Set on Earth’s moon in the not-too-distant future, Pragmata tells the tale of Hugh Williams, one member of a team dispatched to the Cradle, a lunar research station managed by the Delphi Corporation. It quickly becomes apparent that things are bad on the surface of the moon; none of the staff can be found anywhere, alive or dead; the station has gone mysteriously silent. Hugh is quickly separated from the rest of his team and forced to explore alone, hounded by the station’s rogue AI, IDUS, through various compromised robots found throughout the facility.
Pragmata twists what could otherwise be a very rote FPS into something unique through one simple change – Hugh just cannot damage these robots on his own. Protected by armoured plating, his default pistol and other weapons he finds along the way barely scratch their health bars. It’s only after meeting a childlike android named Diana that Hugh finally has a chance; Diana can hack into these bots and set them to a vulnerable state, cracking open their armoured shells and exposing all their delicate internal components for Hugh to target.
Essentially, this is Pragmata’s risk/reward system – perched on your back, Diana can hack these bots in real-time while you fight, navigating a grid-based maze for you to rapidly navigate through with the face buttons while still avoiding attacks in combat as Hugh. Getting hit will cancel out of your hack, so the combat experience becomes a fight on two simultaneous fronts. Like Steve in our preview, I found myself concerned that this interplay wouldn’t remain engaging through the whole game: unlock and pop, rinse and repeat.
Pragmata however does a great job of slowly expanding on this concept, adding layers of complexity with roadblocks on the hack puzzles, new hacking nodes that can apply status effects or other modifiers, and mode change chips that alter the basic makeup of the puzzles themselves. After a while, I found that combat encounters almost felt like a rhythm game; while my initial worry was over needing to visually focus on two different fights at once, Pragmata efficiently splits the fights between your senses.
Over time you get to know the selection of enemy types and their attack patterns, along with the distinct sounds or visuals to signal different actions. I found that halfway through, I was instinctively timing blocks purely from the sounds they made and a sense for their timing honed from repeat encounters. This skill comes in especially clutch as the combat encounters become more and more complex, layering different robots and their attack patterns on top of each other.
It’s a major blessing in Pragmata that the character of Diana is such a joy to have around, because there’s a fine line to walk with a child character who ALWAYS has to be with you. Thankfully, Capcom has found the sweet spot between kid and machine for her, blending curiosity and excitability with a hyper-competent AI who knows computer systems and little else.
I found myself really liking Diana as things went on, as she quizzes Hugh about Earth and different human concepts one second and then points a machine and speaks binary code at superspeed to override its systems, or chomps on a memory card to absorb the data within the next. The pseudo father-daughter bond that slowly develops between Hugh and Diana really helps to humanise them both, and creates greater stakes for them both as the story draws to a close.
Pragmata embraces the Metroidvania or gatepunk model, packing every zone with hidden goodies that require either curiosity or specific skills to reach, encouraging you to revisit the various zones of the Cradle as you expand your repertoire. Fake walls, bizarre crystal formations and hidden paths are everywhere, though you’re eventually given tools to more easily track down these goodies – which range from upgrade materials or Lim currency, to keycards to unlock challenge rooms and Cabin Coins that let you unlock bingo cards (yes really) to unlock items like costumes and extra materials at your home base.
Your home base, the Shelter, lets you pursue those upgrades as well as showcasing your various collectibles. Over Pragmata‘s runtime, the Shelter will be upgraded multiple times to include enemy logs, documents that expand on the world’s story, as well as custom costumes and VR challenge missions to earn even more resources. You’ll also accumulate mementos of Earth for Diana to interact with, slowly expanding her understanding of the human world.
Unfortunately Pragmata suffers in one area that a gatepunk game never should: a bad map. Despite how layered and vertical a lot of the Cradle’s areas can be, you only have access to a very simple, too-zoomed-out, top-down map which does not track your location in real time. Too often I found myself getting turned around trying to re-navigate an old area, just because I couldn’t figure out where on the area map I even was to start with. In something so focused on exploration and discovery, you really feel the absence of a clear and detailed map to reference.
By the end of a tidy 8-10 hour playtime, I was really impressed with what Capcom has achieved with an all-new title, building a unique and vibrant world, even on the barren surface of the moon. Its team have found a great way to turn what could be a very bland, monotone moon base into a place that’s full of colour, surprises and variety as you travel around the Cradle.
With additional post-game content to enjoy as well as a new game plus mode to explore, Pragmata feels like it’s operating in the Resident Evil model of “play it through, then play it again better” – and it works! With so much left to discover across the Cradle before I’ve cleared the place fully, I look forward to more time with Hugh and Diana before we return to Terra Firma.
Pragmata was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5, as provided by the publisher. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.
 |
Pragmata17 April 2026PC PS5 Switch 2 Xbox Series S & X
|
This article may contain affiliate links, meaning we could earn a small commission if you click-through and make a purchase. Stevivor is an independent outlet and our journalism is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative.
