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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nBond then goes on to various office meetings with M, Q and Moneypenny. He\u2019s sent to spy school and you get the usual movie training montage. Except here you get to actually live<\/em> the training montage: you quickly go from CQC, to shooting, to driving, to sneaking. It\u2019s terrible at actually training you, but it does look great! In between training sessions, Bond slams the receptionist against a wall and they both wake up in the same bed. That’s how babies are made, right? I guess that\u2019s the sex part out of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After what seems like an interminable amount of prologue, the first real mission happens. That\u2019s when I came to realize that I would have to contend with the \u201cC\u201d word. No, not that one, the other one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cinematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course a James Bond game is going to be cinematic. You know the drill. There\u2019s going to be multiple exotic locales. Bond snogs at least two women. Someone is a traitor. Someone is not going to make it. The intrigue revolves around a topical subject. Everyone is appropriately witty and British. On top of that, it\u2019s also an origin story, so that\u2019s an extra dose of dialogue and foreshadowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story and setting are great, if a bit overdone, but once the action starts, it\u2019s very much scripted as well. You go from party scene, to fistfight, to shootout, to parkour section, to explosion, to car chase. Repeat the routine at the next location. It\u2019s one big rollercoaster ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re probably thinking: \u201cSo what? I love explosions. I\u2019m a big Michael Bay fan, me!\u201d I mean, sure, I love it when things go kabloey too. My point is that you very rarely get to choose your approach. This is not a game where you plan each mission and choose equipment based on the situation (cough, cough, Hitman<\/em>). To be fair, no one does palaces, swanky hotels, and lavish galas like Io. It\u2019s just that 007 First Light is actually a series of discrete rooms pretending to be large open areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Driving is done in a single direction only. Parkour and vent crawling are just here to pad the overall play time. There\u2019s a strict \u201cno violence\u201d policy in social areas. At best, those offer you two or three options to move on to the next area. Then there are stealth sections. If you do poorly enough, those devolve into a fistfight, so I suppose that\u2019s almost freedom of choice. Heck, the game controls your running speed according to the situation. You\u2019re not even allowed to pull out your gun unless the game tells you to. \u201cLicence to Kill\u201d the game calls this coyly. How very British. Oi, you got a loicence for that killing, mate?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re inside an open room full of chest-high walls, you know you\u2019re in the designated shootout area. Afterwards, Bond usually drops his gun at the first sign of disapproval as if it was his anime DVD collection that he\u2019s embarrassed to own. Don\u2019t get too attached to your guns, is what I\u2019m saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do love what they\u2019ve done with some of the mechanics. Support weapons like flash grenades and lockpicks have been streamlined into a series of \u201cgadgets\u201d like exploding earphones and a shockwave-emitting camera. Very<\/em> James Bond. If spotted, James can \u201cbluff\u201d guards provided you have enough \u201cinstinct\u201d. Bond will then bullshit something along the lines of \u201cSven asked me to go get the left-handed screwdriver\u201d. This will convince the nearby guards to stand down for a few seconds. This is perhaps the single best mechanic in the game. There\u2019s usually very little in a stealth game that separates perfection from utter failure. Bluffing allows you to correct one or two mistakes without breaking the entire flow of stealth sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there\u2019s the actual combat. CQC is surprisingly technical with combos, grabs, thrown objects, attacks that you need to block, and attacks that you need to dodge. Where this actually shines is during shootouts, where everything is added into the mix. Shoot one dude in the leg and knock him out with a punch. Shoot at the second guy\u2019s rifle to have it fly into your hands. Throw your empty gun at the third guy to stun him. It\u2019s such a varied system that it\u2019s strange that you\u2019re so rarely allowed to just use everything at your disposal. However, in practice, combat is finicky. You can soak up an indeterminate amount of damage. Sticking in and out of cover can be a crapshoot. I once died because Bond decided he could vault over this<\/em> crate, but not that<\/em> one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This sort of mixed combat system has been better realized in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and SUPERHOT<\/strong> (yes, that\u2019s actually how you\u2019re supposed to write it). Another point in Indiana Jones\u2019 favor is that you\u2019re the one who decides if it\u2019s time to start shooting, and the Nazis will follow your lead (they\u2019re very considerate Nazis). In 007 First Light, it\u2019s the game that decides if it\u2019s time for a shootout, not the likes of you. Now that I think about it, Indiana Jones also gave you much more space to roam in general. When it comes to games that let you portray a roguish action movie hero, James Bond has stiff competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As a James Bond movie, 007 First Light is perfectly serviceable. While it is probably a bit too long for its own good at a dozen hours, it moves you seamlessly from glamorous locales to exciting set pieces at a quick pace. As an origin story, it\u2019s thin gruel. Young James is already cocky, insubordinate, and improbably good at everything. He doesn\u2019t change one iota by the end of the story. If anything, it\u2019s everybody else that learns to accept that he\u2019s the main character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In conclusion… oh, who am I kidding, I\u2019ve been thinking about Hitman this entire time. Just look at me. I\u2019m like the person that rants about the flaws of their ex during a date… Hitman has awful combat, all-or-nothing stealth, and it stopped innovating in terms of mechanics five years ago. Its progression system has lost the plot for even longer. It\u2019s filled to the brim with crappy paid DLCs that make you pay for recolors of items you can\u2019t even see in-game<\/em>. I\u2019ve reached the point of leaving one of those reviews, you know the kind: \u201c*600 hours played on record<\/em>* This game is awful, thumbs down<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n What can I say? You either die a fanboi, or play long enough to become a hater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Hitman is still Hitman, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hitman is for a specific kind of weirdo. I am that weirdo, the kind that wants a large open-ended area and needs to control every element of the situation. And by God, we’ll try again and again until everything happens just the way we want to. And then do the same thing in a slightly different way. Freud would have some choice words about us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Io turned a rare niche product that was still somehow very successful commercially into the video game equivalent of a summer blockbuster. 007 First Light is for everybody, i.e., no one in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been thinking long enough about video games to do a reverse-Roger Ebert: why should movies keep getting their dirty paws on games? Being cinematic is a decent enough ambition for a game, but there is so much more to aspire to than to be like a movie. I mean, are movies even art? Someone should do a think piece on that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hitman has the most magnificent, complex, replayable, open-ended levels in the business. Io has turned level design into an art form. They\u2019ve coined terms like \u201csnail house<\/a>\u201d and \u201creverse fortress\u201d to explain their approach<\/a>. They build worlds carefully designed to seem plausible, but that are discreetly waiting to react to the player\u2019s input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The big cocktail party in Hitman isn\u2019t the same as the big cocktail party in 007 First Light, although they look<\/em> similar. In order to fit the movie format, the possibility space in 007 First Light had to be scrunched up. Look at that poor thing. Won\u2019t somebody think of the possibility space? You got your explosions and your car chases, but at what cost, you monster?<\/p>\n\n\n\n In my mind\u2019s eye, I can also see a lawyer making certain there\u2019s a clause in the licence contract that says that James Bond cannot under any circumstance shoot a civilian or perform any other act that would tarnish the IP’s image. For his part, Hitman\u2019s Agent 47 is perfectly amoral. There\u2019s nothing stopping the player from acting like a psycho. Total freedom of approach. It\u2019s the incentives that turn you into a clean, efficient assassin, not a heavy-handed unseen movie director that tells you what you\u2019re allowed to do and when.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 007 First Light does make some efforts to be more than a once-and-done affair. Story mode offers optional challenges, but since the story is infested with non-interactive sections, you need to cross-reference two different menus to find the checkpoint where the challenge is supposed to be completed. It\u2019s kind of a hassle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also a separate \u201cTactical Simulation\u201d (or Tacsim) mode that presents short, remixed areas from the main game. Tacsim has its own progression system and rewards, but it\u2019s so barebones in terms of levels that it\u2019s barely worth the bother. The progression scheme isn\u2019t much to write home about either. Nevertheless, the mode does feature pre-order exclusives, collector\u2019s edition exclusives, Twitch rewards, GeForce exclusives, the whole enchilada. Wouldn\u2019t it make more sense to make an environment where these cosmetics are worth having before<\/em> handing out all this junk? Priorities!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, are you still here, 007 First Light? You were just a rebound, you know. Hitman and I are going to give this player\/video game relationship a second chance. For what it\u2019s worth, 007 First Light, I loved your bluff mechanic, your beautiful levels and the way you mixed fistfights and shootouts. Maybe in a few years, I could have all of those in Hitman!<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When developers Io Interactive obtained the rights to make a James Bond game, it’s like a tiny cog in the machine of the universe fell into place. Io’s flagship product is the Hitman series and the titular hitman, Agent 47, is basically James Bond without the sex drive. He’s a snappy dresser that attends cocktail […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1724,"featured_media":54043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.quartertothree.com\/fp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/007-First-Light_3-1024x576.jpg\")
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