Preview: I Think Pragmata Could Be PS5's Best Shooter Yet

I’ve been lucky enough to play Pragmata a few times for previews now, but the Capcom shooter’s only getting better with each successive demo.

This was the longest yet: I got to spend a full two hours with dual protagonists Hugh and Diana, and I’m confident saying this could be one of the best PS5 shooters yet.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the third-person gameplay loop by now, but just in case: each time you target an enemy with the L2 trigger, a hacking panel will appear controlled by Diana.

You use the face buttons to trace a line across this panel, passing through as many coloured modules as possible along the way. The more blocks you clear, the harder the hack will hit and the longer its effects will last.

I love this gimmick; I think it’s a really compelling blend of Resident Evil 4 and, say, Pipe Mania which makes the game unlike anything else out there.

But the question I’ve always had is: is that it? This latest demo proved to me that Capcom has a few more tricks up its sleeve.

It takes place a little further into the campaign, and is set in the New York-inspired environment glimpsed during a recent State of Play.

Right off the bat, the presentation is awe-inspiring. Running on a PS5 Pro using the latest version of PSSR, this is one of the cleanest, most artistically impressive games I’ve seen since… Well, last month’s Resident Evil Requiem at least.

Set on a space station in the far expanses of the galaxy, this is not real Earth, and so all of the assets – from the skyscrapers to the taxis – have a 3D printed look to them.

There are glitches in the environments, so you’ll see tears in steel surfaces suddenly reveal brick work before returning to their intended design. And some cars haven’t been constructed properly, and are trapped within the ground.

The sheer amount of art assets on the screen is frankly flabbergasting. Dozens of commercials, from hamburgers to musicals, occupy the neon signs which decorate the skyline.

I even spotted a few fun Easter eggs, like a reference to a new video game named Resident Devil and a movie made by Wesker Productions.

I didn’t find the objective in this area particularly complex; you’re effectively taking a whistle-stop tour through a 3D printed Broadway to hack six distinct nodes. These will take you to the next area.

But I was a big fan of how the combat slowly evolved during this time.

Don’t get me wrong, the core systems remain consistent, as outlined above. But giant, doll-like enemies – which look like they’ve been ripped right out of Resident Evil – generate red panels, which prevent you from hacking them.

You need to shoot these down using Hugh’s weapons to reveal the hacking panel, which then allows Diana to reveal their weak points. The big glowy spots are predictable, yes, but it works.

As you progress, Hugh and Diana will comment on some of the things in the environment, building the pair’s relationship.

I think it’s fairly predictable where this story is going – Hugh will come to love Diana as his adopted daughter, and then she’ll sacrifice herself at the end – but the moment-to-moment writing has a great sense of humour.

As a bare-footed robot child, Diana has an amusing outlook on the world. One conversation between the pair involves dinnertime, and how humans share thoughts and ideas over a meal.

“Talking is a type of nutrition?” she wryly reflects.

This relationship between the protagonists is also developed at the Shelter, a kind of hub-like area you can return to from time-to-time.

You’ll collect 3D printed items based on objects from the real-world which Diana can play with, like a globe and a television set.

I genuinely found it fun watching her interact with these objects, and seeing what she’ll say about them. She likes the television, for example, but wonders whether it’s all a waste of time.

You can also upgrade your abilities at the Shelter and edit your loadout.

Another activity involves collecting coins which can be spent on bingo cards. These unlock lore, outfits, and perks, all of which feed back into the main gameplay loop.

I don’t expect this to be the largest PS5 campaign ever, but it does feel like there’ll be enough to do to keep you occupied over the course of its story.

Speaking of which, I want to mention the weapons, which are divided into a few categories like damage, support, and tactical.

I’d already tried firearms like the shotgun equivalent and the stasis net, which slows down foes. But I really enjoyed using the decoy gun, which fires out a hologram Hugh and attracts the attention of all nearby enemies.

There’s one segment in the demo where you can turn on a row of devastating lasers, and so I drew the attention of my adversaries using the decoy weapon, and then hacked the lasers to blow them all up.

As far as I can tell, the game runs at a silky smooth 60fps on the PS5 Pro, and all the effects look absolutely amazing.

Nothing prepared me for the final boss fight, though, a humongous bot who filled up practically the entirety of the Times Square-style area.

While I didn’t really have to change my playstyle too much to deal with him, his array of AoE attacks presented a different kind of challenge to smaller enemies, and I even had to use the verticality available to me to target some of his weaknesses.

I think one really satisfying system here is how you can actually hack missiles that are fired at you, and this will effectively return them to sender. It’s nothing particularly unique, but it all works in harmony.

And I just wanted to conclude by saying I love how this game feels in the hands. The control scheme is spot-on, and Hugh is faster and more nimble than you’d expect considering his size; I actually think Pragmata feels snappier than Leon’s segments in Resident Evil Requiem.

Which is to say, I think this game is going to be excellent. There are elements of it which are trite – the plot premise isn’t particularly original, and the gameplay leans a lot into “shoot the red spot” – but I think it has enough gimmicks and personality to set it apart.

And it looks and feels great. I’ll be all over this come 17th April.

Do you think Pragmata is shaping up to be something special, or are you waiting for final verdicts before you pull the trigger? Hack us where it hurts in the comments section below.