titled, thank you guys, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. And it reads, checked out your show earlier this year, wrote a really cringy review, deleted it, and now here is your new review. You guys are awesome. Thank you so much for this podcast. It is so fun and interesting to listen to.

Never change. Oh, well, thank you. The goodness is we can't because we're, we are incapable of change. We are the way we are. I could relate to the cringy review thing. I've definitely had a few of those in my life. Yeah, the one star? No, no, no.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That's not what you meant by cringy review? No, I've got, I have wrote, like, bad reviews that were still high quality, like, five-star reviews. They were just not good. They were not good. So you give other people five stars, but not- I'm pretty sure I gave us a five-star review that was cringe as heck. These pizza bites have got to be the worst I've ever had.

Yeah. What does this have to do with gaming? Let me just leave a review on my Tordash. Yeah, I don't think I've ever typed her a few. This chicken is overcooked. Also, also, I will remind people about our pre-show. It was a 23-minute pre-show where we found out, we found out some stuff about Ace. That we, Ace, we just want to say there's times where we worry about you, man.

You know, like we. Is that all the time? We worry about you? I feel like it's starting to be all this. I mean, when you, with what you told us in the pre-show about, you know, I'm just going to give a little teaser about Waffle House, about Waffle House. And that's all I'm saying. Because if you want to know the rest of this story and we all know what happens at Waffle House, then people should sign up to support the podcast because you get access to the pre-show, which is basically an entire other episode, every freaking episode, it seems like. So, yeah.

But come, come worry about Ace with us. everybody, you know, Ace's, like, all right, let's talk to video games, guys. Let's talk. Let's talk some video games. All right. So we've got three games to cover. We each played a game. I played replaced. I did roll credits. So kudos to me. I'm just doing that to kind of, you know, pump myself up because I don't finish many games. And I did finish replaced. Ace, you covered mouse P.I. And Ryan at the last second and through much grinding, because you said you were up until 2 a.m. the last few nights, you at the last minute, decided you really did want to play progmata. And that was like, okay, well, we're doing this then. And so Ryan played through progmata. So each of us is going to give a breakdown on the game, what worked, what didn't work. And we'll go from there. None of us played the game that the other people played. So we are like you, the listeners, where we're going to be asking questions and kind of finding out what the other person thought. We never share our thoughts on a game. So I have no idea what Ace or Ryan thought.

They have no idea what I thought about replaced. But there you go. You're getting your first ever triple game review episode. Ace, we're going to start with Mouse P.I. You were super hyped for this. I'll be honest, I was not hyped for this. I said so many a time. I said I'm kind of off the Mouse P.I train.

So what did you think about mouse PI? We'll save your actual final thoughts for this, but going into this, was this your most anticipated game in a while? Yeah, I'd say it was my most anticipated game in a while. Aside from Karen, Karen was my most anticipated game for sure. Like this year, that was the one I was looking forward to getting the most. I wasn't even sure we were going to get mousePI this year. So it was like one of those things that's like,

Maybe yes, maybe no. To me, it reminded me of your hype level for, what's the Pinocchio game? Liza P? Oh, Liza P. Yeah, Liza P. Yeah, I would say it's up there. I would say it was around there. You weren't like over the mood, but you were like, I'm really stoked on this.

I'm interested to see what this game's going to be. I will say some of your negativity was seeping into where I got worried that this was going to be all show no tech. Josh. I've rubbed off on A's. Well, this goes back to the pre-show people, you know. No, I'm just kidding. You know, honestly, that's a good point is it's like, and I wasn't trying to be negative about the game. It's just that I was very excited for replaced.

You know, my biggest question with mouse PI was, is there substance to this being a first-person shooter? Or is this all just an artistic style of game with minimal gameplay? And what's your take on that? Is this a legit good first person shooter? I would say yes. It is a legit good first person shooter. That is not to say that it is not heavily reliant upon it what it looks like. Like this 1930s rubber hose aesthetic within this noir setting does do a lot of the heavy lifting for the game.

But that does not mean it is not a solid shooter. Like generally, it is so fun using all the new like movement mechanics and you have a dash, a double jump. You have a propeller tail that you could hover around with to reach higher platforms, a wall run. Like there's so much movement you could do to get around the arena. You could pick up explosive barrels and chuck them at enemies and shoot them in air. Like there's just so much you can do. And usually in the arenas, they'll have things hanging above like anvils and pianos that you could shoot the ropes to and just drop them on anything. Like it is so fun.

That's fun. That's cool. So was there was there a pretty big, um, kind of. of comedic nature within the game? I would say, yeah. Like, if you're going into mouse PI expecting a very serious, like, noir setting and a story, like, set in a noir world, uh, you'll get that, but not serious. You're going to get a silly one.

It very much is a cartoon. Like so, there's cartoon physics. There's cartoon, you know, reality. It's, it's very much relying on that cartoon and you've got to believe it's a cartoon. otherwise Jack Pepper has dropped a lot of bodies and nobody is taking him in in a cartoon you can get away with that yeah this game's basically a boomer shooter it is a I mean if you were going to equate it to another game I mean Doom would seem like a good example of like a comparison right Duke Newcomb a little bit of Max Payne thrown in there as well

with one liners there's so many one liners if you love Troy Baker you're going to love this game because you get to hear them just drop cheese related one liners the entire time One of my big questions on mouse PI was the difficulty level because, again, it's, you know, it's a cartoon, you know, and this ties back to my thinking that they were going to solely rely on the aesthetic of this game to try to sell copies of it and stuff like that. Is it easy? What is the actual difficulty like in the minute to minute? You mentioned arenas. I saw a clip from somebody that was like, hey, this is a boss fight. I know an arena when I see one. and you're walking into an area and it's like, okay, well, I know that this is going to be a boss fight. But like, how's the difficulty level? Is it scalable?

Does the game give you difficulty options? Like, talk on that just a little bit because it's like, to me, I want a hard shooter, especially if it's a solo and it's not a multiplayer one, but I have zero clue how mousePI fits into that. MousePI has three difficulty settings. You have easy, normal, and then hard. Of course, they're named, you know, based on different kind of detective work, basically. but I would not drop the game below normal difficulty. Hard is like perfect.

It is just, just difficult enough that it's not frustrating. If you're someone who's seasoned with first person games, if you've never played a boomer shooter or, you know, one of these fast-paced kind of arena shooters, you're, you're going to want to drop it down some because you will get burst down quickly.

There are no eye frames. There is no like, oh, man, if I just hide here, nothing could hit me. No, because enemies are smart in this game. They will flank you and they will figure out how to get you. They're not just going to let you sit there and shoot at them.

And it works very well. Do they take cover? Like is their cover? There is cover, but you can't stay there forever. Okay. The enemies are mobile. You even have these like sniper enemies.

So they'll move around and stuff. Yeah, you have these like sniper enemies. So like they'll be in one position and they'll stay there for a little bit. But if they can't get the angle on you, they'll just down and pop up somewhere else. and just shoot you there. Oh,

geez. So you need to play on the, like, offensive here. You cannot be, like, hiding the entire time. You need to take out these guys

as quickly as possible. You're, like, you're, like, pushing through, like, Master Chief. You're trying to, yeah,

you're trying to rip through. Thankfully, this is where the game's insane arsenal comes in to play. Oh, okay. Yeah, you start off with your mitts, which are just like your fist.

You could do, you know, just right hook, left hook, and then a wind-up punch, like an upper cut. And I got to say, The animations in this game are insane.

They're like, it's so good. There's 54,000 unique frames of animation in this game. Oh my gosh. Hand drawn, by the way. Oh, wow. Yeah. So that's cool. That's freaking amazing.

It's awesome. But you have your, you know, your pistol. You've got your shotgun, Tommy gun. You get a freaking cannonball launcher. And the farther into the game you go, the more cartoony the weapons get, which I love. You eventually will get your homage to the super shotgun called the Kiss Kiss Kiss. it's like an incendiary shotgun I just picked up this thing called

a jar head which is a freaking brain in a jar that shoots sound waves that make people's head explode like it it just it gets so good dude and you have so much to work with now I do have a question for you on this because you know everybody

every time I hear mouse PI you can't not hear the noir detective right you're a detective in this game it's a noir kind of thing are you actually trying to solve a mystery and is there gameplay elements that tie into, like, actually trying to figure out this mystery? Yes, but to some people,

they're not going to go as deep as you're going to want. Like, you're not solving it yourself. You're picking up clues so that Jack can solve it. So, like, you'll start going to, you'll get, like, a hint of where you should go. And you'll go to that level. You'll scound, scrounge the level, pick up the key clues,

but there's also extra clues you can pick up if you're, you know, actually exploring. that can make the investigation go quicker, basically. And then you'll go back to base after you finish the level, beat the boss or whatever, and pin all of your clues onto your crime board, and Jack will start to piece together things from those clues of where you need to go next.

And it's not always like you only have one location you can go to. Sometimes he'll find something from one case that connects to a different case you're working altogether because you're working like three cases at the same time here. That's kind of cool. Yeah, so you're not always working the same case. And sometimes you'll find connections between the two cases. And you're like, that's interesting.

Where's this going? And sometimes you'll hit a dead end in a case. And you'll be like, well, I have to go back and go if I start something else. Yeah. I really like it. But it's probably not as deep as people might want to be like, oh, I'm solving the case on my own. Like I'm solving this clues. Okay.

That was my question. There's not like deductive reasoning that somebody has to have like playing this game and being like, wait a minute. No, it's just something that sounds suspicious. It's picking up the clues and taking photos of things that, you know, might be clues, beating bosses and picking up, you know, whatever they dropped as usually a clue. It's not like I'm solving the case. It's Jack solving the case and I'm helping him pick up clues. Okay. I got you.

All right, A, so what works in mouse PI? And if you had to be critical of something, what would you be critical about? What works in mousePI is obviously, I think the gunplay is really fun. I don't have any issues with it whatsoever. I think the world that they've built around Moussberg, if you're framing this as a cartoon and not a super serious detective setting, is great.

They make cheese puns. They talk about like silly things. And occasionally, Jack Pepper will just be like, it's just like when I was in the war. And you're just like, oh, okay. Well, we're in the war now. Oh, my God.

I have a question. Does at any point with the cheese puns, he says, I got a or I go to get out of here. I haven't heard that one yet. No. No. Someone asked him if he's brought any cheddar. He's like, is Gouda good enough?

And there's a lot of cheese pun. Ryan wanted so desperately to make a cheese pun and then just. No, I go to get out of here. But I was a got to go get Gouda. You got to do cheddar than that on your puns. Oh. Don't be cheesy. Everything is cheese, by the way.

You've got cheese. You know, that's right. You should switch me out for somebody else. Yeah. Oh, God. See, it wasn't that hard. There we go. Yeah.

Oh, the goofballs. Oh, gosh. But what doesn't work, I would say, I'd take this very lightly. It's the detective stuff. Like, if you really wanted to get into the detective stuff, you can't, unfortunately. There's not like a way you could invest yourself into it and focus on that. You got to look at this as the gameplay first. story later kind of thing.

And that's not saying the story isn't good and the characters aren't good because they are. This is a shooter first. This is a shooter first and the aesthetics do a lot of the heavy lifting and a lot of the fun stuff. But it's still fun. I still enjoyed it. Also, one thing I want to mention

every time you upgrade your gun, the gun changes visually. Oh, that's cool. Every single time. Just like Bioshock. I love little... Just like Bioshock. I love it. Certain attachments or certain things it'll change which means they animated a frame. a new like model for the gun every single time you upgrade. Oh my gosh.

So if you never upgrade your gun, you just have the base model. I think they put so much love into this game that it's just palpable. I love it. It's great. All right. Well, what would your rating for mouse PI be ace? And is it worth the $30 price tag in your opinion? For $30, I'm just going to tell you now, mouse B.I is worth a try.

All right. I will tell you that right now. it is especially if you've never played a boomer shooter and you're trying to get into the genre. I think this is a very accessible title. Like I said, if you're looking for a super serious noir detective style game, this is not it. This is not what you want.

You need to play like L.A. noir or something like that, where you can really get into it, really feel that detective work stuff. As for rating, I kind of flip flopped about this like back and forth. I'm just going to go ahead and give it at 8.9. I think it is a very,

Very, very solid game. And it is definitely not an IGN6. I'll tell you that. Oh, geez, yeah. IGN's been wild lately. Yeah, I highly recommend MoussPI. I think it's a standout for this year, actually. If you're looking, if you're looking for a real serious new R, go Spireman new R.

That's a pretty good Nick Cage, man. Nicholas Cage. Yeah, that's a pretty good good case. We'll find some clues. Come on, baby doll. Come on, baby girl. We'll find some clues. Do you think it will be in the game of the year for Indies?

Absolutely. Especially debut in the nominations. Ryan shaking his head. Ryan's like, nope, this will be up there for debut Indies. I'm telling you that. Yes,

I believe so. It's that. I mean, I hope so. I want. Well, it's 95% overwhelmingly positive on Steam. Oh,

well, good for them. Heck yeah. And it's got an 83% on Metacritic. Also, we can't not talk about the blood mod because this thing is. is one of those things I've seen. And you got to go like when you're the developers

and then you see what this blood mod makes your game look like, you have to go like, dang it, I wish we'd done that. Yeah, I wish we had done that from the beginning. That little splash of color does make the difference.

A little splash is awesome. So, all right, well, 8.9 from Ace, I'm not going to lie, Ace, I've been watching footage. I've seen some reels.

I watched you play. You stream this for people on our Twitch channel. Oh, don't watch me play. I will say, you know, it's turned me around a little bit. Like, it looks like this is legitimately a fun shooter.

I love like boom like doom eternal doom the dark ages like I love that style of game occasionally and mouse PI while it's probably not on the same level as doom really just looks like it's a lot of fun and it looks like some of my concerns with like the gunplay and stuff were squashed because the gunplay and the impact and the variety of weapons and stuff like that seems like it's absolutely there so it seems like they knew what they were doing with crafting this this you know shooter first and then aesthetics, you know, as a part of, you know, let's make sure our game is actually fun for people. Yeah, I didn't get to go into it. But the bosses are also super unique.

You don't, there's not like one way you fight every single boss. And also, oh, man, I totally just blanked on what I was going to say. I just love this game. It was a great time. Nice. That's, yeah. And boss fight, I love good boss fight mechanics. Like if it's not just what we would call like a tank and spank, you know.

Yeah, yeah, no, no. Back in my day where it's just like they're just bullet sponges and that's it. And you have mechanics that you have to worry about. that really helps for boss fights to keep them fresh in my opinion. So, all right, we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back. We're going to talk some replaced. This was one of my most anticipated games. I'm interested in here.

We're going to find out what I thought about that right after this. All right, we're back. Ace gave MousePI an 8.9. I'll be honest, that's higher than I thought you were going to rate this Ace. So that tells me that this is one to keep on my wish list and maybe dive into too when I get some free time. All right, boys, let's talk some replaced. I mean, you know, we tried the demo.

We saw the trailers. This game looked fantastic. As soon as we found out about this game, we were all like, whoa, this game looks really, really good. Cyberpunk, you know, aesthetic, pixel art, you know, crazy good lighting for a pixel art game. Really just drew me in. Really, really excited for a real. replaced. Dove in, started playing this. You know, it is, it is gorgeous. I mean,

this is one of those things like you cannot look at this game or play this game and go, hey, you know, the trailers made it look better than it is or the demo made it look better than it is. This is, if you're going to do pixel art, in my opinion, this is how you do pixel art. Like, it's, it's incredible. The story in replaced doesn't really do. a whole lot for me at that point. Like this is your, yeah, it's like, this was the big question, right? Because again, I played the demo. I kind of knew how the, the demo was 20 minutes.

It's, I think it was 22 minutes exactly for me to beat the demo. You know, people talk about the Arkham style combat in the game. Well, I'll touch on that here in just a little bit. But the big thing was going to be, what is this cyberpunk story? Where does it take you? Where does it go? The premise of the story, and this isn't spoiler. I'm going to avoid spoilers on this for anybody.

basically you are some scientist guy that's working with this AI called Reach through some explosion or whatever that happens in your lab. The AI basically gets into your body and you are now like one entity. And the corporation who owns the AI is after you now because they want their AI back. And they know that it's in your body. So you're running from the police for most of the game. you know, it starts off as kind of an action. You're fleeing the police. There's combat and stuff like that.

The game switches gears a little bit, which is weird. Like at some point, it's very action-oriented, but then it tries to be a platformer, which I thought, well, this is weird because you're doing these big platform sequences, but it's like, it's not a platformer. I started replaced, and I found the platforming to be very hit or miss.

is sometimes it worked out fine. Did it feel like it didn't fit? Yeah. I can tell you right now, it was a miss. The platforming was a miss. Like that, like, if you're going to put platforming in your game, you need to make the platforming more than just jump this direction and your guy will auto grab onto a ledge.

Like, it's not really platforming. I don't even, like, I don't really know what it is that they were going for with these sections where it's like, I don't know if it was just supposed to feel like a change of pace, but there's multiple sections in the game. where you're platforming for five minutes at a time to climb up something. But none of it is difficult. Like it's not,

there's no missed jumps. There's no missed anything. The only thing that missed was like at one point you get like the ability to like pick axe into a wall. Right? To grab something. But like I, you know, that button is space bar.

And half the time I would hit space bar and my guy would not pick axe into the wall. And then I would just fall and die. No, he just fall. And then it's like, well, wait a minute. This isn't like I don't, I don't understand the point of the platforming. So I'll be honest, that was a big miss for me.

It's not a large portion of the game, but it's definitely something that they go back to, like time and time again. So it just felt weird. It's kind of like you said, Ryan. It felt like it just didn't belong in this game necessarily. You go's like filler? Kind of. I mean, but here's the other.

Okay. That's what I was saying. Does this, does this pad out the game? Is it the platform? Yeah. It's like, well, guys, we got to get to 10 or 11 hours. Yeah. Here's, here's, I have some.

this is funny because I've talked to a few people in our Discord. I've talked to a few people that have played Replaced. And most people come away with the same thinking where they say, I really like parts of this game and there's other parts of this game that were a big miss for me. And that's honestly exactly how I feel about Replaced. There are multiple times where you were running. I mean, I just got done picking on Darwin's paradox for being a left-right simulator. And like, replaced is kind of a left-right simulator.

Now there's a little, at least there's combat, this weird platforming that they try to throw in. But then there's other parts where it's almost like it tries to be like a point and click adventure, where you're in this little city and you're going around helping people and doing quests, which is weird. But then like you don't really get rewards from the, like you get rewards, but your rewards are basically like non. They don't matter. They don't matter. Like you get some more life or you get an extra stim like pack, which is your heel or something like that. but the combat's not really that hard. So it's like, why am I getting these rewards for,

it's like they thought, like, I feel like the developers didn't quite know what they wanted out of this game. And so they went, we need to add more. So what can we add? Well, let's add some upgrades, but the upgrades don't really matter. And then they went, well, let's add platforming,

but the platforming is not really platforming. And so it's like, well, that doesn't really matter. And then if you're talking about, well, are they trying to pad the game? I can't tell you guys how many times I would run from left to right or right to left for like two minutes straight. And there'd be nothing? And I'm not exaggerating.

Guys, I'm not exaggerating like two minutes of just running with nothing. Now, don't keep you wrong. The scenery is gorgeous, right? Like, I mean, I'm running and I'm like, well, this is beautiful. You're welcome, dude. You're welcome. But like at the same time, like your brain starts going like, okay, well, what am I going to get to where I'm going? Because this is starting.

Oh, oh, I'm, oh, we're still running. Okay, cool. Oh, this is pretty. Okay. All right, guys, it's getting a little ridiculous now. I, like, I should be wherever I'm going. Like, there's no hallway in the world that's this long. Like, this is not something game developers do.

Well, and then I'm still running. Well, with all these mechanics, you know, with the platforming, the fighting, the, you know, fetch quests for the NPCs and stuff, surely the pacing is good, right? It's well-paced? No. This is, okay. Okay. So here, I'm.

Oh, no. Ryan, I know. Don't laugh at me, Ryan. Ryan's laughing because he's like, I know Josh and I know, like, I already, you already know. Oh, I know. Like, I don't understand what this game was going for, guys. Like, I just don't, it feels so disjointed sometimes. And then it has, it has issues that are just aggravating to every gamer in the world.

Right? Like, I don't know how you design a video game and you put elements like unskippable cut scenes. prior to a boss fight to where if you die in the boss fight you have to go back and you have to rewatch the two minute cutscene

that is the story lead up to why you're fighting this boss and you can't skip it. So you know what I would do? I would literally just pull up my laptop let the cutscene play and just hop on like you know like Discord or something

until the cutscene was over and then I'd be like, okay, okay, now it's time to fight again. Lock in, lock in. Like, but like, what are we doing, people? And then it's almost like multiple people design the dialogue

in this game because most of the dialogue you cannot skip. It is the slow where it types out the sentence. Like, right? And then it types it out and you're like, cool, well, I read faster than you've typed that. So let me hit the button to go to the next line.

Nope. You've got to just wait. You got to just wait. You gotta wait for the voice acting to read the line to you. There's no voice acting. That's the big issue with this game. There's no voice acting and you can't skip the dialogue. So I'm just sitting there going like,

let me skip to the next line. I can read. I don't need you to leave this on the screen this long. What is this? 1993. Other parts of the game, guess what you can do? You can skip the dialogue. So it's like, wait a minute.

Why can I skip it? Sometimes. But I can't skip it other times. Like, that's more infuriating than if you just never let me skip it. So there's just some glaring issues with this game where it's like, dude, you have to, you have to have quality of life in your game. You know what I mean? Like, as much as I hate that some of this stuff detracted from the game, it absolutely

detracted from the game for me. I know there's people that love the combat. I found the combat to be very. mundane. Like this is literally just left click your button. It tries to throw in other things where it's like you can shoot your pistol. You get this overdrive mode. You have to dodge certain. It's, it's, it's, it's not as good as Arkham by any means. So it's like I, like the combat was nice to break up the like the running and the boring platforming occasionally. But then it's like if they threw too much basically it's like here's the thing. If the game threw any one element at you for too long, it was like, uh, uh, If the game balanced it and paced it right to where it was a little bit of combat, a little bit of platforming, a little bit of running, it clicked. But there were so many times where it just overstayed its welcome on one thing or the other. It just really started to feel mundane after a while. And then I was just like, guys, this is not this, like, it's a very good premise and a beautiful game that is held back by multiple quality of life issues.

that just didn't work and overstayed their welcome. Yeah. It's a good game. It's not a great game. And it comes with some frustrations. Would I recommend it for the, I think it's $20. It's $20. Yeah.

So what I recommend it for $20. If you know what you're getting yourself into and you have the patience of a saint, then yes, I think it's absolutely worth the money. It took me 13 and a half hours to be replaced. I won't go into the the little text logs that they have you find and the little like there's oh there's a sparkle so I got to go interact with that

and then it winds up being like absolutely nothing or even sometimes like buildings that I would go into like a record store and then it's like you can interact with nine different things and it's just a description of the thing and then I'm like why did you do that? You know I can't not click on a shiny thing but then it's just a description of something like what are we doing people? So I am going to

give replaced a seven and a half. It's not a bad game, but it is not a great game. And as much as it makes me sad, because I was really, you were so high. You were really interested in for this one, dude. It just, it doesn't, it doesn't, like, you can't design a game with some of these headaches, dude, like honestly. And if they patch it, like, great. And then that will ease up some of it, but there's just parts where I felt like they tried too hard to incorporate gameplay elements, but in doing that

they made them the most basic gameplay elements you have ever seen, and that just doesn't fly, man. Like, you know what I mean? Like, you can't, it's so basic at times. And it's just like, it doesn't, this isn't clicking, man, because it's like there's nothing

fancy or interesting about this. There wasn't something that popped for you. There wasn't that one thing that was like, okay, this is the game. The graphics. The art style was the pop. The music, phenomenal. Oh, yeah. I love that music. Like, this is one of those games where it's like, I kind of want this soundtrack. The visuals in this game, really impressive. Some of the camera work for a pixel art game because the camera pans, like, I got to give him credit. There were parts of the game that were incredible. Some of the views and the vistas and the camera angles and that kind of stuff was like, bro, this is beautiful. But then the game,

The game underneath is like, this is so basic and this is so aggravating. It's almost like it should have been, you know, maybe just like an animated series versus game. That might have been a better option, like, to be honest. Would voice acting have elevated this for you in any way? No. No. Wouldn't have changed anything. It's, maybe because like the story was okay.

I mean, it's, and it goes back to like the story was basic. This story was like, you know, oh, you're an AI in this body, but the AI is learning about humanity. And then like, guess what the AI realizes? Humanity is pretty cool. People have feelings. I don't want to harvest organs from people. You know what I mean? And so it's like, it's everything is just like the most baseline that you can come up with.

And it's like, where's the, I don't know, man. I don't know. Seven and a half from me. Bunch of mayonnaise. No, I get it. I totally get it. From what I played. I'm sad because I really wanted to love.

this game. From a game that seems so like retro and out there and then it comes in as so bland to you. Like I didn't hate my time with this. Like if that makes sense, because I know it sounds like I'm being harsh on it. Like I'd never minded playing. But the whole time I'm playing, I'm like, this could be so much better. Like this could be so much better. Like, why is everything the most basic it can be? Like, so there you go. There's replaced people. Sad. Sorry, replace. It's fine.

It's fine. You know, like, it's 20 bucks. So it's like, yes, it's, it's, I mean, you should experience it for $20, but you have to know what you're getting yourself into at the same time. So, fair enough. All right. Yeah. I'll be honest.

I almost do. It does make me wonder if I would have more fun in mouse P. I have a feeling I would have more fun in mouse P.I. I know. Recap episode. We all try somebody else's game. Yeah. So.

all right Ryan let's end the show on a bang Pragmata one of the best reviewed games of the year people are saying like this game had better reviews than Expedition 33 which come on people like listen I'm so happy that people are enjoying this game but if you're trying to tell me that Pragata is Expedition 33 I instantly am going to go you sure about that

you're sure about that you sure about that so that's not to say I'm not super happy like I said I've been here I'm going to be the first to say this. I have so much FOMO over Pragmata right now. And I have a feeling Ryan's about to make it worse. Oh, 100%. So Ryan, it's going to get so much worse.

Number one, you decided to play Pragmata at the last minute. I mean, I think it was Thursday. We're recording this on Sunday. And you were like, guys, what if I play Pragmata and we just do a triple review episode? That was Ryan's idea. Yeah. So, yep. All right, Ryan.

So what made you, was it the FOMO? What made you want to do this, first of all? Um, gosh, aside from just the FOMO, like the general, I genuinely, I know you weren't the biggest fan, but I, I really liked the trailer. Um, as much as you didn't like Diana, that's this little Android girl in the, in the game. Um, I genuinely enjoyed it, uh, in the hacking and it got me interested in like, I want to experience more and see how far this goes. See what they do with the hacking. What they do with the gunplay, what the story is? And it did what a trailer is supposed to do or a demo supposed to do is it's supposed to, you know, make you buy the game. And I did. I did. So, yeah, you know, I was all, I was all gangbusters for it. So, yeah, I thought, you know, why don't we all just each play one of the games we want to play and then we can cover them all?

I just want to be clear. I think the kid is as cute as a button, by the way. It's her voice that bothers me. and I have a thing with games that tell you the most obvious thing in the world, like don't stand in the rig red circles. Like to me, that's just a personal gaming pet peeve. Maybe it's just because I've been gaming my whole life and it's like,

I know not to stand in a circle. I will say, I think Diana's cute. People have been sharing reels on the internet. And everyone I see, she's just playing in whatever like this little hub room is or whatever. And I'm just like, oh, she's so cute.

You can play hide and seek in the hub room. I don't want people thinking I'm some old grouchy curmudgeon guy. It's just the voice, people. It's just the voice that bother me. I know. So, all right. So you dive into progmata, Ryan. I mean, I have so many questions about this game.

Oh, lay on me, buddy. I'm ready. I mean, the combat in this game, my, my, I thought the combat was insanely flashy. Like, this is a Capcom game. You can tell it's super polished. You can tell it's beautiful. This is screams Capcom. To me, the being in a gunfight and then having to pause to do the little hacking mini

game on the little grid kind of thing felt disjointed to me it's like am i is this an action thing or is this not an action thing after playing it for you know i i'm you basically beat in the game at this point like how does that feel does it work does it not work does it get better because i've seen people say it gets more advanced and more complicated and stuff like that so walk me through the combat and if it works for you or not okay so the combat is something that um i guess i'll give the long long of the short is basically as you progress through this world, you are able to upgrade your hacking abilities with Diana. You're able to upgrade your weapon damage, your health, you know, all these things, different modes. You have nodes and other things that you can use as you hack.

So you're fighting an enemy, a little box pops up. When you aim at them, you have the ability to hack them, And that's how you have to do damage. You cannot, you're going to do two damage to them with every shot. And then after you hack them, you're going to do 185. You know, so you have to do that to accomplish any sort of meaningful damage to these enemies. And as you are in the combat, there's different abilities to overheat. You know, you can upgrade these things as well as the law as you go. But you can overheat the enemies.

you can do extra damage. You can make them confused and they'll fight other enemies. You know, their teammates. There's all kinds of different ways to kind of tweak things a little bit. I genuinely really loved the hacking part of it. I know it's not for everybody. I know it's not something that a lot of people really would enjoy. but the chaos of in a giant battle

when you have five different people and you can't do damage to any of them unless you hack them first. You know, it's hard and they even have, which is nice, because they have multi-hacking. So if you hack someone, you have that node set up, and as you go across these little blocks, if you go

across the multi-hacking, then if somebody's within that vicinity of that radius, it'll hack them as well so they can, you know, have damage done upon them. So you get to you get to upgrade and customize this kind of hacking system. Absolutely. Yeah. So you can start upgrading like the different nodes you have or the abilities, you know, within the hacking or how much she gets some like special or ultimate when you want to hack, you know, first off too. And that you can you can charge up. But for the just basic hacking for the regular enemies, like you can upgrade stuff. And then, you know, you want to be cognizant that you don't

always use all of your extra nodes because you want to save them for the bigger monsters sometimes. So, you know, there's, there's a lot more to it than just spamming through this little checkerboard to hack. And it, it creates this, this ridiculous sense of panic to where you are ready. You have, okay, so you're in a space suit. You're, you're this guy, you know, that's up on the moon. And you have this dash. And that's your, your jet propulsion dash. you can upgrade that as well, which is good, and it's very handy. But as you're hacking these people, they're coming to attack you. It doesn't stop.

So when you hack them, they don't freeze. They don't hold place. They're coming to get you still. And they're swinging. So as you're hacking, you have to side dash and you have multiple people. There's just, it's such a chaotic nature that I really fell in love with the hacking part of it. And having to do that within this. crazy swirl of five or six or eight enemies,

and they'll have some just filler, and then they'll have a big guy. And sometimes you can turn the big guy against the little guys or the little guys against the big guy to help you defeat him. And so there's just so much to that combat part of it. But the hacking part, I think they did a really good job. It's not going to be everybody's cup of tea. Not everybody's going to like it,

but I really thoroughly enjoyed that part of the game. Would you say that hacking is the primary part of combat? Is it a good 50-50 split? Like, how does it balance in the actual combat portion? I would say that it's, um, gosh, I felt like in the demo that they were really leaning into the hacking part. Oh, it's, I was like, bro, I just want to shoot things in the face. Like, I don't, like, this hacking thing's a neat idea, but it just didn't quite click for me. So I'm curious if it's like, yes, most of the combat in this game is about how you hack these things and the, you know, the results of that. And yes, there's gunplay after that. But the,

hacking is the forefront. Do you feel like that's fair? No, that's, that's fair. Yeah, the hacking is, um, probably 80%, I would think. Like it's, it's 70, 80%. You are, you will start to figure out your style on how you want to approach. Because you'll, they do a good job at adding, uh, multiple enemies and then they, they change those enemies and, and things are a little different, little tweaks here and there that you can do and with different upgrades and stuff. But you learn like, okay, I'm going to attack these guys first. And So then you start hacking them and then you're hacking. So that's like how you set up all of your gunplay, you know,

throughout like a combat zone because you'll get into a section and then you get kind of locked in and you have to fight all these guys. And that's what kind of keeps happening throughout. But it's always seems to be a little bit different. There's always a little tweak with guys. And then, you know, like I said, you figure out how you like to attack this person first. because I know I hack him. If I don't get a multi-hack, I can hack him,

and I can kill him in three or four headshots. And then that one's done, and I can, you know, jolt away and then get safe and then try the next guy. And so there is definitely like a sequence that you develop, you know, within the hacking. Just strategy. Yeah, yeah. It comes like a puzzle game almost in that way.

Oh, for sure. Like, yeah, with how you're going to, not only do you have to hack. And then it's different every time. Like, you get this grid and there's different blocks. And then it changes throughout to where certain blocks later, on are like glitched out and you can't you can't hack through those and it'll delay you. So they do a really good job on on making that a really big part of the game, but also it's kind of fresh every time.

So so the story in this game, because again, all I'm seeing is reels of Diana. You know, she's cute as a button. It's, you know, they're, what were they calling this dad space? I think instead of dead space. A lot of people are calling it dad space. I mean, without, getting, giving spoilers. What's the, what's the exceptional part of this game, I guess? Because I mean,

I'm looking at on Steam right now, you know, because I let in with this. But this game is sitting at a 97% on Steam with 8,700 reviews. 97% dude. Like that is, that's freaking fantastic. It's really good.

So like, what is it about this game? Is it the story? Is it the combat? Is it just that this is a completely polished game with like good characters, good gameplay, and a good story. Like what is it that sets this apart? I will say that, like you said, it's Capcom.

The graphics are phenomenal. I think the layout and design what they created in the world they created, you're on this moon base and you're stuck there and, you know, whatever happens happens. But, you know, I think the setting is amazing. They created a beautiful world for you to play through. I think overall, the story itself is lacking for me. I did not feel, as I do, and I'm a big story guy.

I'm a big cutscene guy. I will never skip one. I want to see what's going on. I want to see the connection and the bond. I did not feel the biggest connection to these characters. I absolutely felt it with Diana. But their connection, Hugh is the main guy. I did not feel their connection that much.

It seemed almost like forced. Like, oh, we got to make these two like each other and he's got to be kind of like that. I don't like kids, but I got this android like little girl. I'm going to be like a dad, you know, to her and uncle. Like it just felt forced to me. It didn't feel as genuine as it could have felt. But the story was just kind of the thing that was there. Like I think overall the biggest reason for the.

Yeah, it was just a reason. It's the reason why you're there. They lost connection with, with, uh, this facility. You're going in to check on things. And that's that, you know, that's kind of the biggest part of it. And, um, you kind of go from there and then some things happen with AI and all that stuff. But yeah, the, the story was not that much of the game. It's a very, very small part.

So is it just the polish? I mean, you said, you started off by kind of saying it's Capcom. So is it just that this game's super polished. It's beautiful and it plays well? Is that kind of just the package deal? Yeah, I think it plays beautifully. I think there's amazing polish. I think the gunplay and the mechanics are great.

And overall, it's one of those, I feel like not, not as a derogatory term, but I feel like it's like a palate cleanser. Like this is not one you're going to go back to over and over and over, but it's a really good quality game to show that you can make a game that's, you know, 12 to 13, 14 hours that you play one or two times and that's your experience with it. And that's, you enjoy it, you love it. And you're done after that.

Um, you did, not every game has to be that, you know, live service. Yeah, life service. We're going to 14 DLCs. This is totally, you hop in. Yeah, it's totally a, you hop in, you play this game, you play this world, you experience it. And then when you're done, you're done. And I, and I think that's fair. And it, you know, at 60 bucks. That's okay.

That's okay to have a game like that. Yeah, it's okay to have a game like that for sure. I think for 60 bucks, you start to get on that line of like, is that worth it or not? But I was totally happy with what I experienced for that price point and for what was there. Okay. So, well, that was going to be my question is, is it worth the money? So it sounds like it is. I think so.

How would you rate prognat? I mean, it's a 97%, man. So apparently people freaking love this game. We've been seeing it on our Discord server. I mean, everybody's got a lot of praise for it. I admitted I have FOMO on this one, to be honest. You know, it's just one of those things. It's hard to see people loving a game.

And then you're like, well, I want to love the game too. I want to go. I want to go play. Like, how would you rate Pragata? I mean, your personal opinion on this, what would you be your rating? So I guess before I give the exact rating, I'm just going to say a couple things that I had an issue with were, I feel like I was upgrading things

and I was doing stuff and the interactions with main kind of, you know, junk mobs or anything else was more entertaining than the bosses. The bosses felt long and just squishy and just

I would get bored. After 40% of damage, I'm like, I'm literally doing the same thing over for 15, 20 minutes. I'm like, what is the point in this? And it's like, it's not like, the way you upgrade like you can't just go out and just kill mobs to upgrade you have to find these these certain things and that's how you upgrade your damage and stuff so i did feel like that was

a big drag and a big miss because some of the mobs are i mean some of the bosses are really cool but they just went on too long and so that took away a little bit from it but overall i love the hacking i love the gunplay i love the general gameplay graphics were amazing story was a little lacking for me there was there was some connection to it but not as much as I would have liked. It felt a little forced. I'm going to give an 8.7. I think it's a really, really good game. I think it's worth the money.

I think if you're interested, check it out. You're going to know pretty quick, probably, if you like it or not, because they kind of throw you in right away. But other than that, it was a solid game. And I will say I'm happy I played it. Do you feel like the demo was indicative of the overall game experience? slightly slightly because I think

because once you start upgrading things and changing things and you get these different weapons because you do have different weapons and you do we talked in the pre-show about loadouts like you can get different loadouts where you have charging pistols and static launchers

that like just put a dome that locks the enemies in place and they can't move so that you can hack them a couple times to like charge up their stuff so there's a lot more after the demo but if you like like kind of the basic premise, I think, I think you would enjoy the game.

All right. So 8.74 progmata from, I feel like, I feel like if I play pragmata, I, you know, this might I think you would like it. I feel like I'd be like right in your range where it's like, this isn't a nine. I, you know, I'm really glad people are loving it, but it's like, I don't know that this is like, you know, game of the year type game either. I think it's just a throwback solid, just genuine good game. It's a good game. It doesn't have to be a life service. It doesn't have to have 50 DLCs. It's one that you sit and you play and you enjoy it. And then you can talk about it later with friends and stuff,

but like, you know, it's not going to be a constant in your life. And I like seeing that it's a AAA title that's $60. And they're not trying to do the, that's always necessary. The $80, $80.

And it's a new IP for this either. A new IP in this day and age. Like, yeah. Go figure. All right. Well, there you go.

So A's, what was rating on mouse PI again? 8.9 for Ace and Ace is a recommend from Ace. Replace for me is a 7.5. It is a recommend at the price point as long as you understand that there are some pain points for replaced. But if you want to just enjoy the visuals, the music, and the atmosphere, it's probably worth that alone. And then Pragata, an 8.7 from Ryan. Guys, our first triple deep dive episode, we went all. on this one. We knew we would, but hey, man, you know, we're here for the people.

Three game reviews in one episode. If you want to know more, if you want to dig into, you know, if you have questions about Replaced or Pragata or MousePI, come ask us. I don't know if people realize this, but we have a Discord server that we are on every single day and we are active. We will answer questions. We love talking to people. We love hopping in and playing games with people. there's going to be people like, yeah, you guys don't really do that. Yes, we do. Yes, we absolutely do.

Not months. It's us. It's us. We're there for you. Not that we're special. Exactly. So come join our Discord server. Come join our community.

We're up to 13. Actually, like 1,350 gamers, I think. That are on there. It's super active. But if you have questions and you want to know more, come ask us. We answer. We love chat and games.

So come in, tag us. Ask a question if you want to know more about that. We're there all the time. Elsa, you're just going to be part of the greatest gaming community on the planet. Right now there's people playing hell divers together. People are playing super battle golf. The Rust server is kicking and up and running. So there's people in there play Rust all the time.

But if you want other gamers to play with, if you love chatting games and you hate the toxicity or the opinion shaming or any of that stuff that happens to go along with gaming online, none of that exists in this community. We know that sounds crazy, but trust us, it's real. And if that sounds good to you, we want you to be a part of it. If you would like to support the show, you can do that on Patreon. There's a link in the episode description. You get access to our pre-show and Ace's Waffle House habits that we found out about

in the pre-show there, so you can come and check that out. Poor Ace. I'm not talking to you guys about food anymore. Never told you about anything about food. I'll starve. before I talk about food again. Yeah. Well, that is going to do it for this one, everybody.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Remember to follow the podcast, click that plus button, that follow button so you get our shows the day that they release. That's going to do it for this one. Until next time, happy gaming. See ya. It was time to end the show and close the book on this case. But questions remained unanswered.

Who had played the cheddar game? We may never know, but you should at this point. It was me. Peace out!