There are Bond games and Bond games; 007: First Light is the latter

IO Interactive's version of Bond is the summer blockbuster I've always wanted.

The title is a slightly disingenuous riff, since 007: First Light is the only dinner jacket, I mean, Bond game, I have ever known. It was a Christmas gift. The only reason why it was even on my wishlist was that, well, it’s a triple-A title and it's Bond.

I have little interest in third-person action shooter games and am not very skilled at them for obvious reasons. I haven’t played any Hitman games either, so while everyone and their mom was generally optimistic about IO Interactive’s latest prior to the May 27th release, I had little reference and cultural knowledge surrounding it to judge its success or failure.

Until I played the game, that is.

What you’re about to read isn’t even remotely objective, as much as games writing can be objective, in any case. It’s an impression of 007: First Light formed in a near-vacuum, based only on my love for Bond movies and my ever-growing appreciation for video games as the ultimate form of entertainment.

Movies to watch…

Let’s talk about the movies first. I’m a pretty casual Bond fan. I haven't read the books, even though I have the full collection. Some of the movies I haven’t revisited in decades, while others I rewatch with some regularity, the Daniel Craig era ones in particular, who is my Bond and always will be.

I love the Bond films for the ultimate action hero fantasy of them all. For over-the-top action, for the humour and the quips. For the romance, too. While I’ve grown to see the misogynistic toxicity of some of the earlier Bond films for what it is, the latest films swing squarely and pleasingly in the opposite direction. Craig films have some of my favourite portrayals of seduction, imbued with agency on both sides that I find very erotic.

Yes, like that.

Bond films are a great escape. One of the greatest in the genre, I'd argue.

So what would happen if the essence of what makes these movies great were superimposed with the medium of video games to allow you not just to witness the ultimate fantasy, but to touch it, to live it? That’s what 007: First Light manages to pull off, and effortlessly at that. A colleague called it a playable Bond film, and I concur—this is exactly what 007: First Light is and what makes it work.

… and movies to play

There is tension between the movie and the video game elements that make it happen, though. (Let’s get bad, or “bad”, out of the way before I start gushing about the good.)

While playing 007: First Light, I kept thinking: were this game anything but a Bond game, set in the familiar universe I love, it would be nowhere near as interesting and satisfying an experience. Its action components are solid and would still make for a fun experience with all of its stealth, combat, gunfights, and car chases, but mechanically, it can get a bit… stiff?

The progression in action sequences is so bite-sized that every mission feels like a series of vignettes. Here you are in an open area looking for clues to get past the sentries. Here you are in a tight room with lots of cover to stealth around a handful of enemies. Here you are in a basement full of thugs that you need to shoot while not getting shot yourself. Here you are walking in a hallway. Every door you pass through wipes the slate clean. There is no chase; there is no danger; the vignette is over; onto the next one, please.

It's not bad per se, but abrupt enough to be noticeable even to a novice player like me, who’s neither very comfortable nor very skilled at third-person action games. For my progression and individual gameplay, it was actually a boon. The game is very forgiving of mistakes and generous with invisible save points. I passed a few sections by the skin of my teeth, sometimes mustering enough luck to power through, sometimes failing right after a save point that got me closer to the proverbial door with my cover intact.

At no point was I ever far from locking in my progress, which considerably lowered my frustration at failing or dying. Before I understood how the game treated progression and what it took to move the story forward, the open combat and gunfight sequences presented a real difficulty for me, especially if they were the result of my blowing my cover.

How I started off playing 007: First Light

The thing is, I rushed and got gunned down because I wanted to play the way Bond would act in the movies—decisively, aggressively, efficiently. That I eventually had to adjust and slow down in the game is secondary. The game does such a great job of immersing you in the atmosphere and the universe that the high-octane action is irresistible, even if you don’t have the gaming skills to match.

Because it’s Bond, stupid

IO Interactive took the ingredients that make the Bond movies so fun and successfully pulled off just the right combination of them all for a winning recipe. I cannot succinctly describe the ingredient ratios, but I feel the recipe's success very viscerally.

I was squealing with delight and yelling at my screen through the first couple of missions, happy as a clam to be puppeteering a young action hero whose absurd shenanigans and improbable feats grew more and more Bond-like as the game progressed.

The long-forgotten thrill of a Bond movie on the big screen came rushing back to me. In 3D. No longer could I only witness it passively as a linear experience—I could live it in the most video gamey way possible. The IOI writers threw everything from exotic locales to highly improbable stunts and just over-the-top action sequences at the player. The Q gadgets, the cars, the Bond girls, the explosions, the quips, the tragic moments, the villains—it’s all there, in a chaos that the linearity of the game serves perfectly to contain and keep on rails despite giving the player the freedom to approach many a section as they please.

I loved all the clever little references to Bond films, the names for achievements, and the easter eggs that could be discovered during limited exploration. I drank in all the environments, the gorgeous setpieces, the superbly acted dialogue and banter, and the story’s jab at blind trust people put into LLMs/genAI.

I also couldn’t get enough of Patrick Gibson’s James Bond. His portrayal of soon-to-be-007 is what I want Bond to be in 2026. He hit all the notes of self-assured, emotionally intelligent, increasingly competent, and still very interested in women, not only (and not just) as sex objects, but as sparring partners and friends as well. Unlike many, I thought his monologuing and one-liners were funny and in-character, adding levity to situations that I, as a player, found stressful. He was a joy; playing as him was one hell of a feeling.

This never happened to the other fellow

I hear the Uncharted and Hitman comparisons that swing in both directions. I’m not dismissing them, but I’m not equipped to comment, having never played these games. I can see how, for more experienced players looking for more challenge, some (many?) parts of 007: First Light would feel too easy and perhaps too boring. This is fair.

Ultimately, the whole shebang worked really, really well for me. The nagging feeling that, should the Bond wrapping be stripped away, this video game would feel a tad too generic action was merely a blemish on my enjoyment. It was just the right level of challenge to get what I wanted out of the game.

And what I wanted was to live in the Bond universe and feel like a badass, indestructible, suave spy, and I got that feeling in spades.

What a time to love video games.

10/10.

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