Capcom finally let us play Pragmata, and it left me hungry for more

Capcom first announced Pragmata – a rare original IP from the publisher best known for Monster Hunter, Resident Evil, and Street Fighter – way back in June 2020.

Since then, it’s been delayed so many times that the actor behind its child lead, Diana, is likely well on her way to a college education (if, indeed, the character is based on a real person).

You can understand why Capcom has taken its time with the sci-fi title: it doesn’t make wholly-original franchises often – there was a 11-year gap between 2012’s Dragon’s Dogma and 2023’s Exoprimal – and the company is enjoying such a fruitful run of hits that it’s certainly under no pressure to rush out a dud.

Any other company would trigger alarm bells if they delayed a project like this multiple times over a full five years, but Capcom has enough trust in the bank with players that there’s confidence it will deliver in the end. Thankfully, a recent hands-on press event suggested this is indeed the case, and Pragmata has shot up my personal list of games to watch out for in 2026.

Pragmata takes place in the near future aboard a space station in crisis. Players control Hugh, a space man with combat skills, along with his android companion Diana, who has the appearance of a human child. Although few details have been shared about the plot, Pragmata’s trailers heavily suggest reality may have been twisted by generative AI and a mysterious substance known as Lunafilament, and that all may not be as it seems on the planet Earth we can see from our space windows.

The curated 20-minute demo we played starts with Hugh and Diana meeting for what appears to be the first time. Hugh is injured, but much to his surprise, this seemingly small child is able to get him back up to speed with little effort. After Hugh discovers Diana’s true nature, the pair decide to team up, and with the android clinging to the back of his space suit, Hugh’s mission is to escape and reach Earth.

A distress call has been activated aboard the space station, and along with it, an army of frenzied security robots. It’s here that Pragmata’s core mechanic is finally revealed: combat with a “hacking twist”.

Against Hugh’s weapons, Pragmata’s robotic enemies are virtually invincible, with his gun rounds bouncing off their shiny exterior as they slowly and menacingly march towards him, like a mix between I Am Robot and The Terminator. This is where Diana comes in: players must multitask aiming, shooting, and dodging using the controller triggers, while simultaneously ‘hacking’ enemies using the face buttons.

Once initiated, the hack will display a mini-game on the right side of the screen, and players must complete a snake-style circuit, connecting nodes on a grid from A-to-B, all while avoiding the approaching bot’s attacks in the physical realm.

It’s a cool idea which makes for some truly intense combat, with bots often getting within inches of killing distance before the hack is completed and Hugh blows them to pieces with a single shotgun blast. While Hugh can’t meaningfully hurt enemies without Diana’s hacks, he can slow them down, especially if you have particular weapons at hand with constricting ammo.

“It’s a cool idea which makes for some truly intense combat, with bots often getting within inches of killing distance before the hack is completed and Hugh blows them to pieces”

Capcom has seemingly made a shooter where players will need to lock in and constantly consider their options. Shooting is satisfyingly weighty and, smartly, weapons only have limited shots before they’re junked entirely, forcing you to think strategically about which ones to use and which to save for more formidable foes.

Player movement, too, feels grounded and considered: Hugh controls like a tank, and although he can jump and glide across obstacles, he’s far from a super soldier and feels vulnerable amid the android threat.

While the hacking premise may sound simple, we found it to be enjoyable within the context of a short demo, with its tight combat arenas and punchy shooting. There’s also evidence here of how it could meaningfully evolve over the full experience.

Firstly, there are power-ups players can collect, which are added to the hacking mini-games. One, for example, will add a node which, when passed through, will increase your end damage against the enemy. Players can choose to ignore this, should they want to save it for a tougher foe.

The different robot enemies we encountered also had varyingly complex hacking mini-games, with flying drones prompting smaller hacking grids, and hulking mechs requiring the completion of larger ones. When the demo ended with a huge Metal Gear-like boss – which sadly we weren’t allowed to battle against – we half expected a small Sudoku puzzle to appear on screen.

Pragmata’s short demo felt unique, polished, and left us wanting more. There are question marks about how its ideas will shake out across an experience likely in excess of tens of hours, but with Capcom’s unblemished modern track record, you’d be hard pushed not to have faith that it will follow through on its ideas.