I’ll be honest, Pragmata wasn’t even on my radar until those weird, haunting trailers started cropping up. The whole “Capcom goes rogue on the moon” thing set my curiosity dial to eleven, especially after so many years of them sticking close to their “remake and refine” comfort zone. So when I got the chance to actually pick up the sticks for a hands-on demo-just 20 minutes, but packed with surprises-I leapt in, skeptical but hungry for something to break the action-adventure formula wide open.
I showed up for my first session bracing for the usual slow-burn sci-fi setup—maybe a little walking and gawking, some moody robot monologue, then the tutorial shooting gallery. That expectation lasted all of about two minutes.
Instead, the demo throws you into the aftermath of some unseen disaster: Hugh (your battered astronaut) is bleeding out in a barren research wing, and Diana, a pint-sized android with a cloud of blond hair and matter-of-fact energy, is patching you up. It’s awkward—there’s no room for the usual banter here, just quick nods and a barely acknowledged truce, like strangers forced to run a relay race together. If you ever played through the opening of Resident Evil: Revelations, you know that “moment before the alarms” kind of tension—that’s what Pragmata oozes immediately.
About five minutes in, I ran afoul of my first moon-station sentries—awkward, spidery bots that make the “gun up, shoot till it’s sparks” routine feel… wrong. That’s when the hacking comes in: Diana, clinging to Hugh’s back, extends her arm, and suddenly a hacking interface overlays the enemy. And here’s the kicker: this all happens in real time. You’re moving a digital cursor across a grid—dodging red “alarm” tiles, aiming for glowing bonus squares that spice up your attacks, plotting the shortest path. There’s no pause, no bullet time. And the pressure ramps up as bots shuffle into view.
It’s not as twitchy as, say, Metal Gear Rising’s QTE madness, but it absolutely kills any urge to “peek a corner and hack from cover.” Enemies won’t politely wait for you to finish. Two or three times, I misjudged my window and got shot out of my aim mid-hack. Once, I tried to brute force a hack right as another drone rounded the corner—bad idea. Diana’s interruptions can be lifesavers, but the demo taught me quick that you need to learn enemy attack rhythms and the quirks of each “hacking panel.”
This was honestly a pleasant surprise: Hugh isn’t just a “walk and shoot” kind of guy. Armed with an astronaut suit that lets you pull off chunky jumps and short, floating glides, the framework of the lunar station unfolds vertically. I’m a platforming snob—I get annoyed when jumping feels like tossing a brick in slow motion. Here, the controls are chunky, sure, but with a weight that fits the setting. There’s a stamina meter capping your flight, which twice sent me crashing (and cursing) when I missed a distant catwalk and landed square in a tripwire.
Capcom clearly wants you to think in 3D. There are upper walkways for flanking, off-limits doors that Diana can unlock, and certain jumps that are absolutely punishing if you whiff them in a firefight. After spending so much time in games like Shenmue (where getting lost is kind of a vibe), it was refreshing—but probably a recipe for shouting at my TV in longer sessions.
Midway through the demo, the loop deepened. I picked up a “hacking module” that let me add a shield-breaking bonus to one of Diana’s puzzle grids. The effect is immediate: if my cursor lands on a certain tile, the panel throws an extra wrench into the enemy’s armor. It’s a little bit roguelike, a little bit old-school Mega Man with those modular upgrades—except applied to puzzles, not platforming. I can already tell this’ll be the kind of system that’ll either make experienced players grin (the “aha!” moment when you guess the enemy type) or send casuals running if it’s not explained with care.
The demo’s elevator sequence is a crash course: four bots, tight space, hacking timers blaring while I juggled which enemy to debuff, which to stasis-freeze with my newly acquired slow-mo shotgun. It was… sweaty. Not kidding, I messed up twice and wound up with Diana frantically slapping switches while Hugh just tanked laser shots. If this pressure-cooker vibe holds, late-game combat could be wild.
Look, 20 minutes isn’t much, and Capcom kept boss fights under wraps (why, Capcom, why?!). I scrounged for text logs and found a couple terminals, but the story—why you’re on the moon, what Diana is beyond a walking USB stick, where all this mystery is going—remains a black hole. The art direction has that chilly “who turned out the lights?” vibe, with sterile hallways, glowing terminals, and occasional “did something move up there?” unease. It’s memorable, but not yet distinct from other sci-fi horror jaunts.
As for long-term depth, I can only predict based on what’s here. If Capcom keeps layering on enemy types, hacking panel mods, and forces you to really wring every advantage from Hugh and Diana’s skill set…? This might end up a weird cousin to something like Prey or Binary Domain (that’s a compliment—fight me). But if it settles into a rut, or that hacking system becomes a bottleneck? Could get tedious, fast.
Quick note for my fellow graphics/smoothness obsessives: Pragmata isn’t Resident Evil’s RE Engine perfection, not in this slice anyway. The lunar station looks “right”—cramped hallways, chunky textures—but there were a couple frame hitches when I triggered big hack effects, and some enemies felt oddly animated, like robots on a small stage. That said, nothing broke immersion, and (huge relief) no input lag killed my aiming, which is always my acid test for any action hybrid these days.
If you love the tension of being overwhelmed, crave that sweet blend of twitch shooting and brain-itching puzzles, Pragmata’s demo suggests something special is brewing. Are you the let’s-try-every-skill-in-the-toolbox type who likes to break games over your knee? This is up your alley. If you’re here for story, slow-burn mystery, or you get nervous when games throw new systems at you every ten minutes… wait to see how the full release lands.
Pragmata surprised me. Capcom’s usual polish isn’t all the way there yet, and I’m still starved for story. But the hands-on left me intrigued in the way only “oddball, risky, probably needs another six months in the oven” games can. The fusion of live-action hacking and gunplay feels like one of those systems that’ll breed wild moments and headaches in equal measure. The world? Still a cipher, but maybe that’s half the fun.
Rating (demo, not final): 7.5/10 – Watch This Space
Pragmata is weird, bold, and brimming with potential—but the proof’s in Capcom’s follow-through, not just a killer demo. If you’re sick of genre comfort food and want a tense, skill-heavy dish, keep a close eye. Moon rocks or moon cheese? We’ll find out soon enough.