Every so often a new game comes along and blows expectations out of the water. Often times of late it seems that game is being published by Capcom. The publisher has certainly been on a legendary run this generation. So does their newest IP Pragmata continue that trend? The answer is a resounding yes.

Honestly the fact that I am just finishing Pragmata and writing a review now, 2 months after release should be considered a crime. Such is life sometimes though and regardless of when I got to it, I’m glad I did.

In Pragmata you play as Hugh Williams, a systems engineer for Delphi Corporation. Delphi has setup a massive manufacturing plant on the moon called The Cradle. The Cradle mines lunafilament from the moon and it gets processed in Lim replicators.

These Lim replicators then let those in The Cradle create anything they want using 3D Printers. As long as there is a blueprint, The Cradle can create it. There is a small community of humans on the moon making sure things run smoothly, but mostly The Cradle is run by an AI system called IDUS.

Unfortunately communications from The Cradle and earth have stopped so Hugh and his team are sent up to investigate. Upon arrival things seem off with no one in site. Then a moonquake hits, Hugh loses the rest of his team and himself barely survives, only to be saved by a small child.

Which AI Can Hugh Trust?

As Hugh gets saved by this child he quickly realizes that this is no normal child. Instead it is one of the AI robot’s up in The Cradle. At first Hugh is very dismissive of the AI as he doesn’t trust them, or any AI. Of course that quickly changes the more it helps him as he then gives it a name, Diana, and begins to bond with it.

And what a big help Diana turns out to be. The 2 begin to make their way through The Cradle to try and get a message back to earth but the IDUS, the Cradle’s AI has gone rogue and is trying to kill them, and likely killed all the other humans already.

IDUS continues to send waves of robots of all sizes to try and stop Hugh and Diana. The pair realize that if they are ever going to get Hugh back to earth and save The Cradle, they need to reboot IDUS and set out to do so.

I won’t dig into the story too much beyond this as I want to avoid spoilers, but the story is quite strong in Pragmata. In the roughly 12 hours or so it took to play through the game I was fully invested. There are more than enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes.

The star of the game though is the relationship between Hugh and Diana. As mentioned it starts with distrust from Hugh but by the end it is a super beautiful bond they have. For Capcom to have made me care this much about an AI robot is impressive stuff. AI or not Diana felt as real as it can get and often times made me think of my own daughter as I was playing.

Hack n’ Shoot

If the story and relationship between Hugh and Diana isn’t enough to get you interested, the gameplay will definitely hook you. Pragmata is a linear third person shooter. While that may sound like a lot of games, what really sets Pragmata apart is the hacking you do on top of the shooting.

In order to do real damage to the robot enemies you must first use Diana’s hack ability. This puts a bit of a mini game on your screen as you navigate from point A to point B within the box to hit a switch. Doing so will cause damage to the robot and it will also expose it’s weak spots to Hugh allowing his guns to do even more damage.

As the game progresses the hacking gets even more important and difficult. Diana will learn hacking abilities that will create nodes within the hacking mini game. Moving over these in the hacking process will allow the hack to potentially do more damage or affect the robots in different ways. Confuse for example will make the robots attack each other for a time while freeze will, well freeze them.

There are also bigger and stronger robots that will make the hacking more difficult. With obstacles in your way to avoid and things that will make Diana’s hacking slower. This makes you think about the path you want to take in the hacking game and can slow you down.

And slowing you down is a big issue considering the enemies are still attacking you during the hacking sequences. Yes you have to dodge enemies while also doing the hacking. I was skeptical at first on how this was going to work but they have done a good job overall with it.

Even without the hacking Pragamta’s shooting mechanics would be decent enough. Hugh has a variety of weapons throughout the game that all feel different. I will say I found myself more or less sticking with the same 4 weapons unless I absolutely had to use something else, but that’s maybe just a me thing.

The only real negative I can say about the combat is that near the end it started feeling a bit monotonous. The boss battles were fresh but the moment to moment combat battles had lost their appeal a bit. Because of the hacking game enemies move quite slowly and in a predictable way which made it a bit less fun after the 100th time dealing with the same enemy. Perhaps in the games harder difficulty you get after completing it once that might change, but I can’t say at the moment.

The Shelter

The other main section of Pragmata is The Shelter. The Shelter is essentially the hub in which Hugh and Diana have their base of operations throughout the game. Pragmata features a tram system that allows you to travel to each of the games 6 areas. You will find various hatches out in the world that act kind of like checkpoints and let you head back to The Shelter.

The Shelter is where you can do plenty of things with Hugh and Diana. There is a machine that allows you to upgrade Hugh’s suit, main weapon and Diana’s hacking ability. There is also another machine that lets you buy the new weapons you find out in The Cradle and upgrade them using the supplies you find along the way.

There is also a training simulation machine that allows you to practice your movements and weapons all while gaining new supplies. These all have 3 objectives and vary from quite easy to rather difficult. I didn’t spend a ton of time in the training sim, but it added another element to the game.

And while all of this is necessary to make Hugh and Diana stronger and progress through the game, what really makes The Shelter shine is the interactions with Hugh and Diana. Hugh can collect 3D blueprints of special things from earth and recreate them to give as a gift to Diana.

These items give Diana things to do in The Shelter and give her a taste of what earth is like. A slide, balloons, a campfire and more. I wasn’t even trying to go into Pragmata going for the collectibles but I couldn’t help but want to to get these items for Diana.

Hugh and Diana can also have conversations about earth and also what they just dealt with in The Cradle. These are optional but with how invested I was in their relationship I talked to Diana every chance I got to learn a bit more. She will even colour cute pictures for Hugh and ask to play games like hide-n-seek.

Final Thoughts

Pragmata is a truly special game. Capcom has managed to create a new IP that resonated with me on a deep level despite its premise being about robots. While its gameplay can get a little monotonous by the end, everything else about the game is more than enough to overlook that.

The relationship between Hugh and Diana is one that everyone should experience and I hope Capcom can find a way to make Pragmata a franchise because it deserves to be on the same level as Resident Evil, Monster Hunter and more from the publisher.

Pragmata was reviewed on Xbox Series X. The game released on April 17, 2026 and is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC.