'PRAGMATA' Review: More Human Than Human

Capcom has been on an absolute heater over the last several years. Already in 2026, two of its established series, Resident Evil and Monster Hunter, have delivered strong new entries. Now, the publisher is turning to a new IP with PRAGMATA, a game that’s been in development for over five years. Sometimes, a lengthy cycle like that portends issues. That isn’t the case here.

Let’s not waste any time, though, how you feel about PRAGMATA will ultimately come down to whether you like the game’s hacking component as it's essential to progression. Hacking your robotic foes opens their armor, making them vulnerable to weapons. Simply shooting enemies without hacking is impractical and ineffective, so there’s no path to success even if you just try to minimize that aspect of the game.

While I could see it as a “your mileage may vary” situation, I enjoyed it. It felt like a fresh idea, and it demands a different approach than other shooters. Rather than just being about how quickly and accurately you can line up targets, PRAGMATA drills down on spatial awareness and multitasking as most encounters require you to overcome multiple bots of varying types at once. That necessitates quickly transitioning from the grid-based hacking element to shooting while also dodging foes and projectiles.

In the early hours, I had some concerns as to how effectively the hacking would remain interesting, but to the game’s credit, it frequently mixes in new wrinkles to keep things fresh. Some enemies will raise shields to block access to the hacking board until you destroy them. Others will be corrupted, lining blocks in a purple haze that slows your progress through the grid unless you dispel the corruption.

As you progress, you’ll also unlock the ability to equip special nodes that then appear on the hacking grid. If you forge a path through these nodes, you’ll trigger additional effects like freezing enemies, inflicting more damage, or even temporarily overriding their programming so they become your ally. They have finite uses, however, so you need to plan when you want to deploy them—in that way, the nodes become de facto obstacles when facing lesser bots as you wind your way around to avoid wasting them.

Weapon variety is also solid. Beyond your standard pistol, which has infinite ammo but works on a cooldown system, so you get limited shots before having to wait, you’ll get weapons that break into three categories: damage, support, and defensive. Tethered to the four directions on the d-pad, these can be things like a shotgun-like close-quarters gun for damage, a stasis rifle for support, and a decoy hologram for defense.

Put it all together, and you have solid, varied gameplay at the heart of PRAGMATA that affords you numerous different ways to handle the assorted bots out to stop you. There are also some standalone challenges accessed through the Shelter, which serves as the game’s central hub with multiple access points in each level, allowing players to return as needed to upgrade their suit, weapons, and abilities.

Returning to the Shelter also lets you change up your loadout, reload all your guns, and refill your healing canisters. They’re spaced out to provide ample opportunities to rest up and typically follow large-scale combat, so don’t feel like you need to hoard your more powerful weapons. This game isn’t about ammo scarcity or resource management.

The challenges are split into combat and traversal, and they represent some of the toughest tests in the game. This is due in large part to each challenge having specific available gear and weapons, meaning your upgrades don’t help in there. They also lay bare the floaty movement of your character, which can lead to frustration when you must navigate shifting platforms with precision jumps and dashes. The main game never asks for that same level of dexterity, though, so it’s a minor gripe.

On the story side, PRAGMATA tells a decent, albeit derivative tale of technology pushed to the limit until man’s creations inevitably rebel. You play as Hugh Williams, sent from Earth as part of a small team to fix whatever issue has caused a communication disruption with a lunar research station that’s been conducting experiments deemed unfit to be carried out on Earth.

The game wastes little time in hurling you into the fray as a “moonquake” decimates parts of the facility, leaving Hugh unconscious and his team deceased. When he comes to, he meets an android designed in the likeness of a young girl, who he names Diana. The two of them then set out to contact Earth while dealing with a rogue AI known as IDUS that is hellbent on stopping the duo at all costs.

Most of the sci-fi story exists on a surface level, and PRAGMATA makes the debatable decision to leave some of the most interesting elements to data logs you only find by exploring. Where the game does push the narrative is through the budding father-daughter relationship that forms between Hugh and Diana.

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This could have come off as groan-inducing if mishandled. To the game’s credit, however, Diana’s cutesy demeanor and doe-eyed innocence are largely endearing, which is a massive help to keeping the campaign on track. That’s not to say it doesn’t have issues—the second coming of Joel and Ellie, this is not.

Whether by design or not, Hugh is a vanilla protagonist, and with so little time spent with his crewmates (read: the only other humans in the game) before things go sideways, he doesn’t really have defined motivations beyond “I need to contact Earth.” That mindset changes to one of a protector, though, and it’s a journey that happens a bit too fast.

Part of the reason Joel’s relationship with Ellie in The Last of Us delivered so effectively was the backstory with him and his daughter, Sarah. We knew Joel had been a father, what losing his daughter meant and we saw how Ellie began to fill that role. There’s no such origin story for Hugh and no clear reason for him to form such a tight bond with an android.

Location variety is also disappointing. Although the game looks good, and the Times Square level is a showcase, much of your time is spent in sterile corridors and rooms. With the facility featuring what’s basically a gigantic 3D printer, the opportunity was there to have Hugh and Diana visit areas inspired by other real-world locations or even time periods from history. Instead, you get Times Square, a semi-wooded area, and little else. It’s a missed opportunity.

At around 15 hours, PRAGMATA feels about the right length, and its gameplay was engaging to the point that I reached 100 percent clearance in every area and finished all the Shelter challenges. There is also some end-game content, including a New Game Plus mode and higher difficulty, that can extend things for those who want more of the action.

Final Score (8.5/10)

While PRAGMATA leaves some meat on the bone with its story and limited locales, the hybrid hacking and shooting template more than makes up for those shortcomings. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game and hope we see a sequel down the road.