James Bond’s movie career has been varied, and his videogame adventures have been the same. Despite the rich source material, he’s never quite found consistent success in games. Even the best of them only capture a tiny bit of what the James Bond franchise. Until now. 007 First Light is everything I imagined for a Bond game; there’s rooftop chases, fistfights, shootouts, fancy gadgets, stealthy spycraft and even the classic Bond women to catch our hero’s eye.
Available On: PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC
Reviewed On: PS5
Developed By: IO Interactive
Published By: IO Interactive
The truly impressive trick is how IO Interactive have handled the whole thing. Almost every facet of 007 First Light captures the James Bond vibe, and yet, it has its own identity. It mirrors the films in this regard, where each actor’s movie run brought its own spin, emphasising different aspects of the character and world. This is James Bond, its foundations built by the works of Ian Fleming and all the movies, but this is also IO’s James Bond, and they are confident in their vision.
007 First Light takes us back to the very beginning of Bond’s career as an agent of MI6. It kicks off when he’s a Royal Navy Air Crewman who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, setting up his recruitment by MI6 through to his training and eventual taking of the 007 mantle. Along the way, there’s a massive conspiracy to uncover that will take Bond across the globe, from dreary London to luxury tropical resorts to the realm of the Pirate King. It’s a proper globe-trotting adventure.
At the heart of it all is Bond himself, and thankfully, IO absolutely nail their version of the iconic spy. He’s the right blend of smarm, confidence and charisma. He’s a little too overconfident for his own good, but never so much that he becomes unlikable. He frequently puts a toe over the line that would make him annoying, but never steps fully over it, his quick wit and self-awareness letting him turn his annoying traits into strengths. In other words, he’s the perfect Bond, the guy every other guy wants to be, and every woman wants to be with.
But he also develops over the course of the game in a subtle way. His initial brashness rubs people the wrong way, especially trainer Greenway whose relationship with Bond is a highlight of the whole game. By the time the credits roll, there’s the feeling that this Bond has grown a little, not quite fully becoming the absolute best version of himself but taking all the right steps.
And the actor who plays him, Patrick Gibson, delivers spectacularly. Indeed, the whole cast is on top of their game, aided by strong facial capture performance that lets characters convey information and feelings without words. You could probably turn the audio off and still be able to follow along for the most part. Gibson is the star, though, delivering cocky smirks and the series’ signature one-liners like he was born to play the role.
Also, kudos to IO for giving Bond the distinctive vertical scar on the right side of his face that he sports in the books.
The rest of the supporting cast do a fantastic job as well. Greenway is the perfect mentor for Bond, a world-weary man who cannot be arsed with Bond’s shit and cockiness. Over time, he gradually comes to appreciate Bond’s instincts, while Bond in turn gets some of his rougher edges ground down and polished.
Fortunately, First Light’s villains are just as entertaining as its hero. The real star is the game’s co-antagonist. Wearing a striking gold mask and possessing all the confidence and theatricality you’d expect from a Bond villain, he steals almost every scene he’s in. He’s dangerous, charismatic and delightfully unhinged, feeling like he stepped straight out of a classic Bond film.
The mastermind behind the conspiracy isn’t the most charismatic antagonist Bond has ever faced, but his motivations are surprisingly compelling. His belief that an AI can only become perfect through real-world experience leads him down an increasingly dangerous path, and while his reasoning is flawed, it’s easy to understand how he arrived at his conclusions.
The opening few hours, though, are a little rough. An on-rails opening sequence had me a little worried about the type of game I was in for. And the whole first act of the game winds up feeling like an extra-long prologue before the story proper kicks in. There are a few characters – one especially – and even some plot threads that just disappear. That one character in particular really should have popped back up later on, but never did.
But there is something to be said for that slower opening, too. This is a game that revels in letting you take your time, a holdover from the Hitman games. Detail is everywhere, and rushing the 15-20 hours it takes to play the game would be tantamount to blasphemy. The slow opening might feel a bit disconnected, but it does mean that plenty of time is given to fleshing out Bond as a person, showing his training, and even giving him some pals that I genuinely like.
The campaign guides you through 15-20 hours of James Bond shenanigans. There’s plenty of explosive set pieces, but those are mixed in with slow-paced social stealth, gunfights, driving sequences and more. It’s an impressive mixture of styles, all delivered at a solid pace. Just when I wanted the action to speed up a little, it did, and just when I felt like it needed some breathing room, it eased up.
The Hitman DNA feels most prevalent when you’re dropped into environments packed with NPCs and chances to overhear useful information. It’s not as jam-packed as Hitman with opportunities and storylines to follow, but there’s usually at least a few ways to achieve your objectives in these open areas. Agent 47 wanted to plan out his moves, but Bond is a little more reactive to the situation right in front of him. Maybe you’ll be able to pass yourself off as a journalist to sneak past security, or find a handy window to climb out of, or maybe even come across a disguise that will help out. Or you’ll just spend a while soaking it all in. IO are excellent at producing huge crowds with their engine, and 007 First Light uses that to its full advantage.
One fun new mechanic is Bond’s ability to bluff his way through situations. Whenever you’re trespassing, you can use up a resource (regained by knocking out people or doing other things) to bluff enemies or civilians, using Bond’s easy charm to buy him a few minutes of safety before they realise they’ve been had. His silver tongue can convince suspicious guards that he’s performing safety checks or has been informed of a shipment of potentially hallucinogenic mushrooms. It’s a cool idea that fits the Bond theme, and it’s frankly amazing how many lines IO wrote and recorded for all the possible situations Bond has to bullshit his way out of.
For the most part, stealth is optional, although usually advised. If spotted, you can always put up your fists and get to work with the game’s close-quarters combat system, or be granted a licence to kill if the enemies pull out guns. Let’s stick to the stealth for a moment, though. It’s mostly what you expect: lurk behind things, cause distractions by turning on hoovers or using your special lure action, and knock people out. Weirdly, though, you can’t move bodies, which feels archaic in 2026.
Fistfights are based around striking, side-stepping, countering punches and grabbing enemies when they decide to turtle up. The animations give the combat a brutal feel, especially when you grab enemies and slam them into the scenery. Bond will smash heads off walls, hurl enemies into fire extinguishers, crack their spines on ledges and much more. I genuinely winced at a couple of moments.
Gunplay is more perfunctory in comparison to fist-fights. The basic acts of aiming and shooting feel okay, but it’s definitely not going to be competing with the best third-person action games on the market. But you can combine the gunplay with the brawling, and some cool details add some flair to the combat. Tackling an enemy disarms them, for instance, and you can then catch their weapon in mid-air and start firing. You can also shoot weapons out of people’s hands, eliminate them from a fight completely by delivering a bullet to each knee, and a few other cute little tricks that I’ll let you discover on your own.
At first, I tried to play it more like a cover-based tactical shooter, but there are often many enemies onscreen that will swarm you. Played as more of a run-and-gun shooter where you occasionally rugby tackle someone into a wall, though, and it becomes a lot more fun. It wants you to be aggressive, just like Bond would be.
Another standout element is how the music is handled. The game uses the classic Bond theme sparingly, and because it doesn’t just blare it out at every opportunity, when it does kick in – especially during key moments like escapes or confrontations – it really lands. You get those goosebumps every time.
It isn’t a James Bond adventure without some fancy gadgets courtesy of master inventor Q, who in this incarnation is a man of wisdom and patience, a calm, almost grandfatherly figure for Bond to admire.
The Q-Watch is one of the game’s coolest gadgets, acting as a Swiss Army knife of spy tech that can hack systems, scan for foes, disable security measures and support Bond’s stealthy approach. You can also take a few other gadgets too, like a tiny missile launcher, smoke grenades, a concussive camera and more. I personally found a lot of use in the poison dart that makes people so sick to their stomach that you can walk right past them. The laser strap is also useful for opening up a few special routes. And I have to say, there are quite a few cool ways of doing things that I didn’t even notice on my first play.
The underlying resource system behind the gadgets, however, feels unnecessary. Special abilities consume charges that must be replenished by scavenging materials scattered throughout the world, but those resources are so abundant that collecting them becomes little more than busywork. Because running out is rarely a concern, the mechanic adds an extra layer of management without creating meaningful decisions. A simple cooldown system may have achieved the same result with less friction and less kleptomania.
For those who value hours upon hours of content and replay value, there’s a decent case for playing through the game again and trying out some different routes. But not a strong case. Firstly, you can do pretty much everything on your first playthrough as most options can be explored before you commit. And secondly, while there’s a fun amount of ways to tackle objectives, this is not Hitman: World of Assassination, nor should it be.
There is, however, TacSim. Located on the main menu, this is a mode where you can go in and complete Escalations and Operations. Escalations are where you get dropped into an area from the story mode and need to complete objectives across three difficulty tiers to advance, such as shooting a specific number of weapons out of enemy hands or tackling people over ledges. Meanwhile, the two Operations take place in the larger areas from the main campaign and offer a bit more freedom as you try to complete mini-objectives.
It’s a weak offering right now, although IO Interactive has already posted a roadmap for future updates. There’s every chance TacSim evolves into something far more substantial over time, but as reviewed today, it’s difficult to recommend as a major selling point.
In Conclusion…
Undeniably, 007 First Light’s biggest accomplishment isn’t the fun gameplay, although that’s no slouch. It’s the creation of a new James Bond who wears the mantle with the same brash confidence of his movie counterparts. He slots right into the pantheon like he’s always been there.
A lot of that is the acting, but a lot of it is the writing. The entertaining thriller story is supported by sharp dialogue, good characterisation, and deliciously cheesy one-liners that fit Bond so well.
Couple that with a strong blend of stealth, action, gadgets and globe-trotting adventure, and you have one of the best James Bond games ever made. It isn’t perfect. The opening hours are a little slow, TacSim needs more time in the oven, and a few systems feel unnecessarily complicated. But when the Bond theme swells, a plan comes together and you’re talking your way past guards before launching yourself into a fistfight, 007 First Light captures the fantasy of being James Bond better than any game before it.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
