007 First Light Is Finally The Game That Gets Bond Right
During the first few hours of 007 First Light, we’re treated to the entire set up for James Bond’s entrance to the 00 program at MI6. In a lengthy prologue, Bond survives an attack by enemy hostiles, feeds important intel back to MI6, and is able to rescue a large group of hostages being held at gunpoint.
The concept of a James Bond origin story is something that film producer Albert R. Broccoli (credited as producer on 17 Bond films) was vehemently against, believing that audiences should always see Bond when he’s at his peak as an experienced 00 agent. But for introducing a brand new, fresh take on the character, it feels just right for IO Interactive to delve into the character’s origins.
As the first act of 007 First Light continues, we get to see the famous spy pick up traits and behaviours that he’s known in popular culture for exhibiting as if it was his second nature. On Bond’s first day in MI6, we’re introduced to M, Q, and Moneypenny, long-standing franchise figures who have always acted well as a sounding board to compare or contrast to James’ personality.
Fans of the series will see recognisable traits in each of these characters as the story progresses, but with Bond still being a fresh recruit, he hasn’t quite left his mark on them just yet. M isn’t quite as cold as Judi Dench or Bernard Lee’s M, while Q hasn’t reached the point of berating Bond for his recklessness. There's a semblance of this in the characters' futures, though.
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Moneypenny, on the other hand, acts as a handler rather than a secretary, feeding James information that is useful for his missions while out in the field, a role that keeps her in the story for quite a large chunk of it.
There’s also John Greenway, an original character for the game who acts as a mentor and father figure to Bond despite the pair not getting along. It’s fun to watch these two butt heads over the course of the game, as Bond’s reckless personality and care-free attitude contrasts with Greenway’s more professional and experienced perspective. This relationship is easily the warmest part of the game, bolstered by Lennie James’ incredible performance.
On His Majesty's Secret Service
What follows is a fairly lengthy training montage set in London as well as an MI6 camp in Malta, where Bond picks up all the skills he’ll utilise across the story, from fierce combat abilities to covert spycraft techniques. This isn’t just a typical tutorial that teaches you the game’s mechanics, as it gives you a chance to learn more about Bond and his fellow trainee comrades as they go through the training together. It’s a very compelling introduction to this version of the character, laying the groundwork for the type of person he’ll become that audiences are familiar with from the Ian Fleming novels or MGM movies.
What follows from here is an original James Bond adventure that takes him to many exotic locations across the world, from Mauritania and Slovakia, as is tradition. IO Interactive has taken care to develop a story that feels wholly like a classic Bond adventure brought into the modern age, while also injecting its own writing strengths to ensure the narrative is cohesive and charming.
This strength extends to the stealth gameplay, a style which IO Interactive perfected over many years with the Hitman series. Bond blends in plain sight, using different spycraft techniques to reach his goal. He can eavesdrop on people of interest, pickpocket for useful items, and distract guards to be able to keep moving forward. When he’s caught being somewhere he shouldn’t, Bond can attempt to bluff his way out or use his fists to try and control the situation before security is put on alert.
Another Way To Die
In action, the combat isn’t as janky as some of IO Interactive’s previous games. It’s best comparable with Batman: Arkham’s freeflow style fighting (007 First Light’s combat designer is Adam Vincent, who also worked at Rocksteady between 2008 and 2022), encouraging sharp timing to land combos against your enemies and get into a rhythm. The environment also plays a huge part in this, where you can throw objects that are laying around at enemies to stun them, giving you enough time to grab and shove them into a wall or another object. It feels scrappy and chaotic, something that really highlights the brutal nature of Bond’s physicality.
With shooting, the game feels just as fluid, where Bond automatically gets into cover and protects himself using his surroundings. Constant movement is encouraged, as enemies throw grenades and try to flank you whenever possible, as is switching out your roster of weapons with whatever you can find as ammo depletes. Throwing empty guns at enemies John Wick-style is always entertaining, too.
While it makes sense for IO Interactive to transfer some of its main strengths from one game to another, the studio has done a good job of ensuring the game has its own identity. It’s not ‘Hitman with a Bond reskin’, but many of the mechanics feel like they’re lifted more from the films and books rather than IOI’s past. Traditionally, Bond does indeed bluff his way into enemy headquarters, or pickpocket important intel from a target, or make use of his many different gadgets to get what he needs.
On that last note, I absolutely love the gadgets that have been included in 007 First Light. Bond’s gadgets are given to him in the form of two main items, a Q-Lens eye implant which highlights important information about his surroundings, and a watch which lets him hack certain mechanical objects.
Over the course of the game, Bond also gains access to more gadgets that greatly aid you during stealth or combat, such as a camera which sends a shockwave out disorienting enemies and breaking down doors, or a phone that can shoot darts at unsuspecting targets. And for fans of GoldenEye’s exploding pen, you won’t be left disappointed.
Not only do these gadgets fully fit the ‘hiding in plain sight’ nature of Bond’s whole appearance, but they’re also incredibly fun to use during both stealth and action gameplay. Need to get into a guarded area? Poison dart the security on the door, and sneak right past without them noticing. Got three dudes approaching you with big guns? Throw down a lighter that is actually a smoke grenade and use the lack of visibility to run to cover.
It’s all of this that makes me understand that IO Interactive gets Bond. I’ve enjoyed getting to know Patrick Gibson’s interpretation of the character, and I came away from the end of the game’s 20-hour campaign wanting more.
The Story Is Not Enough
Thankfully, when you complete the story, you gain access to Tactical Simulations (or ‘TacSims’), which reuse locations from the story with new objectives, challenges, and modifiers to keep things fresh. This comes in the form of two mission types: Escalations and Operations.
Hitman players will be familiar with Escalations, which build on your knowledge of the game to present to you a series of challenges which increase in difficulty as you move up three different tiers. Each mission is usually quite short, usually only offering you one or two quick objectives to complete. However, they’re also very tough, and you might find yourself starting over several times as you race to finish them.
Operations, on the other hand, are single missions which make more use of your spycraft skills, focusing on exploration and adaptability. The missions aren’t necessarily longer, but they are bigger and offer more variety in how you want to tackle them. The two operations that are available at launch involve you sneaking around a specific area to collect three items, before making your way to the exit.
At the moment, the feature feels a little lacking. There are only a handful of TacSim missions available from the beginning, and most of them aren’t very long. The two operations are very similar to each other, while the escalations don’t give you much of a reason to repeat them. It’s obvious that IO Interactive is using this as a foundation, with plans to add to it over time with new Escalations and Operations coming post-launch. There’s also room for new game types in the future, which’ll add to the longevity of the game for players who clear the story.
Just look at the post-launch support that the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy got, with monthly content coming to the game for free for over a decade, and you’ll see that it’s obvious IO Interactive is going to do the same for 007 First Light. But right now, the feature is a little light on content.
Similar to Hitman though, an online connection is required to access some of these features, particularly the TacSim mode, which is a bit of a shame when the online features only go as far as connecting an IOI account and accessing the leaderboards for each TacSim level.
Nobody Does It Better
As for performance, I played 007 First Light on a launch-day PlayStation 5 and have no complaints. There are two graphics modes: Performance and Quality, as is standard. Quality Mode focuses on visuals, putting out 30 frames per second at a higher resolution. Performance Mode, on the other hand, reduces the resolution to 1080p but gets a stable 60fps throughout the entire game. In both cases, the image is upscaled depending on your TV’s resolution. I play on a 4K Hisense television, and the quality was sharp and focused, with no visible artifacts or blurriness associated with modern upscaling tech.
As for framerate on the base PS5, I also had no issues with this. I played 95% of the game in Performance Mode, which I’d fully recommend using for action and stealth segments, but feel free to switch to Quality Mode during the slower, quieter moments. Despite the game having a lot of CPU and GPU activity; the large number of crowd NPCs, the wide open levels, and the huge barrage of explosions with particle effects during combat, it runs as smooth as butter and remains one of the most technically impressive games on the PlayStation 5 this far into the current generation. That Glacier engine works wonders.
If anything, it tells me that it’s a remarkable achievement for a studio that was, at one point, struggling to survive following its break-up with Square Enix nearly a decade ago. I’m looking forward to seeing how IOI builds on the game with fresh content later down the line, supporting the game with new missions and unlocks as time goes on, just as it did for Hitman.
007 First Light is an exquisite taste of slick spy action and blockbuster storytelling, and is fully what a Bond game should be, but rarely is. Considering almost every previous James Bond game has been a shooter, I've enjoyed the game taking an innovative approach to portray the spycraft side of Bond stories. It’s wonderful to see IO Interactive essentially coming full circle, going from being simply inspired by Bond to adapting the next chapter in the franchise’s 70 year legacy.
Pros: Enjoyable original James Bond story, varied stealth/combat gameplay, fluid controls
Cons: Online connection required for some features
For fans of: The 007 movies, Hitman, Uncharted
9/10: Exceptional
007 First Light launches on 27 May on PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox Series X/S, and PC with pre-order 24 hour early access unlocking on later today. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
Topics: James Bond, Reviews, Amazon, PC, Xbox, PlayStation