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Pragmata Review: A Streamlined, Satisfying Follow-Up to Resident Evil Requiem

A fun third-person shooter wrapped in a dad-and-daughter narrative make for a familiar, yet engaging game.

With artificial intelligence changing how people work and live, it’s no surprise that Capcom’s new sci-fi game Pragmata harnesses that zeitgeist to create a new take on the third-person shooter. The game successfully remixes Resident Evil-style action with fluid gameplay and a somewhat challenging campaign. For anyone who’s been too spooked to try a Resident Evil game, this is a great alternative. For those who just wanted more of the recent Resident Evil Requiem, this is a great chaser. 

Much of modern sci-fi gaming has focused on endlessly expansive games, such as Starfield and No Man’s Sky. Pragma is a smaller experience that tightly packs in a lot of action and reasonably fun mechanics. It’s a breath of fresh air for anyone who wants a cool weekend jaunt shooting robots, hanging out with your adopted AI daughter and getting to the bottom of a space mystery.

Pragmata has the look and feel of a Resident Evil game — it’s built on the Resident Evil Requiem engine — but carves out enough of its own experience with a unique mid-combat mechanic. While the main character, Hugh, is shooting guns at robot enemies, his adopted AI android daughter figure, Diana, can hack the enemy to make them vulnerable or even disabled. It added another ball to juggle in tense firefights that occasionally overwhelmed me, but is a generally satisfying complication to tried-and-true third-person shooter combat.

In gameplay mechanics and character relationship, Diana is the core of Pragmata’s appeal. Your joy as a player will hinge on how much you like having 3 feet of weaponized cute blonde girl tagging along and helping you fight. I personally found her endearing, especially in the quiet between-mission moments where I could give her a basketball court or swingset I found out in the field to liven up our antiseptic space-station shelter. In return, she’d give me a crayon drawing that should end up on a space fridge. But I could also see her kewpie voice getting annoying. You’re either playing Pragmata with her or despite her.

I’ve only gotten about halfway through the game, so I don’t have final thoughts on how satisfying the relationship ends up, but the moment-to-moment gameplay with her is… fine. In fights, she’s indispensable, requiring you to open up enemies through a hacking mini-game consisting of navigating a small maze while enemies bear down on you. While playing on PS5, I pushed the face buttons on the right side of the controller to hack, while using the left joystick to move and the shoulder buttons to shoot and dash around. It’s a little inelegant, but it ratchets up the danger of slow-moving robot enemies (some of which feel like reskinned zombies).

In the first few hours, I clocked Pragmata as a tamer Space Resident Evil with a signature man-and-his-daughter combat quirk (we could have had this in Requiem if Leon let Grace ride piggyback and start blasting). But Capcom’s new game jettisons more than horror in adapting its third-person shooting gameplay format to a science fiction setting, dropping complex lore and mechanics for a lean experience. Pragmata is a stronger experience for all its restraint — a short, potent action title with just enough heart to keep the player engaged.

With Pragmata, less is more

Pragmata wastes little time in getting players to the action. The game opens with a short cutscene introducing main character Hugh, alongside three colleagues coming to a suspiciously quiet moon base owned by Delphi, an Apple-meets-SpaceX wonder megacorp. Minutes later, a moonquake splits up the team and drops Hugh in the lap of an android who’s designed, for reasons that aren’t yet clear to me, to look and speak like a 5-year-old white girl. Hugh quickly names her Diana. 

It’s clear Capcom wanted players to bond with and look after a young kid, the latest in a line of unlikely dads learning to care for their pseudo-daughters (The Last of Us, The Witcher 3, BioShock Infinite, Telltale’s The Walking Dead). The subversion, aside from Diana’s potential greater purpose as a Pragmata-type android, is that she’s a robust robot who’s not in any apparent danger, even in firefights. Rather than requiring the player to constantly look after her — similar to other daughter figures who need escorting, like Ashley in Resident Evil 4 — the game shaves down the protagonist’s role to just guiding Diana to personhood, rather than preserving her fragile existence. 

This is one of many ways Pragmata (the game) is simpler than it could’ve been, and it’s arguably a better experience for it. Players have a primary gun that reloads itself along with a limited-ammo special weapon. They also have slots for two other types of special-use firearms or equipment that affect the battlefield, from stasis nets to decoys that distract enemies. No vast armories — just choices for which options you want to take into a fight. 

There’s more customization depth for players who want to dive deeper into the game’s unlockables, which include a litany of equippable mods and bonuses to Diana’s hacking capabilities, many of which are tucked away in the corners of the various moon base sections. There are optional simulation challenge levels players can tackle to power up Hugh or unlock lore files and costumes. 

Pragmata: Not hard, not easy, just satisfying

Pragmata’s streamlined systems leaves players free to focus on linearly progressing through the game, which is broken up into room after room of simple, satisfying challenges. Most are different combinations of enemies of escalating complexity, each of which require hacking to make vulnerable for Hugh’s firearms. Others involve unlocking doors by scanning somewhat hidden lock nodes, requiring light platforming and nosing up, down and around corners of atrial arenas. I’m neither frustrated nor bored, comfortably humming through the game.

Capping off each of the aforementioned sections are boss battles — satisfyingly unique mega-bots firing rockets and lasers as they stomp and charge around maps, pushing players to juggle hacking while dashing out of the way. They’re enjoyable endurance tests that are surprisingly well-tuned. Once, after some sloppy play, the boss of the third area whittled me down to a sliver of health, and I spent the next 5 minutes locking in, barely eking out a win. Crucially, I have only had to attempt each boss fight once; somehow, Capcom avoided the trend of making bosses challenging enough, yet not so Soulsborne-level tough that each one takes multiple attempts to beat.

Tough game sickos might be turned off (harder difficulties are available after beating the game), but I relished in the precise level of challenge bosses and enemies have posed throughout Pragmata: I come, I fight, I move forward. This is a smooth experience, with enemies a satisfying speedbump amid the story and developing relationship between Hugh and Diana. I’m running, jumping, hacking and shooting, a necessary momentum to keep me from asking undermining questions like “why didn’t they make the androids adults?” and “why is the ultra-smart android drawing pictures for Hugh at all, let alone ones that look like they’re made by 5-year-old kids in crayon?”

Ultimately, I don’t care too much, because being handed a crayon-drawn picture from a character who is functionally the protagonist’s adopted daughter is humanely affecting. And for these handful of oddly-conceived moments, Pragmata has many more of smooth action between Hugh and Diana working as a fun team. 

And every once in awhile, the game pauses for a minute or two to let the man from Earth tell the moon-born robot what life is like on a blue planet. It may not make sense that an android would care, but the game is so streamlined that its offenses are few, and I’ll let it carry me along its illogical, earnest train for a bit longer. There’s probably a rad boss battle ahead anyway.

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Travelers and Staff Thwart Co-Pilot’s Suspected Bid to Down FlyDubai Plane Bound for Israel

Passengers and crew on a FlyDubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv overpowered a co-pilot who allegedly stabbed the pilot in an apparent attempt to crash the plane, forcing an emergency diversion to Saudi Arabia.

A pilot aboard a FlyDubai aircraft destined for Israel allegedly stabbed his fellow pilot, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reported, describing it as a suspected effort to bring down the aircraft.

Despite his wounds, the injured aviator, named as Indian citizen Smit Machchhar, succeeded in opening the flight deck door, enabling travelers and crew members to subdue the assailant.

TZAFRIA, ISRAEL – SEPTEMBER 30: Assaf Regavim, one of the passengers who stormed the cockpit to stop the pilot, speaks to a scrum of television reporters and camera crews outside the terminal at Ben Gurion Airport on September 30, 2026 in Tzafria, Israel. This morning, a Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv was diverted to Saudi Arabia after a violent altercation in the cockpit. Passengers told media outlets that a pilot was stabbed and temporarily lost control of the plane. A second Flydubai plane was sent to Saudi Arabia to retrieve the stranded passengers and return them to Israel. (Photo by Erik Marmor/Getty Images)

Erik Marmor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Active flight personnel and travelers succeeded in thwarting a pilot’s suspected attempt to crash a FlyDubai journey, following accounts of a struggle in the cockpit.

The episode aboard flight FZ1073 traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv unfolded when a first officer allegedly stabbed a captain, Netanyahu stated, commending the victim’s rapid response.

“Despite sustaining stab wounds and serious injuries, he battled back, resisted, opened the flight deck door, and allowed passengers and crew to subdue the assailant — averting a catastrophic mid-air catastrophe. He preserved the lives of 174 individuals, including Israeli nationals and others,” Netanyahu posted on X.

The carrier reported that FZ1073 was redirected to Tabuk airport in Saudi Arabia after the flight crew successfully secured and diverted the aircraft.

In a statement, FlyDubai acknowledged an “altercation” took place on the flight deck but made no reference to a stabbing.

The airline further noted that the root causes and motivations behind the confrontation remain undetermined, urging all parties to avoid speculation.

Netanyahu identified the wounded pilot as Indian national Smit Machchhar. Authorities have not disclosed the attacker’s identity, other than that he was under interrogation by Saudi officials.

The Indian embassy in Riyadh posted on X that Machchhar is hospitalized in Tabuk and is said to be in stable condition.

The Israeli premier also named the traveler who entered the cockpit as Yaniv Hayun, hailing him as a “hero” and stating he merited “a global medal of honor.”

Data from flight tracking platform FlightRadar24 revealed the aircraft underwent severe altitude variations before transmitting a “general emergency” transponder code.

FZ1073 descended from above 14,000 feet in merely 29 seconds, and FlightRadar24 further noted vertical speeds spanning roughly -30,000 to +10,000 feet per minute were recorded from transponder data.

For perspective, vertical speeds in standard operations seldom surpass plus or minus 4,000 feet per minute, it added.

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Technologies

South Korean President Lee pushes back on Alaska LNG project after Trump touts Seoul’s participation

The U.S. announced plans for up to $200 billion in South Korean investment, though Seoul has yet to finalize the participation in the Alaska LNG project.

South Korea’s $200 billion investment into the U.S., which President Donald Trump said would transform America “for generations,” is not a done deal in totality.

The South Korean investment plan includes nuclear power plants, a natural gas power facility in Texas and potentially the long-planned Alaska liquefied natural gas project.

Trump in a Truth Social post late Wednesday stateside said the countries had agreed to work on the Alaska LNG project, pegging its value at $50 billion, drawing a response from South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, who emphasized that involvement in some of the projects remains subject to commercial considerations.

Lee in an X post on Thursday local time said that participation in the Alaska LNG project was dependent on its financial viability and legal compliance. He added that investments in nuclear power plants would also require assessment of commercial viability on a plant-by-plant basis.

The U.S.-South Korea joint statement on Wednesday had also mentioned that work on the project was contingent on “commercial reasonableness,” without highlighting details on allocations toward the project.

The Alaska LNG project seeks to transport natural gas roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from fields on Alaska’s North Slope to the southern part of the state, where it would be liquefied for export to markets including Asia, reported Yonhap. The project has faced long-standing questions over its economics given the large up-front investment required.

Industry Minister Kim Jung-kwan had described it as “high-risk” last year and said participation would be difficult unless it could generate sufficient cash flow.

Overall, the investment package includes $22.3 billion for a 6,472-megawatt natural gas power facility in Encinal, Texas, that will supply electricity to co-located data centers. The project will be led by developer Related Cos. and U.S. power company NextEra Energy

Trump said the investments would turn South Korea’s commitments into “huge construction projects” and create “tens of thousands of American jobs.”

“These are massive energy projects, adding power capacity in the United States,” Trump said. “This is new construction, new manufacturing, and great jobs for American workers.”

Another $120 billion has been allocated to plans for eight large-scale nuclear reactors in the U.S. Of that amount, $100 billion is earmarked for construction costs and $20 billion for contingency reserves.

The nuclear agreement was signed by both governments as well as Westinghouse Electric, Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power. The plan also calls for pursuing a potential significant minority investment in Westinghouse by Korean companies, with the terms subject to commercial negotiations.

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Technologies

Stalled crypto legislation does not stop the SEC from advancing new custody rules

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed new rules to modernize digital asset custody, continuing regulatory progress despite the stall of broader congressional legislation. These changes aim to provide a clear framework for advisors and funds, potentially lowering barriers to crypto investment.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has introduced a set of proposed regulations designed to simplify how investment advisors and regulated entities can securely hold cryptocurrencies for their clients. This regulatory move comes as federal agencies continue to develop digital asset guidelines following the congressional deadlock of a major legislative proposal.

Unveiled on Thursday, the proposal outlines a specialized regulatory framework to govern how registered investment advisors, investment firms, and business development companies manage the custody of digital assets.

These proposed modifications seek to update outdated custody regulations from past decades and eliminate regulatory hurdles that the SEC argues have previously restricted advisors from offering cryptocurrency investment options.

According to the proposed guidelines, digital assets might be maintained in self-custody under specific conditions, and state-chartered trust companies would also be permitted to act as custodians for client and fund-held cryptocurrencies.

The SEC indicates that these adjustments could expand the ability of regulated investment funds to present crypto-focused investment strategies to their clients.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins stated that current regulations have struggled to keep up with the explosive growth of digital assets, which have evolved into a multi-trillion-dollar industry.

“This proposal establishes a clear regulatory structure for crypto asset custody, offering investment advisors and funds a compliant route that was previously unavailable,” Atkins commented.

This initiative follows ongoing efforts by U.S. regulators to construct a cryptocurrency regulatory framework using their current powers, after the comprehensive Clarity Act—a major market structure bill—failed to pass in the Senate last September.

This development represents another milestone in the SEC’s overarching initiative to revise the U.S. digital asset regulatory landscape under Atkins’ leadership. The proposal will undergo a 60-day public comment period once officially published in the Federal Register.

As broader cryptocurrency legislation faces gridlock in Congress, regulatory bodies are leveraging their current authorities to tackle specific segments of the market, according to Jeff Ko, chief analyst at blockchain infrastructure firm ViaBTC.

“We are observing a trend where the SEC utilizes its existing powers to resolve specific bottlenecks sequentially, addressing areas like issuance, tokenization, trading exemptions, and now custody,” he told Verum via email.

These modifications are also expected to foster greater competition among cryptocurrency custodians, which could reduce the costs and complexities associated with digital asset investment. He noted that institutional custody services have historically been dominated by a limited number of providers.

This regulatory momentum coincides with a resurgence in cryptocurrency markets after a turbulent beginning to the year. Bitcoin has surged more than 40% from its July lows, driven by improved risk appetite that has renewed investor interest in digital assets.

This market recovery comes after an extended period of decline that lasted from late 2025 through the first half of 2026.

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