007 First Light game review: Back to basics
Hitman developer IO Interactive bring their skills to bear on the James Bond franchise with exciting results
Despite ignominiously arriving two years after the release of the film, Goldeneye 007 had a huge impact on the history of gaming, radically influencing the FPS genre. Ever since that launch, almost 30 years ago, there’s been a keen interest whenever a James Bond game releases. 007 First Light won’t leave such an enduring legacy but it is the most authentic Bond game ever made and a fun, if flawed, third-person action adventure.
It strips the character back to his origins, beginning with a protracted prologue in Iceland where the fresh-faced navy aircrewman finds himself thrust into a world of warfare for which he is seemingly unprepared. After realising his potential, MI6 recruits the 26-year-old (under the tutelage of a mentor played with superb, fractious authority by Lennie James), and he’s placed in an extensive training programme intended to tutor the player in the ways of modern espionage and combat (including a cute section testing gadgets in the labs of Q-Branch).
Once out in the field, Bond is sent to various exotic locales, including Mauritania, Vietnam and Antarctica, and it’s these expansive, detailed locations that benefit most from Hitman developer IO Interactive’s formidable talent for world-building. Less successful is the combat: there’s never enough ammo, which repeatedly drags out enemy encounters; hand-to-hand battles fare slightly better, although it’s frustratingly easy to press the wrong button in the heat of battle. Where the game succeeds most is in its depiction of Bond iconography: John Barry’s theme tune, the gun barrel sequence, the elaborate villain’s lair. And when that theme tune occasionally kicks in, it’s hard not to get swept up in the fun.
007 First Light is out now on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Switch 2.