Pragmata takes third-person combat to an unexpected, puzzling dimension

In a world where Monster Hunter Wilds is going great guns, Street Fighter 6 continues to delight fighting game fans, and new Resident Evil and Onimusha games are on the way, it's easy to forget that Capcom will soon be delivering something totally new and fresh away from its major, dependable franchises. I've always perceived Pragmata as a slightly odd project, both from the strange themes of its past trailers and the seemingly bumpy development process it's endured. But the mystery surrounding it has led to it constantly being on my 'will it appear?' radar before any major showcase. Well, Summer Game Fest delivered, with a new trailer, a 2026 release window, and a 20-minute demo that I got to try at SGF Play Days in Los Angeles. While in many aspects Pragmata feels like a fairly typical third-person space shooter, it also delivers a few successful surprises.

For the unaware, Pragmata revolves around the space-suit-clad Hugh as the main controllable protagonist, but after some kind of life-threatening issue aboard a station orbiting the moon, he is saved by a mysterious android girl named Diana. Dressed in blue and with a swishing veil of bright blonde hair, she is a striking contrast to the game's futuristic, metallic, sanitized environments. That much we knew already, thanks to past trailers. But Capcom has been fairly tight-lipped and secretive about what kind of gameplay experience you'll find in Pragmata. Until now.

Throughout the game, Diana will sit on Hugh's back and use her remote hacking abilities to open new pathways, bypass security protocols, and, most importantly, assist heavily in combat. This is the first big surprise that Pragmata threw at me. While Hugh is responsible for gunning down the space station's rogue robots with a range of energy-powered weapons, he can only do so once Diana has broken an enemy's shield. To do that, you must aim at an enemy to trigger what is, essentially, the kind of hacking puzzle typically reserved in other action games and RPGs for opening locked doors, decrypting messages, breaking into computer terminals, and the like. However, Capcom has made it a core combat mechanic here.

There's also no slow motion, pausing, or sub-menus - the puzzle floats next to Hugh and Diana and needs to be solved in real time while still controlling Hugh's movement and dodging enemy attacks.

Cracking this puzzle involves using the face buttons of your controller to move a cursor around a grid to a green node. Doing so will break the enemy's shield. However, you'll have to navigate around some obstacle nodes and, if you're speedy, you can take longer routes to also hit bonus nodes that will cause enemies to take more damage from Hugh's weapons. As an additional restriction to stop you from just spraying and praying after completing Diana's puzzle, Hugh can target blue glowing weak spots to slow enemies and dispatch them more quickly.

Juggling real-time third-person combat and a hacking minigame (especially when playing on a controller) sounds like it should be a complete mess. But it's really not. It works intuitively. The mastery will no doubt come when more elaborate puzzles and tougher enemies are thrown at you, but for this small slice, this seemingly complex loop was surprisingly quick to pick up and enjoy.

I'll caveat this with a potential concern: I'm a little worried that doing this hacking puzzle for every single enemy across the entire game may become wearisome. However, from what I played, it's a refreshing combat mechanic presented in a novel way.

In truth, Pragmata needs it. While the gunplay is satisfying, there are dozens of other games that can say the same. Movement feels fine and features a boost pack, but - again - we've seen that all before. The lunar station interior, the view of the moon out of the window, and the design of the android enemies are visually impressive, but there are plenty of other breathtaking space games out there. At this stage, I don't see Pragmata being best-in-class for these key pillars of the genre, but experiencing its puzzle game elements has made me keen to play more.

So too have the game's unusual stakes and the relationship between Hugh and Diana. The short demo I played was seemingly set at the very start of the game as the two encounter and interact with each other for the first time, so there wasn't much time to explore any story beats. However, the pair quickly built trust with each other in the opening minutes, and I'm excited to see where that leads in the full game.

Pragmata was always a different choice for Capcom to make, as it could've easily stuck to what it knows best with its popular, dependable franchises. Its real-time fusion of action and puzzling makes it even braver still, and I think this combat innovation (alongside its mysterious story) will help it stand out, even if it doesn't take that many risks in other areas. After finally going hands-on, Pragmata remains a game I can't stop thinking about.