The influence that the James Bond franchise has had on me cannot be overstated. That legacy continues with 007 First Light.
GoldenEye 007 split-screen is a cornerstone multiplayer experience I share with uncountable others who grew up in the 90s, and I have deeply cherished memories of playing James Bond 007: Nightfire and Everything or Nothing with my brother and father. I have watched all 25 Eon-produced films multiple times. I am elated that, after Bond's 14-year absence from video games, 007 First Light is an adaptation that's faithful to the spy's heritage and simultaneously novel.
James Bond is not a double-0 in IO Interactive's third-person, story-driven, action-stealth title. Patrick Gibson lends likeness and voice to the youngest iteration of Bond yet, who is recruited into His Majesty's Secret Service after he shows exceptional panache during a mission gone awry. Joining Casino Royale as a rare depiction of Bond earning his codename, this origin story sees 007 First Light as more than a checklist of franchise tropes while establishing a fresh yet familiar take on the iconic secret agent.
007 First Light quickly proves it's out to tell a new kind of Bond story by lifting the veil on MI6 headquarters and its personnel. The agency and Bond's peers are usually mysterious, a nebulous institution surrounding a few key characters, yet in First Light, you spend time with other recruits, get ample opportunity to amble around Q-Branch, ride the elevators of the Universal Exports front, and make small talk with the agency's poindexters and desk jockeys. It's such a thorough realization of MI6 that one of my favorite new characters, Basil from the accounting department, doesn't even need a single line and is never shown on-screen.
A bespoke, regularly present team has a tremendous effect on separating this version of Bond from that of Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, Daniel Craig, and even Ian Fleming's original. The wit and charm are there, but he's not the singularly suave, self-assured maverick of the silver screen. Much longer than a Bond film, 007 First Light fills its runtime with chatter (which sometimes verges on annoyingly quippy) to elucidate an untested spy learning how to best use a confidence that frequently irks others.
But he's still James Bond; IOI hasn't reinvented the character. Gibson seamlessly becomes the ever-present protagonist, and is buoyed by other strong cast members, of which Kiera Lester and Lennie James are the most notable. The former plays James Bond staple Eve Moneypenny as she's finally given a role with more consequence than M's secretary, while the latter's performance as 007 First Light invention John Greenway is so earnest that it overcomes the character's rather clichéd framework.
007 First Light walks this line fairly well, adapting a storied franchise without feeling like mimicry, though it does make the occasional turn predictable. Certain characters are obviously more than they seem when they are introduced (I'm being intentionally vague here because IOI has requested certain plot points remain mysterious), often to the detriment of others who are developed, have their moment, and take an early exit from the narrative.
This won't be unfamiliarto James Bond fans, however. It's a franchise that regularly poses mysteries just to illuminate them minutes later, and runs the gamut from Oscar-worthy audio-technical elements to campy nonsense. Its cleverness has always come from cutting dialog and cunning (or sometimes silly) spycraft, both of which 007 First Light has in spades. It does not dethrone Bond stories like Casino Royale and From Russia with Love, but it's well above the likes of Die Another Day and A View to a Kill.
007 First Light similarly adapts the movies' formulaic cadence with its gameplay. Bond is sent on a mission to a swanky social affair, which leads to some necessary infiltration, followed by a more bombastic set piece, then repeat – with, of course, the occasional interlude courtesy of a smitten woman. Playing to its strengths, IO Interactive has weighted this balance heavily toward sleuthing.
Each mission in 007 First Light doesn't quite boast the puzzle-box design of Hitman's most recent World of Assassination trilogy (IOI's three previous releases), but they still carry many of the same strengths. There isn't a developer more skilled at believably rendering an upscale shindig, and the layers of restricted areas with multiple discoverable ingress points work perfectly for the sleight-of-hand antics and gadgetry James Bond is known to employ.
There is a lot of walking around in 007 First Light. It is most often a deliberately slow game. You spend time eavesdropping, poking around, sneaking past guards, pulling on threads to figure out the way to your next objective. This series of intertwined social stealth puzzles is interspersed with run-of-the-mill platforming and climbing, and bookended by shooting galleries, brawls, and driving sequences. They're not entirely separate, though; draw too much attention where you don't belong, and Bond may become the guards' punching bag, or worse if you're hiding from particularly villainous henchmen.
Action sequences are 007 First Light's most clunky, because the game moves away from its methodical baseline. None of the gameplay feels outright bad, but it's much more interesting to clear encounters stealthily than open fire with slightly clumsy cover-shooter mechanics, and while car chases and similar segments are suitably entertaining, they're effectively on rails with vehicle handling that leaves something to be desired.
Both sides of the gameplay coin steadily ramp up to their climaxes, and this is unfortunately where the disparity is most apparent. Endgame stealth sections are brilliant, requiring thorough knowledge of your gadgets and split-second manipulation of NPC behavior. Their action counterparts have all the necessary gravitas in presentation, and contain some interesting ideas, but are ultimately lackluster in execution. I was sorely disappointed by one late sequence that was teased throughout, one that should be a Bond game highlight.
A few dissonant notes don't tarnish a game that's very smartly constructed, though. 007 First Light is an IO Interactive title through and through, and proof that sometimes the biggest questions – Who should be responsible for Bond's return to gaming? – require the simplest answers: The Hitman developers, obviously.
007 First Light has a legitimate claim to being the best James Bond video game ever. It likely won't be as influential as GoldenEye 007, and it can't recapture my childhood memories of snipers-only duels on Nightfire's Ravine map, but it has a deep understanding of what makes James Bond so magnetic. The car chases and extravagant villain lairs are essential, but the keystone is the globe-trotting covert ops.
Accessibility
Like Q retrofitting Bond's Omega watch, IO Interactive not only knows what the franchise needs, but what makes it tick. With gorgeous and impressively intricate locales, 007 First Light is brimming with trademark James Bond intrigue. There is a world-altering conspiracy threatening king and country to match, and a gameplay loop to get to the bottom of it that's as intoxicating as a vodka martini.
ScreenRant was provided with a digital copy of 007 First Light for the purpose of this review.