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Fourteen years ago, SEGA quietly released one of the best robot shooters ever made: Binary Domain. It didn’t light up sales charts, but time has been kind to it. Today, it stands as a cult classic and still one of the smartest, most satisfying games about blasting machines into scrap.
That matters because Pragmata walks into the same arena. Capcom’s long-gestating new IP doesn’t just need to be a good shooter—it needs to prove that all these years later, someone can finally top Binary Domain at its own game.
That’s a tall order.
So… does Pragmata pull it off?
What is Pragmata?
Pragmata is a third-person shooter with a touch of RPG elements. It was developed and published by Capcom. The game’s currently available on the PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Our review code was provided by the super folks over at Capcom! Thanks so much!
As usual, I’ll be reviewing the game with our gaming rigs.
Here are their specs:
Desktop 1 –
– MSI B550M Mortar WIFI
– AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with NZXT Kraken X73 RGB Liquid Cooler
– MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X 24G
– Teamgroup T-Force Dark Z 64GB DDR4 RAM
– Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD
– NZXT C1200 Gold ATX 3.1
– Lian Li LANCOOL III RGB case
Desktop 2 –
– MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
– AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D with Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB cooler
– Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB
– G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO 32GB DDR5-6400 RAM
– Samsung 990 PRO 2TB SSD
– Corsair RM850x PSU
– Lian Li LANCOOL 207 Digital
Notebook –
MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V
– Intel Core i9 14900HX
– NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
– 32GB DDR5 RAM
– 1TB SSD
Pragmata performed really well on all of the review rigs. I didn’t have one crash or issue throughout the game. Both the desktops handled the game running with everything maxed out on 4k60 with no issues. FSR and DLSS were both set to Balanced, with Ray Tracing and other bells and whistles on their highest settings.
Even the real-time cutscenes ran without a hitch.
While Ray Tracing isn’t really that noticeable in most games, it’s very pronounced in Pragmata. The game’s environments really lend themselves to reflections, so the lighting really gets a boost when ray tracing is enabled. If your system can handle it, ray tracing makes a real difference in Pragmata.
I first played Pragmata at last year’s Tokyo Game Show. I didn’t know what to make of the game before I got my hands on the demo, but after I was done, I knew that Capcom potentially had something special on their hands. Hugh and Diana are one of the best gaming duos in recent history and the chemistry they have together is undeniable.
The plot is simple.
Hugh is part of a team sent to a moon base to check on why it’s gone silent. Things go awry and Hugh’s the sole survivor of his team. Critically wounded, Hugh is saved by Diana and together they decide to find out what’s happened to the moon base and get a ride back to Earth.
While the game is a pretty basic shooter in most aspects, the addition of Diana’s hacking ability adds in a new dimension to combat. Without Diana, combat is pretty much impossible. Hugh’s weaponry does pitiful damage. The bots are armored and Hugh just doesn’t have the big guns to bust through that armor.
With Diana, combat hacking exposes the enemies’ weakpoints, which allow Hugh to truly deal damage.
There’s a rhythm and flow to the combat that is beautiful to see in action.
Hack, shoot, dodge and repeat.
It’s a fun loop, made even better when the game decides to throw in multiple enemy types at you. You not only have to hack fast, you now have to take into account all the different attacks that are inevitably coming your way.
Some bots have long-ranged attacks, some have massive melee blows. Some even shoot missiles that you can hack to return to sender! It’s really hectic when the game chucks a lot of different types at you at once.
Hacking isn’t the end-all, be-all for the game.
It revolves around hacking yes, but there are a ton of ways the game enhances it. One of them is through limited use nodes that pop up on the hacking grid once you have nodes equipped. These give a ton of different features (depending on the node) such as more damage dealt to enemies or confusing bots so they attack each other. Some nodes are definitely better than the others though, depending on your playstyle.
Hugh can also equip mods to his suit to further complement your preferred playstyle. You can increase resource gain, make your hacking progress permanent even if you get damaged and more. There are a couple that are a must (the hacking range increase is pretty much required) but apart from a handful of them, you’re free to mix and match to your playstyle.
At the end of the day, Pragmata surprisingly gives you a lot of leeway on how you outfit both Hugh and Diana for combat.
Flexibility aside, there are issues with the fighting nonetheless.
Consistent with the theme, bots are all you’ll be fighting.
The non-humanoid bots aren’t as fun to destroy as the human-like Walkers. Walkers are fun to fight because you can take them down in multiple ways – headshots or shooting their foot to make them stumble and then wailing away while they’re down. It’s fun, it gives you options on how to engage.
The other bot types, they just absorb shots to their bodies without flinching.
Shooting their legs (if they even have legs) does nothing. Shooting their heads does nothing. I know it’s not realistic for robots to be flinching, but I’d have expected some reaction to taking a full-blown missile barrage to the torso. Nope, they just keep coming.
Realistic? Yes. Fun? Not really.
In fact, the robots are pretty much most of the downsides to the game. While some of their designs are cool (the Walkers and the Sentinels), the rest are just meh. They’re not really interesting or thematic and some (like the giant baby looking robots) are just plain weird.
If the game does get a sequel, Capcom really needs to look into making cooler bots to fight.
After all, looks are half the battle!
Speaking of looks, the game looks incredible…but the visual quality is wasted on boring environments. The locations of the game (apart from the final section and the forested area) look much too similar to each other. It’s all so bland and uninspired, which is thematic to the game I guess since everything’s supposed to be 3D printed.
I knew the art style the game was going for and I still felt let down. I wasn’t expecting to be blown away but the game really could’ve used a stronger art style for the environments to make them stand out more.
Even Hugh and Diana’s original looks are uninteresting to me. Ironically, the Lunar Cat (Hugh suit) and Fluffy (Diana costume) DLC look much better than the original costumes! I love them so much, that I never changed to any other outfits during my playthrough.
While I’m unimpressed with the art design, Hugh’s arsenal’s a different matter.
From a laser charging rifle to a missile launcher to defensive drones to a shield bubble. There’s a lot of stuff to play around with and all of them can be upgraded to be more powerful and more effective. Unfortunately, upgrading doesn’t really evolve the weapons (something for the sequel perhaps?), it just makes them stronger or have more ammo or faster charging rates.
The other part of the game revolves around the exploration of the moon base. Pragmata’s like a Metroidvania in that you’re encouraged to return to earlier areas later when you have access to more abilities. Some items are gated behind crystals you can destroy and you’ll only get the two abilities as you play the game.
What sets the game apart isn’t the action scenes or station exploration, rather it’s the quiet moments that Hugh and Diana share in the Shelter.
The Shelter is a safe space for the duo. It’s where they head to in-between missions, to regroup and rearm. It’s also the place where you can view data you’ve collected, upgrade Diana and Hugh’s specs and unlock and improve stuff. Basically, it’s the duo’s home base.
It also serves as a space to display all the REM (Read Earth Memories) that the two encounter out in moon base. Once discovered and passed to Diana, these are rendered as holographic objects that Diana can interact with. It’s these heartwarming interactions that make Pragmata unlike any other game out there.
Here’s where it really deserves the moniker of ‘Daddy Simulator’ that it’s been branded by the gamers. Hugh can spend time with Diana, talking about his history and teaching the pragmata all about what it means to be human. He also teaches her what Earth is like and they envision a future that’s waiting for them after everything’s done. Talking to Diana (and then receiving drawings in return) is one of the best parts of Pragmata.
It’s a touching bit in a game that’s otherwise cold and sterile.
Hugh and Diana’s interactions really hit home the relationship between the two. It’s more than that of just a user and a tool. More than partners.
Diana is like a child in every aspect. She’s curious. She’s cute. She’s amazed at everything we take for granted.
Despite being a robot, there’s a real child-like wonder behind her inquisitive nature. Hugh deserves a lot of credit too for how he handles her. Instead of being gruff or dismissive, Hugh encourages her behavior. He supports and helps her. It’s honestly a breath of fresh air from the usual stoic hero that we get in shooters.
Yeah, I’m looking at you Marcus Fenix and Isaac Clarke.
As good as the interactions are, there are some inevitable downsides to Pragmata.
Death being one of them.
Dying is inevitable but the game truly stumbles in how it handles that.
Instead of being resurrected at a checkpoint or the nearest hatch, it kicks you all the way back to the Shelter.
Now I understand the reasoning behind this. It’s done in case you want to change your loadout or upgrade. However, it seems nobody developing the game thought that maybe, just maybe, that players might just want to dust themselves off and try again at the section that killed them instead of restarting from square one.
If you died far from a hatch, get ready to go through the gauntlet of foes that you faced the first time all over again. Why not give players a choice on whether to respawn in the shelter or at a checkpoint?!
That begs the question – why doesn’t an action game have checkpoints?!
Somebody at Capcom thought this needed to ape some Souls-like mechanics for some reason.
That’s the only way I can wrap my head around the incredibly slow recharge of your main armaments – the pistol and the assault rifle. While everything else is disposable with a set ammo count, these two weapons are rechargeable. Their ammo gradually refills over time.
The pistol is honestly my favorite of the two. It hits hard and is super accurate.
The issue here is that its ammo count is insanely low. In the early going, it’s not uncommon to run out of ammo in the middle of fights. Not because you can’t shoot straight, but because enemies take a ton of shots and the pistol only has 6 shots (without upgrades).
Since you can’t pick which of the pistol’s stats are upgraded per level, you’re pretty much SOL until you can get enough upgrade materials to get to the level where you do get extra shots for the pistol.
Of course, if you do focus only on the pistol, you’re screwed out of extra health and more powerful hacking for Diana. Screwed either way. The game really needs an attack that doesn’t use ammo. It needs a melee attack! Why isn’t there one?!
The game is really weird in that it doesn’t get better until after the credits roll.
Only then do you get mods and a melee weapon that are truly useful.
Namely, you get a mod that refills your primary weapon every time you successfully complete a hack. It finally means your damage output with your primary weapon’s not limited to the replenishment rate.
You also get a melee weapon, which is pretty much something anybody who’s played the game would’ve been begging for.
Not only that, you also unlock the Hidden Sector.
There, you’re presented with 10 new simulator missions. These are tied to your area completion rates. Complete an area 100% and they unlock. Finish the new simulator missions and you get a whole new boatload of goodies – new costumes and mods. There are also simulator missions that only unlock when you beat the game’s bosses (now enhanced and more powerful) all over again.
This is aside from the game’s New Game Plus mode, which allows you to restart the game with most of your upgraded gear. Capcom’s gone above and beyond to enhance the longevity of Pragmata and they deserve to get a shout-out for it!
The Bottom Line.
Pragmata is the kind of game that reminds you why new IP still matters. It takes risks, mixes genres, and introduces a duo worth caring about in an industry obsessed with sequels and safe bets.
Its flaws are real. Enemy variety disappoints, environments lack personality, and some design decisions feel needlessly frustrating. But even when Pragmata stumbles, it never feels generic.
Because when Hugh and Diana are together, the game has something many bigger releases never manage: heart.
Diana is the soul of Pragmata, and every quiet moment with her makes the louder, rougher parts worth pushing through.
Capcom may not have built a flawless classic here—but they built something memorable. And in today’s market, that might matter even more.
TLDR:
A flawed but memorable sci-fi shooter elevated by smart combat systems and one of Capcom’s best character pairings in years.
The Technoverdict – Recommended
The Good:
- Diana.
- Shooting feels good.
- Hacking is cool.
- Lots of customization.
- Lots of post-game content.
The Bad:
- Bland environments.
- Boring robot enemies.
- Frustrating restart mechanics.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
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