007 First Light Review – PC

The legendary spy James Bond returns to the gaming world, but in IO Interactive’s take on the story, Bond has some work to put in before reaching that legend status. Best known for the Hitman series, IO applies much of the skill and design philosophy they’ve picked up over the years, creating a stealth-action hybrid wrapped around a story of a young agent-to-be James Bond as he joins MI6 and we learn the origins of the iconic number 007.

The opening cinema dives right into careful pacing and clever camera angles that feel less like a video game and more like a theatrical experience, something that will remain persistent throughout First Light. In the same vein as Naughty Dog’s Uncharted or The Last of Us series, 007 eschews reinventing the wheel in terms of gameplay and instead focuses on making a story-driven experience, aiming to create a playable spy thriller, and by and large the team at IO Interactive have knocked this one out of the park.

007: First Light presents large, explorable areas with branching paths and different experiences depending on how players choose to progress through the level, and while it isn’t an open-world game by any means, it looks and feels expansive in the amount of ways Bond can interact with the world and the characters in it to accomplish his goals.

Before most levels, Bond will choose what equipment to bring with him, which is where the signature technology and gadgets come in, but players aren’t relegated to a single style of gameplay. In some situations, Bond can simply charm and lie his way to a peaceful resolution.

Story beats have branching paths as well, with players having several choices of how to get through major parts of each level. Bond might be tasked with coming up with a large sum of money to get past a blockade, and players will have several options for how he can raise the cash, often relying on a combination of different playstyles, be it stealth, brute force, or charm and wit.

In some ways, the game’s engine feels like the only thing holding it back, but even here the developers seem keenly aware of its abilities and limitations. Controls can feel somewhat tank-like, and sometimes characters or things in the environment will snap into place if an item or scripted event is triggered just a little off from where things are supposed to take place, but these minor graphical hiccups are a small price to pay for the game keeping the player in control through some of the more complex and adrenaline-inducing sequences, which 007: First Light has no shortage of.

Relying heavily on stealth, there are moments where the game slows to a crawl. Going the wrong way down a hallway or heading to the wrong floor of an explorable building can be a mistake that costs players several minutes in situations where running is disabled, which happens frequently.

Sometimes trying to get Bond to run at all is a chore, and the tank-like controls or snapping into place can lead to frustrating encounters where Bond will kick a wall down and alert an entire building full of bad guys instead of doing the stealthy takedown the player probably wanted. That said, the game is also not at all punishing, offering customisable difficulty on top of often having multiple ways to accomplish Bond’s tasks.

The world has been populated with lifelike NPCs who are often interacting with things, going about their lives, taking part in menial tasks, and there’s nothing quite like sidling along the edge of a building hundreds of meters in the air while a guy on the balcony above complains about the stresses of home life.

Patrick Gibson’s Bond is charming and human, and holds up to any of the on-screen incarnations brought to life over the years. Most of the characters are phenomenally acted, and the story is well-written, topical, and full of the twists and turns required of the genre. Not just any spy thriller can carry the 007 name, but First Light more than lives up to the title. This is a game and a story Bond fans will love, but people who have never cared for the series can pick it up and enjoy it just as thoroughly.