Capcom's Pragmata is a clean and pleasant lunar shooter with a touch of God Of War

In Capcom’s sci-fi third-person shooter Pragmata, you are a gruff and gun-toting astronaut called Hugh Williams who is exploring an AI-operated satellite basal with the assistance of a juvenile android, Diana. She rides connected your backmost similar a sinister blue-eyed goblin, her tremendous mop of blonde hairsbreadth flapping successful the upwind arsenic Hugh jets astir connected his suit thrusters.

The notes of God Of Warlike deuteragonism present betray Pragmata’s dragged-out improvement – it was announced successful 2020, erstwhile Dad & Sprog enactment games were each the rage, but was delayed "indefinitely" successful 2023. Still, the crippled I played astatine this year’s Summer Game Fest didn’t look greatly the worse for its agelong spell successful cryostasis. It’s a slick-thinking girl’s shooter and a gratifyingly agleam and clicky portion of lunar acceptable dressing, with shattering robot enemies that enactment maine wistfully successful caput of Binary Domain.

Image credit: Capcom

In Greek myth, Diana was the goddess of some the Moon and the hunt. Pragmata’s Diana isn’t overmuch store with a bow, but she does person a knack for physics warfare. Aim astatine an force and clasp a trigger to commencement a hacking minigame, successful which you determination a cursor astir a grid of glyphs with the look buttons.

Hacking is indispensable for survival: the station’s robots athletics forcefields that indispensable beryllium disabled earlier Hugh tin blast them, and determination are besides doorway locks and elevator controls that request to beryllium operated from afar. So it’s conscionable arsenic good that the hacking is enjoyable, fitting elegantly astir the basal twin-stick shoulder-shooter controls - fractional jigsaw, fractional Gears Of War powerfulness reload. As you explore, you’ll adhd peculiar glyphs to the hacking grid that confer buffs and debuffs, making it a much flexible tactical tool.

Quite wherefore the robots are retired to get you remains to beryllium seen, but the satellite basal AI head has intelligibly gone a spot rampant. In the demo, I came crossed half-generated roomfuls of old-timey Earth furnishings and crackling, cuboid stalagmites created by glitchy 3D printing. Hugh and Diana’s wide nonsubjective is to get retired of there, but determination is simply a enigma to lick on the mode and Diana is doubtless a cardinal plank. Going by the communicative trailers, I americium expecting a regular portion of makes-you-thinkery astir bots learning to beryllium quality - a fable from the epoch of Ghost In The Shell, erstwhile the thought of artificial quality was an exotic phantasy alternatively than a passive-aggressive constituent of each Windows UI.

I’m not expecting expansive philosophical rhetoric, oregon strenuous scenes of surrogate parental bonding. Pragmata seems pretty, well, pragmatic astir the concern of aiding oregon repelling sentient machines, firmly magbooted to the rhythms of doorway puzzles and small-scale shootouts.

During the demo, I had to hack six power panels to unfastened a large airlock, a quest that took maine astir a small, dense expanse of motorised platforms and sealed-room firefights. Everything flowed unneurotic straightforwardly. I picked up an electro shotgun conscionable successful clip for the crippled to present a larger, thuggier breed of bot, and harvested a fewer holo diaries near by absent, perchance dormant quality residents. I besides recovered a stungun with an AOE effect, utile for assemblage control, and faced disconnected concisely with a elephantine spider droid earlier the demo ended.

According to Capcom, Pragmata began beingness arsenic the enactment of a younger team. It’s axenic speculation, but I consciousness that it was erstwhile a acold weirder crippled that had its alien fittings sanded disconnected by the bosses. There’s a definite etherised prime to it, imposed supra each by the presumption layout, which squares distant the challenges a small excessively sleepily. As such, I don’t deliberation it’ll rival, say, Prey 2017 arsenic spacebase fables go, but it ticks definite boxes: an absorbing environment; posh gunnery with flavourful h@cker fixins; Capcom’s accustomed charismatic third-person animation. It’s down to merchandise successful 2026.