Growing up, 007 James Bond has been a huge part of my life. From the first 007 movie that I watched, with the ever-fantastic GoldenEye, to the absolute ton of games that have come out; from the equally remarkable adaptation of GoldenEye to more original stories seen in Nightfire and Everything or Nothing. However, that quickly fell apart, and the gaming side of the 00 franchise has fallen into obscurity. IOI’s 007 First Light marks the first new major entry in the Bond franchise since 2010’s Bloodstone, and the Hitman developers might be the perfect studio to pick it up. 

During a retrieval mission in Iceland, Navy Crewman James Bond is left as the sole survivor and discovers the nearby MI6 encampment has been taken over by a mysterious force known as Arrowhead. In classic Bond fashion, he single-handedly rescues any MI6 operatives who have been captured, whilst also destroying the camp to prevent Arrowhead from fully taking control. 

Impressed by his work, Bond has been recruited into the newly resurrected “00” Program by M and assigned to Moneypenny as his handler. 007 First Light sees Bond in the early days of the program, training with his fellow recruits before tackling their very first missions before becoming 00s. As they uncover a deeper plot that threatens national security. 

Being able to explore a fully interactive Q-Lab has been a dream.

I have to admit, I was a little skeptical going into a James Bond origin story, but I shouldn’t have been. The story itself is shockingly good, with plenty of twists and turns, misdirects I didn’t expect, and a cast of characters who are unique and likeable. Though it leaves plenty of story beats open for the sequels, it also feels a little rushed in the final chapters. Regardless, this is not only a Bond story worth paying attention to but personally already one of my favourites.

Patrick Gibson as the younger Bond was the perfect choice, bringing to life a character we’ve come to know and love over so many years, with a suave ladies’ man attitude and quips that made me giggle multiple times throughout. It’d be easy to see this character grow into the Brosnan-like interpretation. Yet the performance is nuanced as he is playing a more inexperienced Bond that isn’t fully adjusted to the world of Espionage. The rest of the cast does an incredible job as well, particularly Lennie James as John Greenway, Bond’s trainer in the 00 program, as they grow from characters who clearly hate each other to having a growing respect throughout the entire game.  

As this is from the studio that brought the Hitman games, you’d expect that same DNA to appear in 007 First Light and for the most part, it’s a very Hitman-coded game where elements will feel very familiar, but it doesn’t go too far and does its own thing. It’s important to set your expectations, as 007 First Light is, for the most part, a semi-linear action-adventure game. Think closer to Hitman Absolution than the World of Assassination trilogy. There’s no Swiss Cheese level design with dozens of small entry points for Bond to exploit; each mission is curated with a mixture of set paths and small branching routes around limited areas as the game switches between social stealth in public spaces and restricted areas where guards patrol. It’s the right balance to make 007 First Light feel like a true Bond game. 

It wouldn’t be a Bond project without ridiculously beautiful locations.

The stealth here is incredibly satisfying, as Bond can take multiple routes through an area. Maybe that’s as a complete ghost, or using focus to sweet-talk his way out of trouble if he does get spotted, giving him valuable time to complete his objective before moving on. And in case you do need to take a guard out, a simple take down will do the trick. Although, Bond can’t drag enemies away from the open, meaning if a guard falls the wrong way, they could be spotted by a nearby guard. I had an absolute blast simply walking through restricted areas and using the Q-Watch to create distractions, which let me slip by unnoticed. 

Combat is a mixture of hand-to-hand and ranged combat. Initially, Bond will not be able to use his firearms freely, creating a unique flow to the game’s stealth and combat systems, being able to effortlessly switch between the two with unmatched fluidity. Bond can dodge, parry, and grab hold of enemies to throw them around the levels with ease and destroy just about everything in his path. At its worst, the melee system can feel rather clunky and unresponsive, especially when you are swarmed with enemies. But at its best, it’s an absolute blast and taking out groups of enemies in a brawl is ever satisfying, but melee is only one part of the combat system.

Entering a combat situation and letting it spiral might eventually lead enemies to call in reinforcements or even pull guns on you. Once an enemy has drawn their weapons, Bond can initiate his license to kill and draw his own firearm. Once the action gets going, it’s an absolute blast. Ammo is somewhat limited, so you’ll need to keep moving, taking out enemies and grabbing ammo as you go. Guns are powerful, able to take out most enemies in a single headshot if they aren’t wearing any protection. Or you can shoot them in the arm to force them to drop the weapon or legs to stagger them. Allowing you to close the gap for a quick finisher. 

Listening into conversations will open up opportunities for Bond to exploit.

Throughout the entirety of 007 First Light, you will be bouncing between these playstyles rapidly. Stealthily taking out guards, getting into brawls and sprinting around intense gunfights, using your Q-Watch to cause all sorts of mayhem and destruction. All of these playstyles can be chained together to create combat sequences that feel right out of the movies. You could play the action sequences like a cover shooter if you really wanted, but 007 First Light works best when you are building momentum and using Bond’s full toolset. Which is what the greatest difficulty forces you to do. Gaining mastery over the flow of 007 First Light allows you to do some truly amazing stuff. 

Then, to mix things up a bit more, there are the signature foot and car chases, which are often more of a spectacle and don’t really offer an interesting gameplay challenge. Similarly, boss fights are arguably the weakest part of the game, with only one set way to complete them that is telegraphed to you with no effort required. Overall, though, these are relatively small issues in a game that does so much right. 

Once you’re done with the campaign, you fully unlock the Tactical Simulations (TacSim for short). These are more of Death Stranding / Metal Gear Solid style VR missions that put you in different challenges to test your skills in stealth or combat. Currently, it’s not the deepest system, with only a few missions that take place on select sections in each mission and a progression system that mostly gives you the same gadgets and weapons you used in the main adventure. But IOI’s dedication to supporting their games long after launch is one of their greatest strengths, and their plans for TacSim are to evolve it over the years. Hopefully, we’ll see missions open up to give more player freedom.

Is that a real-time reflection without ray tracing?!

On top of this, the campaign itself has dozens of challenges per mission that will take you through some different paths or gameplay styles. These can be as simple as making it through zones without being spotted or finding different opportunities. IOI games are built around replay value, and the same DNA has carried over into 007 First Light. So there is a lot more to do once you’ve completed the roughly 15-hour story. Though I do wish the UI were a little better for mission selection, as it just shows a huge list of chapters and doesn’t indicate which challenges are assigned to the particular segments. 

IOI’s proprietary Glacier Engine has always impressed. Especially as one of the few companies offering fully real-time reflections without forced ray tracing. Environments are incredibly well detailed, often cramming in dozens of NPCs into smaller spaces. Though some issues do crop up, especially with some lower-quality texture work in environments and character models that can look absolutely stunning in cutscenes but a little more dead inside for the gameplay. Regardless, the presentation here is mostly fantastic. 

Lana Del Rey, who was once rejected for the Bond theme for Spectre (Instead, we got Sam Smith for some reason), has finally managed to get her own spotlight as the main theme in 007 First Light, and it’s an absolutely amazing capstone to the explosive opening sequence. Elsewhere, the rest of the soundtrack is absolutely amazing as well, and any moment the iconic Bond motif kicks in is just magical. Vocal performances across the board are mostly excellent as well, though I wasn’t exactly impressed with Lenny Kravitz, who feels horribly miscast here. 

Oh, Bond, never change.

As for PC performance, it’s solid for the most part. With DLSS on and higher settings, I was able to achieve a mostly solid frame rate, though it does drop in more intensive sections. Playing on an ultrawide monitor, there are some things to be aware of: gameplay and some cutscenes do support full ultrawide resolutions, but some cinematics resort to black bars in all directions. Thankfully, this is an easy enough fix with a hex editor, but it’s disappointing that full support wasn’t available. Also, an FOV slider would be great. 

This is IOI’s love letter to the James Bond franchise, with tons of callbacks and references that made me smile without being too fan servicey. Some are more subtle, whilst others are in your face, but 007 First Light is also not scared to do its own thing with more unique elements and storylines that will help it stand out in the franchise for years to come. It’s clear that the developers had a lot of fun making this game and understand the franchise so well, even down to including Bond’s scar on his right cheek.

007 First Light is easily one of the best James Bond games of all time. Sitting up there with the likes of GoldenEye and Everything or Nothing to deliver an instant classic 007 experience, with fluid and fast-paced combat, a story that actually managed to surprise. Thanks to some solid writing and genuinely interesting characters. Though there are a few smaller issues scattered throughout, holding it back from that next level. 

007 First Light is available now on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5. 

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070, Ryzen 7 7800X3D and 32GB RAM.

A copy of 007 First Light was provided by the publisher.