I am a James Bond nerd. Everyone has their vices, okay? But I am. Watched all the films often enough that I’d give a 007 trivia competition a red hot go. Choreographed ballroom dancing shows to various theme songs. Read all the books. Even went out there in the early Internet days of bulletin boards and defended Goldeneye – no, not the one you’re thinking about, the EA one – because I genuinely enjoyed it. That’s how far gone I am.
With all that being said, I did not expect to enjoy 007 First Light this much. I have nothing against IO Interactive and enjoy the Hitman games plenty, but I was fully expecting First Light to be a focus-grouped blockbuster in the way every “triple A” game is, and therefore ultimately waste the Bond license. There is a degree of that in there, but ultimately this is clearly a passion project for IO Interactive’s team, and that’s what wins out.
First Light is almost ridiculously cinematic, to the point that you have to think that at some point parts of this script were an origins story or reboot to the Bond franchise. It follows a very young James Bond, from the moment that he caught the eye of the secret service through his training and graduation, and then his first few missions (which, without giving spoilers, take the form of a revenge quest for what happens in his first mission out of training). Bond, played by Patrick Gibson, is a refreshing polar opposite to the aging, weary, tired Bond that Daniel Craig so brilliantly depicted. Here he’s brash, cocky, and his competence regularly clashes with his inexperience. He’s not as morally compromised as the older Bonds tend to be, but this is a story of youthful exuberance and almost a Bildungsroman, so it gets away with lacking the darker themes that typically sit behind a Bond (especially Craig’s Bond) story.
There is the occasional weird moment that clashes with Bond lore. For example, this is an origin story of a young Bond but takes place in the right now – there are entire conversations about cryptocurrency that make no sense if you remember that Bond is meant to be from the Cold War era. A key early scene also takes place in a nightclub which seems more aesthetically and thematically John Wick than James Bond. But it’s also easy enough to suspend disbelief through these moments and just enjoy the roller coaster, backed by committed performances, that IO Interactive have thrown at us.
The gameplay feels more like a spiritual sequel to Mission: Impossible on the N64 than something like Goldeneye. Remember Mission: Impossible? You spent most of the levels in that game figuring out how to sneak around and complete objectives without getting into gunfights. Of course, back on the N64 there were some pretty severe limitations that prevented the developers from giving you non-linear level design and a wide range of different skills and abilities to use in figuring your path through the objectives. Those limitations aren’t there with First Light, and it’s truly impressive just how open and flexible the game is to your play style. Here’s a good example: In one chapter I needed to infiltrate a hotel, which I proceeded to do by stealthing around, distracting guards, and eventually climbing up a water drain and vaulting a window. It was only in looking back at the game’s unlocks that I realised that that was just one of several ways to get in. In another level I needed to find $100,000 to pay off someone. I did this by taking down an armed mercenary group to rob them of some artworks, and it never occurred to me that I probably didn’t have to do that.
More than anything else, what makes First Light so entertaining is that it lets you play as James Bond in your own way. Yes, there are levels where there are big gunfights and levels where you have to use stealth, but how you go about those levels moulds into the way you’d spy around yourself, and that means that this James Bond really is your own.
There are plenty of gadgets to play with, and again you’ll actually be selecting loadouts based on your preferred play style and approach to missions. The creative toolbox here is deep, and you’ll be locked out of certain approaches to missions depending on what you take into it. This is okay, given that there are plenty of options that you can access, and it makes for a high level of replay value.
I’ve spoken a lot about the stealth and open-ended flexibility to missions, and perhaps you’d expect the developer behind the Hitman series to get that right. The action side of First Light is every bit as good. Gunplay is tight, and there’s plenty of different ways to go about killing hordes of enemies. The driving is fun too, with a particularly cinematic flair. There is a slight sense of artificiality here, with the game rubber-banding your driving to ensure that you stay on objective, but the cinematic quality is right up there.
You could argue that in some areas the game misses a trick or two, that we don’t see Bond being suave enough and certainly he’s not much of a womaniser yet, though those are both explainable by this being an origin story; Bond only picked up his penchant for using women after his love was killed, and being suave comes with age. Young Bond here hasn’t learned that yet. Meanwhile, an inspired use of the soundtrack and an endless parade of references to Bond lore help to sell the authenticity of the experience.
007 First Light is, ultimately, a better game for the Bond nerd than I expected it would be. The team at IO Interactive clearly love the property and have done for it what Larian Studios did for Baldur’s Gate 3; provide a level of dedication to the source material that’s so fastidious that you might argue with a decision here or there, but it’s difficult to get too cynical about a game clearly made by genuine fans of the property.
