Pragmata

Since its 2020 announcement during the PlayStation 5 reveal event, Pragmata has been one of the most enigmatic projects on the horizon. The mysterious game has been delayed multiple times, leading some to worry Capcom had another Deep Down on its hands. Thankfully, that’s not the case: Pragmata is indeed real, and after playing 30 minutes of it during Summer Game Fest Play Days in Los Angeles, I’m itching to learn more about this sci-fi adventure.

The game stars Hugh Williams, an astronaut sent with a team to investigate a lunar research station on the Moon called the Cradle after it mysteriously goes silent. Upon his arrival, a quake devastates the facility and incapacitates him. Thankfully, he’s rescued by Diana, an android bearing the appearance of a young girl, who patches him up. My demo begins after Diana gets Hugh back on his feet, and the two must now brave a space station overrun by deadly robots and a hostile AI to escape back to Earth.

Pragmata is a third-person over-the-shoulder shooter, but it has a twist courtesy of Diana (who rides on Hugh's back). Shooting robots does little harm thanks to their armored plating, but Diana can hack enemies to temporarily immobilize and expose their internal circuitry for Hugh to shoot. Hacking is a mini-game where players aim at enemies, then use the face buttons as a D-pad to navigate a grid interface. The goal is to guide a cursor to a green square to complete the hacking, but you must pass through as many blue squares as possible along the way. 

It’s reminiscent of dialing numbers on a (rather large) phone keypad, and the key is to find an optimal route to the green path, as some squares are unavailable. Since hacking unfolds in real time – the game doesn’t pause, so enemies still attack – you must hack foes quickly to stop them in their tracks before blowing them to scrap metal. This creates a fun, frantic pace during combat as I try to complete hacks while evading incoming attacks. Special nodes add abilities to hacks, and activating multiples of them stacks their effect. Yellow nodes lower a hacked target’s defense, for example. You can bypass these special nodes, but gaining an extra upper hand may be worth the extra effort to activate them.  

As Hugh, I wielded a standard pistol called a Grip Gun, the shotgun-like Shockwave Gun, and the Statis Net, which traps enemies in an energy field, providing a window to hack them unimpeded. Gunplay feels good, and the machines explode in a satisfying shower of parts. It takes getting used to, but the rhythm of hacking and then shooting gels well while adding a reflex-based strategy to traditional gunplay. 

Exploring the relatively linear slice of the Cradle is aided by a scanner pointing toward the objective that also highlights collectibles. These include repair cartridges to regain health (of which you can only carry limited amounts), diary entries, and hologram messages from the Cradle’s crew. Gaining access to locked areas or solving puzzles requires different forms of hacking games, such as hitting a correct sequence of face buttons within a few seconds. Between the action, I enjoy Hugh and Diana’s banter. Diana’s innocent, playful demeanor is cute, and Hugh, who I expected to offer a gruff contrast, seems rather genial and even amused by Diana’s presence.  

This small slice of Pragmata I played alleviates some fears about the game’s status, and I’m digging its blend of hacking and gunplay. We’ll have to wait until 2026 to see how Hugh and Diana make it back to Earth, but I’m willing to let Capcom cook after a positive first showing.