Like the man himself, a James Bond game should ooze style and swagger. There’s no point in a timid tie-in with neither the balls nor budget to bring the Bond fantasy to life, and I’ve never particularly wanted one that simply gaffer tapes all the loudest bits of Call of Duty together and stuffs them into a tuxedo. What I’ve wanted is a Bond game that’s confident and charismatic; one that both ebbs patiently and peaks violently as it segues between social stealth, dangerous infiltrations, gadget-driven shenanigans, and destructive, never-tell-me-the-odds action. What I’ve wanted is a Bond game like 007 First Light – and I’m having a fantastic time so far.
Since its arrival at IGN over the weekend, I’ve put around 14 hours into First Light over the last two days. This appears to have brought me to within a couple of chapters of the end of the story, which feels likely to take a few more hours based on the generally juicy lengths of each chapter I’ve played to date. I’ve been very happy with the pace so far and, since the world around Bond has been so thoughtfully and convincingly fleshed out, I’m finding it largely impossible to rush. Whether it’s Bond’s London apartment, or the bustling MI6 headquarters, First Light seats its iconic secret agent in a believable world that doesn’t fall to pieces the second you try to scrutinize it. As a Bond fan, it’s delightfully immersive. You try moving through Q-Lab without pressing every button. Q’s helpless lackeys aren’t going to temporarily blind themselves, after all.
First Light doesn’t rush itself, either, and patiently moves through Bond’s first encounter with MI6 as a Royal Navy aircrewman in the wrong place at the right time, to his initial double-0 training, and onto his transformative first field mission that sets up the core story to come. In another developer’s hands all of this may have been smooshed into a single opening tutorial, or partially handwaved off in a cutscene. Not so in First Light, which is unfolding much more like a prestige TV series than a film. The chapters are lengthy and rich with peripheral detail to explore, and this significantly bolsters First Light’s ability to build a world I can feel properly immersed in. Allow me to stress that this is absolutely the last thing I’d want from Amazon when it comes to Bond’s live-action future. For First Light’s purposes, however, it works splendidly.
Developed by IO Interactive, the home of the Hitman series since its inception way back in the year 2000, First Light admittedly shares some very obvious DNA with its bald-and-barcoded stablemate. Running on the studio’s in-house engine, the look and feel of First Light are immediately familiar to me as a veteran player of the Hitman series. The sandbox nature of Hitman’s level design is also here to a certain extent, albeit in the more managed fashion of 2012’s Hitman: Absolution. That is, First Light stitches together open areas that have multiple approaches with linear sequences you need to play the way the developers dictate.
There are levels here with large, crowded areas akin to those like the Paris fashion show in 2016’s Hitman, or the German nightclub in 2021’s Hitman 3, while other sections are a little more adjacent to something like the Uncharted series. The latter sequences are occasionally guilty of limitations that look a little silly in practice – like Bond’s inability to clamber up a small, rocky slope – or duck under a waist-high booby-trap string. However, this is the kind of seam you can typically pick at in even the best third-person shooters in the business.
I will note that this isn’t simply Agent 47 by way of His Majesty’s Secret Service, and there are a bunch of bespoke tweaks here that imbue First Light with its own and very distinctly Bond-branded flourishes.
Some of these do work better than others. Bond’s abilities as a brawler put Agent 47 to shame, and there’s a layered system of dodges, counters, and satisfyingly devastating environment attacks. Melee combat is perhaps a little clunky at times, particularly when Bond finds himself swarmed, but it is nonetheless a major distinction between First Light and the Hitman series.
First Light is also far more suited for run-and-gun shooting. I initially found the shooting a little clumsy – and did find myself wondering about the worth of a mechanic that allows Bond to toss an empty gun right at the face of the nearest goon. Now, however, I’m honestly kind of relishing running out of ammo, hurling an SMG like an oversized shuriken into some hapless bloke’s head, and snatching his own weapon.
For clarity, there are also parts of the Hitman formula that haven’t crossed over into First Light’s universe. Disguises, for instance, are limited to only when they’re scripted necessities for the story, and Bond can’t hide or drag the bodies of guards he’s knocked out – which leaves First Light’s stealth feeling a little archaic in 2026.
Perhaps above everything so far I just adore the attention to detail, from the big-picture consideration of giving Bond the long, vertical scar on his right cheek the character boasted in his literary origins, to tiny embellishments like the scratched rims and ziptied trim on the busted-up, 2006 Aston Martin seeing out its time in the service as the training car at MI6’s Malta-based training camp. If you don’t walk around and ogle it like I did, this car only spends about a minute or two on screen during this chapter. Yet the fact that IO saw fit to weather, damage, and field repair it like a teenager’s taped-up, track-day drift toy speaks volumes about where the studio set the bar for the level of authenticity it wanted to capture here – and I love that.
007 First Light has made a fabulous first impression, and I’m certainly already quite comfortable to say it’s the best Bond has been since GoldenEye. I’ll be updating this review as soon as I’ve finalised the story and experimented with TacSim mode, which allows us to replay previous missions with extra challenges to earn new rewards.
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