Pragmata preview: This Capcom game isn’t what you expect
Capcom’s Pragmata was first announced all the way back in 2020, but after going dormant for years, it finally reemerged in the lead up to Summer Game Fest 2025, with a new trailer shown during PlayStation’s June State of Play.
When I visited Capcom at Summer Game Fest to check out Resident Evil Requiem and some other stuff, I also got to play about 20 minutes of Pragmata. Going in, I was told I was my group was one of the first to play it outside of the company, and I really didn’t know what to expect.
I’m happy to say that what I played is fairly different than anything I was imagining, and while it’s only a smaller slice, I’m curious to see more in the future.
My time with Pragmata opened on an abandoned research station where a man named Hugh is gravely injured. An android named Diana (who has the form of a young girl) helps heal Hugh’s injuries.
While he’s confused as to what’s going on, there’s not much time to ponder, as the duo are almost immediately attacked by other (seemingly less-advanced) androids.
It’s here the core loop of Pragmata becomes apparent, and it’s pretty unique. Androids have thick armor and take extremely low amounts of damage from your weapons, making them almost impossible to kill…until they’re hacked. Hopping onto Hugh’s back, Diana helps by hacking androids via a real-time minigame that plays out with a controller’s face buttons.
You have to juggle dodging and firing with pulling up the hack, with sounds frenetic (and it is) but after just a couple of minutes, it became surprisingly intuitive. I’m genuinely shocked at how good it feels, and I was invested in trying to hack enemy androids as quickly as possible.
Exploring the station reveals a bit more on the gameplay front. In addition to his pistol, which has infinite ammo but recharges slowly, Hugh can pick up heavier guns to use against the machines.
These guns are powerful, with a weapon that causes a paralyzing field that traps anything within standing out in particular.
These guns are immediately discarded upon running out of ammo, however, meaning I was always on my toes looking for more. There’s also some mild platforming elements, as you’ll have to jump and dodge lasers or mantle up to a new level.
Running on a PlayStation 5 Pro, everything looked good as you’d expect from a game running on RE Engine, though the framerate did feel a bit inconsistent when various particle effects went off.
By the end of the session, I was really feeling the flow of combat,
While I really enjoyed this slice that I’ve played, I do still have a number of questions. Games require escalation, and I’m excitedly fearful as to how complicated the hacking might look like toward the end.
I also still don’t have a great grasp on where the story is headed, so it would be beneficial for Capcom to share more on that front in the future.
All that said, I’m now looking forward to a game that, a few months ago, I wasn’t sure would ever see the light of day.
Pragmata is slated to launch at some point in 2026 across Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Steam), and PlayStation 5.