The legacy of James Bond games is a story of peaks and valleys. For every GoldenEye or Everything or Nothing that understood Bond, there are half a dozen tie-ins that felt like nothing but senseless cash grabs, cough 007 Legends cough. When IO Interactive announced they were tackling the license, it sounded like a match made in heaven, especially after the recent Hitman trilogy. The real question for Bond fans was what kind of 00 were we going to get? With each era of James Bond, the tone is vastly different, from the brutal nature of Daniel Craig to the coldness of Sean Connery.
IO Interactive somehow manages to thread the needle with 007 First Light. It genuinely feels like a playable spy fantasy, one that borrows heavily from the studio’s work on the Hitman games, while still carving out its own identity. The result is a game that absolutely nails the fantasy of being James Bond, even if the journey getting there occasionally feels uneven in ways that are hard to ignore.
007 First Light opens with, weirdly enough, one of the slower sections, but that’s not a bad thing. We get a good sense of what this Bond, played by Dexter Original Sin’s Patrick GIbson, morals, is. After a failed training mission leads him into the arms of MI6, we are treated to a training montage to show us all the ropes of the systems in 007 First Light. One thing is clear from this opening section: this Bond is stylish without becoming a parody, ruthless without losing charisma, and just reckless enough that every mission feels like it could spiral out of control at any second.
“IO Interactive somehow manages to thread the needle with 007 First Light.”
Mission Design in 007 First Light is where it is at its strongest. You can feel the Hitman DNA every step of the way, and honestly, that is probably the smartest direction IO could have taken. Instead of making Bond into a straightforward cover shooter, the game constantly encourages improvisation. One mission has you infiltrating a lavish gala by posing as a personal driver, while another lets you sneak through a frozen military compound using stolen access credentials. All while balancing stealth and Q branch gadetry to help you accomplish your mission. There is almost always more than one path forward, and discovering those options becomes part of the fun.
Unlike Hitman, though, the illusion of freedom is a little thinner than it first appears. First Light often presents missions as though your choices will dramatically alter outcomes in what path you can take, but all routes eventually funnel back toward the same conclusion. Even though the more exploration-heavy missions present themselves as open-world puzzles like previous Hitman games, there is only one way through. At times, that can make some of the larger sandbox areas feel slightly artificial once the magic wears off.
The one thing that really stood out to me was just how much the pacing really struggles in spots. The game has this strange habit of interrupting its own momentum. For example, there is this one level that has you sneaking around a corporate office, and the opening hour of that mission really drags on, but the next has you in a private resort that is one of the best levels in the game. It’s just like Hitman, though, where some level designs and layouts are more interesting and fun to play around in than others. You’ll be going at this incredible clip of stealth, action and exploration, then suddenly the game slams on the brakes for extended, slower exploration where nothing is really happening and drags on longer than they need to.
“You can feel the Hitman DNA every step of the way, and honestly, that is probably the smartest direction IO could have taken.”
It almost feels like IO struggled to decide whether 007 First Light should be a tightly paced spy thriller or a more methodical immersive sim. The two approaches individually work, but the transitions between them can feel abrupt. Some missions end on massive explosive set pieces before the next chapter immediately shifts into twenty minutes of slow walking, environmental scanning, and conversations that don’t always justify the slowdown. There is a really fantastic game rhythm buried in here somewhere, but it gets disrupted often enough that the inconsistency becomes noticeable.
During combat, you are rarely just sitting behind a wall waiting for enemies to pop out. Instead, 007 First Light encourages you to move, use all the gadgets at your disposal and in turn have some environmental awareness. The result makes shootouts feel chaotic, like Bond barely surviving situations that have spiralled completely beyond his control. And a huge part of that comes from the Q Watch, which quickly becomes one of the coolest tools in the game. Rather than overwhelming players with endless gadgets, IO keeps things relatively focused, giving the watch multiple practical functions that evolve throughout the campaign. It can disable electronics, shoot poison darts, laser open locks, create distractions, and even temporarily disrupt enemy weapons during combat encounters.
The soundtrack deserves special mention because it is honestly phenomenal. From the opening moments, the score nails the atmosphere. Whenever that clear classic Bond orchestration hits, it sends chills down my spine, and during missions, having this incredible orchestra playing really adds to the spy fantasy. The music constantly shifts between tense espionage percussion, sweeping orchestral themes, and these pulsing electronic layers that give the entire game an incredible sense of energy. There is even a section that takes place in a club, and the music is really great there, too. I let it play out for roughly ten minutes, and it was incredibly fun.
“Mission Design in 007 First Light is where it is at its strongest.”
Some of the larger action sequences genuinely hit harder because of the music alone. There is one chase sequence after Vilala level where the soundtrack swells at exactly the right moments, turning what could have been a fairly standard action scene into something memorable. Even quieter infiltration moments benefit from subtle musical cues that build tension without overwhelming the player. It is easily one of the strongest game soundtracks of the year.
IO has always excelled at building dense, believable environments, and that talent translates perfectly to Bond’s world. Every location feels expensive in the way a Bond story should. Luxury hotels glow with warm lighting, and crowded spaces constantly buzz with activity. There is a level of detail here that makes every mission location feel lived in rather than constructed purely for gameplay. Even MI6 HQ feels like a lived-in location, with people working in the background, talking about goings on in the world. It helps it all feel less like some hallways and more like a fully realized world.
The V/O performances also help sell the experience. This interpretation of Bond wisely avoids trying to mimic previous actors too closely, allowing the character to stand on his own. He is confident and charming, but there is still an edge to him that makes the more violent moments land harder. The supporting cast is a little more uneven, particularly some villains who never quite become as memorable as the game wants them to be, but the overall quality remains strong.
What makes 007 First Light work so well is that it understands Bond is not just about action. It is about his relationships, gadgets and charisma. The fantasy is not simply shooting enemies or driving expensive cars. It is walking into impossible situations with absolute confidence and somehow surviving through intelligence, improvisation, and style. IO captures that beautifully.
Even when the pacing stumbles or the illusion of choice starts to crack, the game almost always succeeds at making players feel cool. And honestly, that matters more than perfect narrative branching or flawless structure. The best moments in 007 First Light are the ones where everything aligns for a few minutes, and you stop thinking about mechanics entirely. You are just Bond, moving through these elaborate spy scenarios with gadgets in one hand and absolute confidence in the other.
That alone makes 007 First Light something special.
