00:00When IO Interactive was first announced as developing a James Bond game, people connected
00:06the obvious dots. James Bond inspired Hitman, the series IO is best known for, so the studio
00:13seemed like a great fit to take on a proper 007 game. But it's where those two experiences
00:19would need to be different that had me most intrigued. A 007 game can't just be a Hitman
00:25game with different hair, thankfully IO's first foray into the James Bond world proves
00:31the team knows this and leans into it, delivering a thrilling Bond experience worthy of the character,
00:38while also applying lessons learned from the studio's own international man of mystery.
00:50While it isn't the first Bond game to tell an original story, 007 First Light
00:55is IO's very own take on Ian Fleming's iconic spy himself. With a new leading man
01:01in Patrick Gibson, and a story that takes Bond back to the age of 26 when he's still
01:06serving in the military sans any ties to MI6, it's a natural on-ramp for people who may
01:11not be familiar with Bond, or who have been waiting since 2021's No Time To Die for the
01:17next reboot. This is a fresh start, and the team makes it their own.
01:22In first light, the Bond we meet is younger than ever, and this invites a more stubborn,
01:27mistake-prone version of the character, whom I quickly found myself interested in.
01:32Recruited to MI6's soon-to-be-rebooted 00 program, Bond can't catch a break, making
01:38enemies of his fellow recruits and his irritable supervisor John Greenway, played by The Walking
01:43Dead's Lenny James, who shines in his newfound role in the Bond universe. In the movies, I loved
01:49how Daniel Craig's take on the hero often saw him receive his fair share of beatings.
01:54I strongly prefer that to an untouchable good guy who can do no wrong. That aspect of Bond
02:00feels ramped up even more in first light, with a version of the spy who is hardly out of the
02:05figurative cradle at the intelligence agency. James Bond is a headstrong young man, and his
02:11tendency to ask for forgiveness rather than permission is both his best and worst attribute
02:17in the eyes of his superiors.
02:19Issues with authority.
02:22I believe there's more a case of authority having issues with me.
02:25Before long, Bond is on assignment, using his tricks of social engineering and stealth
02:30to infiltrate a lavish hotel, where the agency believes a disgruntled X00 agent is plotting
02:37something. While this plot thread initially sounds a bit too much like Skyfall, it quickly finds
02:43its own path forward, eventually erasing my concerns that the 20 hour story would lean
02:49too much on things I've already seen. It's also during this early mission that First
02:53Light starts to reveal its familial ties to Hitman, so to speak.
02:58Like IO's flagship game, you'll be dropped into a massive gala full of NPCs, some of whom
03:03are guardians of certain areas of the hotel. And like IO's bold assassin, Bond will need
03:10to trick, sneak past, or otherwise dispatch the security to get where he needs to be.
03:16While the game rightly doesn't have the same level of dark humour as Hitman, many of
03:22the ways you'll move about the world feel plucked right out of it. You can distract guards,
03:27then sneak from cover to cover when they look away, shimmy across handholds and pipes outside
03:32the building, eavesdrop on conversations to get crucial information, and lie to people to
03:37get what you need. Be it a keycard, the whereabouts of a particular person, or for them to simply
03:43step aside and let you pass, which First Light gamifies as the bluff mechanic.
03:48It won't work on everyone, but some enemies will simply take you at your word, as Bond is
03:54a charming young man good at acting like he belongs somewhere he doesn't. Once in a while
03:59you'll even don a disguise. In these moments, First Light and Hitman share a lot in common.
04:05When things break down, maybe your cover has been blown, or you were spotted by enemies
04:10who don't fall for your charms, the game's very best attribute kicks into high gear.
04:16Combat in First Light is incredibly fun, especially the melee combat. Some of its systems are tried
04:22and true, like enemy attacks that must be blocked or dodged with good timing, but the
04:26things First Light does best are those that feel the most Bond-like. Weaving in and out of
04:32combos against a group of enemies looks and feels awesome, whether you're perfectly nailing
04:37every hit and dodging every attack, or you're just scraping by in fist fights that feel like
04:43trying to win an eye-gouging contest.
04:51Gunplay is fun too, and though I preferred to use my fists because it felt it fit the character
04:57better at times, I love how First Light's guns never have much ammo in them, demanding
05:02you frequently change what you're armed with by taking them off defeated enemies. You
05:07can even chuck your gun at their heads when it's out of ammo. Combined with a slow motion
05:12focus aim mechanic, enemies who effectively flank you, and lots of destructibility, the
05:17end result makes for frenetic shootouts of precision headshots and creative explosions
05:22every time you've been given the license to kill. The exciting set pieces, once starring
05:28Connery, Brosnan, Craig, and the others, are faithfully captured in First Light, but what
05:34makes them even better is how often these moments aren't scripted. They are a result of my own
05:40improvisational input, navigating a complex battlefield, and using every tool at my disposal to capture
05:47the specific biorhythms of a Bond movie.
05:50Speaking of tools, it's funny how well a Bond story maps onto video games. Not only do
05:57you trot around the globe in a way that suits distinct missions, but Bond is always aided
06:02by Q and his Q-Lab spy gadgets. With his nearly ever-present Q watch, Bond can scan an area
06:08for enemies and interaction points, even through walls, using the sort of detective vision
06:13mechanic that Arkham Asylum popularized in 2009. Bond can also hack electronics with that
06:20same watch. He can make people feel queasy and move them off their spot using a fake phone
06:25that shoots poison darts, and he can blow stuff up with a fake pen, among several other gadgets
06:31at his disposal. On many missions you'll pick which two or more of these you want, leaving
06:36you with many answers to the same question, how to get from A to B when the space between
06:41is littered with villains. I found it hard to pick which gadgets I wanted on any mission
06:47because they all had their uses. It was very common for me to get into a mission thankful
06:51I had a particular gadget, but also longing for another I had left behind, depending on
06:57the situation. These gadgets ensure the spirit of the Bond character is alive, and the game
07:03is rich with other true-to-form touches, like a well-rounded cast of characters, such as MI6
07:09boss M, workplace ally Moneypenny, and a memorable villain whose quest is an interesting dark reflection
07:16of Bond himself. He's also the type of bad guy who feels plucked right out of the
07:21headlines. A Bond story is essentially a superhero story, but the best of them ground themselves
07:27in reality by speaking to the social and political context in which they've arrived,
07:32and First Light shines in this regard. Watching the Bond movies recently for the first time,
07:38my wife jokingly wondered if the Bond girl is always going to betray him, given how often
07:44it happens. I was glad to see First Light toy with this expectation a lot during its runtime.
07:49As for 007 himself, Patrick Gibson did so well to become the hero in my mind that, while I used
07:56to
07:56think of him as the actor who plays the title role on Dexter First Blood, by the end of the
08:00game he'd
08:01become James Bond first and foremost. It's hard to see him any other way.
08:06Of all the boxes Io had to check to make First Light feel authentic, the only area where the team
08:11noticeably falters is driving sections. It's not really a Bond story without some car chases, and
08:18though First Light uses several different vehicles in several different ways, most of them feel like
08:24you're rather rigidly barreling down something close to a straight line. Nearly feeling on rails, these
08:30flashy scenes of Aston Martins and speed boats still look and sound cool, but they're best for moving Bond from
08:37one shootout to another, while the driving sections themselves don't add much. Another issue that
08:42stems from telling a 20 hour Bond story is that you, perhaps necessarily, lose some of the supreme
08:49pacing the best of the movies have to offer. I enjoyed seeing Bond in his MI6 provided apartment
08:56with other recruits. That felt like the sort of downtime a movie wouldn't allow for, which managed to add
09:02layers to these new versions of old characters. But there are a couple of other sections later where
09:08you're meant to solve puzzles, usually involving locked doors, and in these sections the pacing can
09:13grind to a halt, pulling me out of the otherwise exciting story. That's a hard problem to solve,
09:20given how a game necessarily differs from a movie,
09:23Don't tell me the old pro needs a timeout. Tactical pause.
09:27One area in which the pacing doesn't suffer is First Light's secondary mode, TAC Sim,
09:32short for Tactical Simulation. The in-universe excuse for this challenge mode is that it's
09:37Bond's way of staying frosty, beating up virtual bad guys in virtual kitchens, villas, and military
09:43installments. What this amounts to for you is a highly replayable mode that gets right down to the
09:49game's best bits. It's combat. Across many levels, you can attempt to complete dozens of challenges,
09:54which is something the studio has designed very well before. I like this mode out of the gate,
10:00though the rewards feel lacking for now. With some lukewarm weapon skins and outfits on offer,
10:06IO plans to support TAC Sim with updates, and I look forward to seeing how it evolves,
10:11but for those who wondered if this could be the equivalent of Hitman's incredible freelancer mode,
10:16it's far from that as of now. In the end, IO's take on James Bond was actually more like Hitman
10:23than
10:23I expected, but that's not to say it's simply Hitman by another name. As someone who has loved
10:29the series for nearly 25 years, it's fascinating to see how IO apply everything it's learned.
10:36007 First Light wisely repurposes what works in both universes, but isn't afraid to reimagine or ditch
10:44those parts that don't. Though some aspects of the game do hinder the pacing, so much else feels
10:50authentic and riveting. As Hollywood seems uncertain about where to take Bond next, IO Interactive's
10:57debut effort is supremely confident. James Bond will return, the movies always like to say. If and
11:05when IO's Bond returns, it'll have a great first act to follow.
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