The review paints 007 First Light as a rare Bond game that feels built by people who truly want to live inside the fantasy—mixing pre-00 character work, clever gadgets, and set-piece action with room to roam through places fans dream about.
Pressure is the default setting for any new James Bond game. After years without a major Bond video release—and even longer without the big-screen hero—007 First Light is expected to do more than entertain. It has to make British cinematic style feel playable again.
It’s a challenge IO Interactive appears to have been circling for a while. Its Hitman games already feature a besuited, globe-trottling assassin who turns every social setting into a route to violence. The same studio also leans hard into corporate gloss and harsh architecture. and even its in-house Glacier engine carries the kind of codename energy you’d expect from a villain’s dossier.
But 007 First Light doesn’t take the easy path of “Hitman with a license.” The game sends players into Bond’s pre-00 days. where he’s not yet polished—he’s petulant. belligerent. and eager to break rules. Patrick Gibson’s Bond starts out as a classic insubordinate trainee. Then the story starts giving him edges that matter: the relationship with M shifts him from irritation into engagement. with M presented as a green leader trying to make her mark. Q. meanwhile. is introduced as an enjoyably urbane presence who drops the usual frustrated quartermaster routine and brings in vinyl—an unexpected detail that lands because it feels like personality. not branding.
One small moment captures the tone the review keeps returning to: Bond is taught to tie a bow tie. It’s a prequel flourish that doesn’t just dress the character in costume—it makes the iconic look feel earned.
What stands out next is how the game handles its own structure. Hitman is famous for being open-ended. and so it’s striking that 007 First Light leans into linear storytelling with real confidence. There are still “social stealth” beats, but they’ve been reshaped for cinematic momentum and blended with action. The review even warns against a lazy comparison—“Hitman meets Uncharted”—yet admits that when Bond jumps onto a cliff edge and scurries along rocky handholds. the crossover in your brain becomes unavoidable.
The game often puts players through sequences that would be cutscenes in other titles. Even something as simple as driving around a bend to reveal a sprawling Slovakian castle is treated like story. not loading screen texture. Then comes the heavier lift: one whole chapter functions like a training montage. It whips between getaway driving, stealth, and gunplay, while tracking thawing relations between fledgling 00 candidates. It’s described as “on-rails storytelling done right,” and that phrasing sticks because the motion feels purposeful rather than restrictive.
Action in 007 First Light is loud—sometimes in ways that feel designed for spectacle. Guns are described as punchy, but scripted fights don’t ask for tactics first. They favor explosive theatrics: gas tanks erupt, walkways tumble, cranes collapse. The fights push you to look for a red barrel to trigger a chain of collateral damage. If you don’t manage the chaos this way, the review says you’re overwhelmed quickly.
Fist fights offer a different kind of satisfaction. They aren’t necessarily smarter, the review notes, but they’re more committed to the physicality of the stunt work. Bond is portrayed as a barroom brawler who barrels into clattering bookshelves and swings enemies into mugs. keyboards. and other props lying around. The game trains you to suspect anything waist-high—crockery. wine bottles—because if it isn’t stuck down. you’ll likely smash it into a mercenary’s face moments later.
When sneaking goes wrong. the review says. that’s when fists and guns take over—and IO layers in a punchy take on lurking. A hacking watch triggers Home Alone-style hijinks as you lure guards toward misbehaving photocopiers. then electrocute the device using a laser beam. Gadgets let you run circles around enemies. with toy-like flexibility that still feels integrated into the fantasy—even if the review laughs at the silliness of refueling with batteries stolen from TV remotes or globs of hand sanitiser. The comparison is blunt: it’s hard to imagine Daniel Craig scavenging for Carex.
Still, the review argues that action is only one part of the Bond fantasy in this game. Bond is just as much a schmoozer as a bruiser. and the social side of the character shows up in setpieces: a chess tournament. a swanky product launch. and rooms staged with exemplary atmosphere. The mechanics often boil down to eavesdropping on guests to discover a keycard’s location. then shooting the keycard holder with a toxic dart.
There’s also room to roam—something the review emphasizes as rare. A visit to a Mauritanian market and a luxury hotel getaway create space for exploration. and the author credits the game with delivering an aspirational tourist fantasy. The review points out that few developers can do this well. and it frames 007 First Light as a standout moment because it lets players live a Bond life that isn’t always about gunfire: relaxing beside a glittering infinity pool in Vietnam. or trying to outsmart a shell game hustler.
As the review closes, it returns to immersion. It suggests 007 First Light will be remembered less for the odd wonky setpiece scene and more for the feeling that the game was built by Bond geeks working through “what if” moments—scribbling ideas on a whiteboard until the world around players becomes the answer.
What if players got to explore Q Lab, watching underlings test malfunctioning prototypes?. What if Bond were tied to a torturer’s table and had to talk his way out?. What if the game dropped him at 15,000ft with no parachute?. And what if. somehow. there were access to John Barry’s classic scores—so a needle drop could arrive without warning?.
The review’s final verdict is direct: very few fans get to play inside the sandbox of their obsession the way IO has done here. And as far as Bond video games go, it says nobody has done it better.
007 First Light James Bond game IO Interactive Patrick Gibson M Q Glacier engine Hitman social stealth gadgets Vietnam infinity pool Slovakian castle training montage