Pragmata (PS5) Review: Unique Capcom Shooter Is a Blast

No publisher has been as steady with its high-quality hits as Capcom has been over the past couple of years. Now the company follows up Resident Evil Requiem (the ninth main entry in the long-running franchise) with an original third-person shooter called Pragmata. Featuring fun weapons, some gorgeous robot designs, and some of the most unique gameplay you’ll find this year, Capcom has delivered another game of the year contender — incredibly, its third since 2026 began.

It only took me about 30 minutes to be truly sucked into Pragmata, which can be summed up as the most PS3-style PS5 game to be released this year. While a comparison to two console generations ago might be read as a dig at its graphics or being dated, that isn’t the case here, as it looks gorgeous and feels fresh from start to finish. Instead, it is a reference to its design philosophy, as it is experimenting with a genre we’re all aware of and winds up providing a wholly unique experience unlike anything I’ve played before.

While the game’s opening feels a lot like Dead Space, as you explore an eerily empty space station until finding a bunch of foes that want to murder you, it quickly shifts gears and becomes its own experience. What makes Pragmata so unique is that you’ve got a little girl android named Diana hanging onto your back the entire time, and she uses her technology to hack the robots trying to attack you. This is all done by navigating grids shaped like the enemies with the DualSense’s face buttons. There is a learning curve, as you’ve got to pay attention to foes walking towards you while also figuring out how to collect hacking boosts in the grids (which can often be like mazes) before finishing them, but it becomes incredibly satisfying and fun.

It’s so rare to get to experience something this fresh and polished. Typically, when a game has this exciting an innovation, it feels 80% of the way there and is rough around the edges, essentially begging for a sequel. However, you constantly get upgrades to the game’s hacking mechanic, and there’s a great amount of depth to it, rather than it being a neat idea that quickly gets repetitive. I was really impressed with how fully-featured and thought-out every aspect of the combat was, with its spectacular boss battles really forcing you to bring your A-game to survive the encounters.

Complementing the combat is the game’s tremendous sense of exploration. Moving around the space base is a lot of fun (you’ve got a hover and a quick-dodge), and the game rewards players for being thorough with bonuses that allow you to upgrade your character’s abilities and skills. From collectible toys for Diana to play with in the hub world to costumes you can unlock by playing simulator missions, there are a lot of extras to experience if you want to fully dive into the game rather than speeding through its 12-hour adventure.

Pragmata also has a pretty interesting sci-fi world at its core, with a moon research station gone haywire due to a hostile AI system sending robots to attack you, and advanced 3D printing being able to create anything — even a recollection of New York City. However, the story of contacting Earth and finding artificial companionship while destroying every other robot you see never quite gets out of second gear, and its relatively dull protagonist (also a common trait of many PS3 games) doesn’t elevate any of the sequences. The story is ultimately the game’s weakest element, even if it has a nice theme of found family, but it keeps the game moving and doesn’t get in the way of why the rest of Pragmata is so great.

Pragmata (PS5) Review: Final Verdict

Disclosure: The publisher provided a digital copy for our Pragmata PS5 review. Reviewed on version 1.200.000.