When a trailer appeared during last year’s Summer Game Fest for 007: First Light, fans breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that studio IO Interactive was behind it. Players believed that IOI’s beloved Hitman stealth and assassination games would provide a good basis for a game about the world’s most famous spy. And you know what? They were right – at least for the three hours of 007: First Light I got to play.
At an Art Deco-themed restaurant in Los Angeles, I tried out three chapters of the game, giving me an idea of what to expect for potential players curious about the first James Bond game to be released in 14 years. While the 1995 game GoldenEye was very popular, subsequent Bond games were much less successful in adapting the spy’s adventures to the medium. Based on the preview, 007: First Light looks like it could be a confident, inspired take on the James Bond franchise. We’ll know for sure when it launches on May 27.
Bond’s few gadgets have varied uses depending on the situation.
Interactive IOIA lot of this comes from how 007: First Light builds on the Hitman gameplay it’s built on, to the point where it feels like a spy narrative wrapped around the games IO Interactive has already made. This in itself isn’t a bad thing, but there were several moments where I felt like Bond was just another disguise that Hitman’s protagonist Agent 47 wore. Much of 007: First Light’s individuality will depend on the strength of its overarching narrative – not only to set it apart from the lightweight Hitman games, but also to live up to the globe-trotting, high-society, high-octane adventures of the James Bond films and books.
And as a brand new version of Bond, with a unique origin story, 007: First Light has a lot to prove. So I’m not surprised that the first of the three chapters I played started at the beginning of the game, with Bond as a Naval aviator. This was followed by a look at his training as an MI6 agent and finally a slice of the game after an intrigue (and tragedy) that propelled him into high gear by infiltrating a sophisticated gala.
What I played probably wasn’t representative of the game as a whole, and there are twists and turns that I was prohibited from writing about. But I can say that it looks like this will be a unique 007 adventure that doesn’t retread territory from any of the films. This offers something they don’t: in this game, Bond has close friends, and their impact on him changes the story. Maybe he’ll become the womanizing lone wolf agent that fans know so well, but at least in the early parts of 007: First Light, he’s more social – and human – than we’ve come to expect from the superspy.
How 007: First Light tells the story of James Bond
At the start of the game, we are shown a young James Bond, played by actor Patrick Gibson, as a Navy crewman on a routine mission who is about to have a very bad day. While en route to a training exercise near Iceland, his helicopter was shot down over open water. He barely manages to reach the shore. Scruffy and cold, Bond – just a humble soldier in a flight suit, for now – evades patrols of unknown gunmen and grabs a radio to call for help.
An MI6 agent responds, relaying instructions and sending Bond unarmed to reconnoitre what turns out to be one of the British intelligence agency’s secret research bases that has been hijacked by a mysterious team of mercenaries. Part tutorial and part introduction, the first mission shows the seeds of the young crew’s potential for scheming. He records key details to identify mercenaries, bluffs to avoid gunmen, and sneaks out to free imprisoned MI6 researchers, guiding them to safety during a hectic shootout before finally blowing up the base. Like any good Bond prologue, it is followed by the story’s iconic theme song, “First Light”, sung by Lana Del Rey.
The second segment I played was freer. After such a promising start, Bond is inducted into MI6 agent training on the sunny Mediterranean island of Malta, culminating in a simulated infiltration obstacle course to test the mettle of each would-be spy. As Bond, I snuck under the cover of instructors who monitored my performances and other trainee agents who encouraged me or taunted me with light-hearted jokes as I progressed.
This is where I learned the basics of 007: First Light’s infiltration system, which is very similar to that of Hitman. I slipped through the tall grass and shadows, making stealthy takedowns of guards as I made my way to the exit. I also got my first taste of the game’s simple but essential gadget system, using a watch to disable cameras and other electronics, then recharging it by scavenging batteries from the occasional phone or car battery I came across. (Later, you can pick up chemicals to disorient and drug targets from a distance.) When I accidentally alerted a guard, Bond’s trusty fists—along with a fairly deep combat system including parries, dodges, and throws—helped deal with enemies. Of course, guns will do the trick too.
The third section is where things went wrong – and Bond starts to become 007.
007: First Light gives Bond relationships he doesn’t run from – for once
Sometime after presumably graduating, Bond embarks on a mission that goes wrong and his entire team is suspended. While recovering, he returned to the apartment in Kensington, London, which he shared with other agents with whom he had become close. Going from room to room, Bond thinks about the silly little things that come up when you share a home and a life with close friends: restaurant menus and little notes that talk about human relationships. It felt like 007’s boldest departure: First Light. The young orphaned Bond has his own little family.
And as he realizes after finding a fake suicide note in his room, he has enemies. Bond fights several assassins and rushes across rooftops while trying to escape a sniper, using his gadget watch to distract them and buy time. He follows the latter to a gala hosted by a tech mogul – which, naturally, he has to infiltrate.
Hitman fans know what’s coming next and the mission plays out much like it would in those games. Bond steals a ticket, then must find a way to get upstairs to find the last assassin. How you do this is up to you: Do you pretend to be a photojournalist showing up for an interview? Are you bluffing in front of security guards? Steal a security pass? This part of the preview—finding my way through the glitzy gala attendees and fooling or tricking my way past the layers of security—felt like the perfect mix of Hitman and James Bond to me.
Minus the next boss fight with the final assassin, as Bond’s gadget vision depicts enemies through walls, draining tension as I sneak around to ambush my enemy over and over again until a climactic ending. I then walked through some tedious backstage before returning to the gala to find Agent Roth, a beautiful and mysterious woman who had apparently appeared earlier in the game, presenting her as a classic Bond Girl-style femme fatale. Soon, she and Bond are locked up by the game’s antagonists (which, again, I can’t reveal).
After narrowly escaping death and sneaking around for a while, Bond makes a climactic challenge through a video art gallery – a long room where the screens glow a brooding red as dozens of armed and armored men enter. Here we go: Bond’s climactic moment. While previous encounters felt like quizzes on how to use your full array of guns, grappling tools, and gadgets, this one was the final exam. I hacked into an electronic art installation to create a smokescreen, attacked guards, stunned enemies and took them down. Coming out under fire from even more enemies, I stole a garbage truck and raced through the streets while the 007 theme played. Fin.
007: First Light is promising, but not perfect, with issues like misaligned steps and voice pointing me in the wrong direction as enemies sneak up on me – something crucial in a stealth game that I hope will be fixed before release. Hitman fans may be divided on how much of their favorite gameplay is repackaged for Bond’s adventure – a great tonal match that might still feel too familiar. Those new to IO Interactive’s games will probably enjoy it.
But despite the perfection of the stealth gameplay, a lot depends on the plot that IO Interactive is building, a plot that marks a departure from other Bond narratives by telling the story before the spy became super, but which will be difficult to understand. We’ll find out soon enough when 007: First Light releases on May 27.
