In an era when it feels like most brand new video games are trying to one-up each other in terms of scale, Pragmata is refreshingly straightforward. There’s no massive open world with side quests pulling your attention a million ways, there’s no RPG-ified level gating, and no microtransactions to entice you into buying your way to the end.

Instead Pragmata takes what appears to be a simple twist on third-person shooting and wraps it up in a game that feels like it belongs on an Xbox 360. I mean that in the most endearing way possible, because despite being Capcom’s latest IP, it reminded me of all the things that made me fall in love with gaming back in the early 2010s.

Handcrafted levels with hidden collectibles and completion bars, tricky bosses that can be tackled time and time again without runbacks, and a tight, focused story that doesn’t overstay its welcome – Pragmata is a joy to play through from start to finish.

Pragmata doesn’t mince time with setting out its stall. You play as Hugh, an astronaut sent to mankind’s moonbase with the rest of his crew to investigate a distress signal.

Within the first 15 minutes, a moonquake occurs, causing all of Hugh’s crew to perish and our protagonist seemingly left stranded. Before long, he encounters a robotic AI which he quickly names as Diana. She takes the form of a young child and, despite being filled with knowledge of the station, is delightfully naive about mankind and what it means to be human.

Plenty of media have beaten this sci-fi stereotype to death, but I can’t say it outstays its welcome in Pragmata. Hugh and Dianna quickly form an adorable bond, and watching the two come together over their similarities and differences is heartwarming to watch unfold throughout the game’s early hours.

Both characters are excellently voiced, which bodes well given Hugh’s face is hidden by his helmet for much of the game’s runtime. Whenever in the game’s main hub area, I always made it a priority to seek out Dianna and exhaust her dialogue options as they would always provide new insights into both her psyche and the current events of the story.

Pragmata’s narrative is serviceable with enough intrigue to keep you engaged until the very end, but it’s not going to set the sci-fi world alight.

What does have a surprising amount of staying power is Pragmata’s combat system, which adds an innovative wrinkle on top of your usual third-person over-the-shoulder shooting. With Dianna on your back, aiming at enemies brings up a grid matrix that can be navigated using the controller face buttons.

Players are tasked with finding a path to a green node, which will open up chinks in the robotic enemy’s armour and leaves them susceptible to critical attacks. This isn’t an optional mini-game as shooting at enemies normally yields very little damage.

Solving these miniature puzzles is tricky at first, especially as you need to keep track of all the usual inputs you’d be doing in a shooter of this nature. Watching for when enemies are telegraphing attacks and knowing when to jump and dodge must all be done with one eye on the hacking matrix, so timing and speed quickly becomes of the essence – especially when you’ve got more than a couple of foes to deal with at once.

However, it’s surprising how quickly your brain manages to catch up with the pace Pragamata expects of you, and before long you’re hacking, dodging, and taking down enemies like clockwork. After dying to particularly tricky combat scenarios multiple times, finally nailing that combat execution feels extremely rewarding.

Capcom slowly ramps up the complexity over time. New hacking nodes are introduced with each new level which when used in the hacking matrix can open up enemies to new vulnerabilities.

There’s also a healthy drip feed of new weapons to keep combat feeling fresh. These are divided up into primaries, heavy damage, defense and decoys with map pickups and enemy drops keeping you supplied throughout your moonbase adventure.

These can also be upgraded back at the duo’s hub base, which you return to after every death. There are also campfire-esque checkpoints that can send you back here, and there’s notably very little punishment for dying.

I was pleased to often find that when I’d die to a tricky boss, I’d be spat out at the hub area with bountiful numbers of upgrade materials, only to swan back into the boss arena armed to the teeth and ready for more.

Capcom has packed plenty of fun asides into the levels of Pragmata, including ‘Red Zone’ challenge areas that reward additional upgrade materials. Bobble head collectibles are also dotted around the map for completionists to find, and scored Training Challenges also offer fun ways to break up the game’s cadence.

That being said, I largely found the game’s story to be excellently paced. This is largely down to Pragmata being separated into distinct levels, each with their own unique visual identity. It means the story is easily digestible, dedicating an hour or so here and there to play through a chapter before easily picking it back up again a day later.

After playing countless games that seem to require my full attention outside of a fulltime job, it was refreshing to play something that’s quite ok with being consumed in moderation.

The Verdict

At first glance, Pragmata is a game that looks like it’s going to get very old, very quickly – but that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

In reality, Capcom has leaned on what great video games used to do back in the 360 era, delivering a tight and focused third-person action experience with a serviceable story that doesn’t outstay its welcome. Its shooting is satisfying, the hacking adding an exciting way to further engage the brain in what would otherwise be a pretty mindless experience.

Pragmata has completely caught me by surprise. Despite hardly being on my radar, it’s quickly shot up there with some of the best action games I’ve played in recent years. Even if you’re not totally sold on the premise, it’s certainly worth the punt.

4.5/5

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2. Code provided by the publisher for review purposes only.