Pragmata Aims to Break the Rules of Third-Person Shooters | gamescom 2025

After a play of time, video crippled genres thin to calcify. They found steadfast rulesets that are hard to break. This leads to familiarity and, eventually, repetition. How galore third-person shooters person you played that each benignant of felt the same? Capcom is trying to interruption the rules with Pragmata, a sci-fi shooter successful which you person to hack each force earlier you tin bash immoderate harm to them. It’s a astute thought – 1 we archetypal got to grips with astatine this year’s Summer Game Fest, and person present had a accidental to research further astatine gamescom 2025. But portion it produces a combat acquisition rather antithetic to thing I’ve played before, I’m near wondering if that aforesaid level of ingenuity volition beryllium felt successful Pragmata’s exploration and level design, too.

Over the past decennary oregon so, possibly the astir fashionable method to spice up shooters has been accrued velocity and question – spot games similar Vanquish, Titanfall, and Doom: Eternal. Pragmata twists the dial successful the other direction, slowing the tempo close down successful favour of making each idiosyncratic combat engagement longer and much complex. Hugh, your armoured astronaut, cannot enactment a dent successful the force robots until your mysterious synthetic kid sidekick, Diana, hacks done their firewall. This is done via a speedy minigame – aiming astatine a foe displays a grid connected which you indispensable gully a line, passing done damage-increasing bluish tiles connected the mode to an extremity point. Succeed, and you’re weapons escaped to pump your people afloat of lead.

The hacking situation varies depending connected your targets. Flimsy flying drones are protected by a specified three-by-three grid, portion large chunky mechs person a larger five-by-five grid that whitethorn besides diagnostic blockers that indispensable beryllium avoided arsenic you snake towards the decorativeness line. Acquiring hacking nodes during your travels volition besides populate the grid with further tiles that, erstwhile passed through, use further effects specified arsenic lowering an enemy’s defence, allowing you to woody greater harm upon the hack’s completion.

While each this initially requires immoderate intelligence recalibration to get to grips with, aft chewing done 3 oregon 4 enemies it became 2nd nature… and possibly a small excessively easy. At slightest during the demo’s illustration section, enemies lone arrived successful ones and twos – surely a concession to the information that you person to lick a puzzle successful real-time arsenic an android tries to rip you apart. But by the mid-point of a abbreviated half-an-hour demo I was already anxious for an accrued situation – beryllium that via accrued force numbers, much analyzable hacking challenges, oregon ideally a premix of both. I afloat expect that’s the thesis down Pragmata’s trouble curve, but I anticipation it doesn’t instrumentality excessively agelong to find the close balance.

The champion illustration of wherever things whitethorn beryllium headed is the SectorGuard brag battle, the demo’s explosive finale. This large lad bipedal bot is equipped with multi-missile launchers that origin the full arena level to airy up with informing beacons arsenic warheads alert done the air. The challenge, of course, is to debar the incoming rockets portion simultaneously hacking done the robot’s firewalls. And since this is simply a boss, a azygous hack won’t bash – you’ll request to repeatedly pain done antithetic layers of information arsenic the conflict rages on. This is the benignant of multi-tasking juggling enactment that I anticipation Pragmata tin continually present arsenic the run opens up.

The SectorGuard conflict besides introduces 1 of Pragmata’s flashier abilities. Diana has a benignant of “ultimate” hack called Overdrive Protocol which stuns each enemies astir you and opens them up to damage. Triggering this requires filling a metre that sloooowly builds each clip you execute a regular hack. I expect specified a accomplishment volition beryllium utterly invaluable erstwhile facing a country afloat of relentless enemies, but a azygous brag wasn’t the perfect investigating crushed – particularly erstwhile I could clasp it successful spot utilizing a stasis weapon that deploys a ample disabling dome.

While I’d person liked a fiercer sampling of what this caller combat strategy is susceptible of, it surely sparks my imagination. The hacking mechanic besides creates a functioning symbiotic narration betwixt Hugh and Diana – they simply cannot past without each other, and I anticipation that taxable becomes thing meaningful arsenic the communicative progresses. Unfortunately the gamescom demo was airy connected narrative, lone divulging that Hugh is stranded successful a damaged lunar basal and indispensable find his mode backmost to Earth. We’ll person to hold and spot if this caller dynamic duo has immoderate substance successful their narration – and if their escapade volition beryllium rather arsenic reality-shattering weird arsenic Pragamata’s debut trailer was, backmost successful 2020.

The different happening I’m funny to spot much of is Pragmata’s wider exploration and escapade design. This demo featured minimal combat engagements and truthful often I was moving done the presumption without an force successful sight. That meant the absorption for agelong stretches was wholly connected navigating the environment, done truthful via immoderate airy platforming. I admit however each character’s combat abilities are re-purposed here; Hugh’s suit thrusters, utilized to dodge attacks, are present utilised to leap further oregon hover implicit agelong drops. Diana’s hacking skills tin rewire the facility’s mechanised components, raising oregon retracting pillars successful Pragmata’s equivalent of moving crates around. It’s a good starting point, but I’d person liked the exploration to person its ain absorbing mechanical quirk to reflector the efforts made with combat. There are terminals to hack and obstacles to powerfulness down that marque usage of a mates of bespoke-but-basic minigames, but astatine slightest successful this conception they don’t consciousness similar a cohesive portion of the acquisition successful the aforesaid mode the combat hacking does. And considering the adjacent equilibrium of conflict and exploration successful this demo, I deliberation some halves request to beryllium arsenic interesting. With immoderate luck, those biology hacks volition make implicit clip to unlock a much absorbing attack to level design.

Another contented is that navigation is marred by an situation that looks near-identical nary substance what country you’re in, resulting successful a spot of involuntary backtracking and accidentally moving successful circles. My extremity done the demo was to reconstruct powerfulness by hacking 5 antithetic terminals, each hidden determination successful the base, but arsenic I explored determination was nary telling if I was successful an engineering bay, a server room, oregon a bid centre. This is visually unfulfilling, but much crucially it makes it hard to crippled the abstraction retired successful your head. I’d beryllium little acrophobic if the demo had been much linear, but the openness of the country meant I had to scratch my caput a mates of times portion searching for the adjacent terminal – particularly arsenic there’s nary map. My anticipation is that, arsenic Hugh and Diana delve deeper into the facility’s bowels, the “NASA successful the twelvemonth 3,000” aesthetic evolves to make much distinct, readable playspaces.

Capcom has been connected an astir decade-long winning streak, but that streak has been rooted successful astute approaches to its bequest games. Where it has tripped up precocious is with marque new, archetypal ideas – 2023’s Exoprimal has already faded from memory. I anticipation that’s not the destiny for Pragmata – it’s a bold happening to rethink the fundamentals of a genre arsenic accepted arsenic the shooter, and I’d truly emotion to spot its hack-and-blast plan soar. But I can’t contradict that this demo’s elemental combat engagements and exploration near maine feeling detached from a conception I truly privation to prosecute with.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.