“007 First Light” Review: The Best Bond Game Since “Goldeneye”
With “007 First Light”, James Bond makes it back into a video game for the first time since 2012. The wait was worth it.
James Bond makes a furious comeback at the gamepad in "007 First Light".
(Image: IO Interactive / Screenshot: joe)
The Danish development studio IO Interactive has chosen a tried-and-tested path for franchises to bring James Bond back to the video game stage after numerous more or less successful attempts: It turns the 007 timeline back to the beginning. In “007 First Light”, players experience the transformation of an aspiring but unpolished Royal Navy soldier into a double-0 agent. It succeeds so well that this excursion will undoubtedly be the start of a new series.
In Her Majesty's Secret Service
After the young Bond rescues several hostages in a daring solo mission, MI6 recruits him into the revived 00 program. The game takes its time for this early phase in Bond's career, which also serves as a tutorial. The training at the MI6 camp in Malta lasts a good three hours before Bond and his new team are sent on their first mission and soon hunt down a rogue 00 agent. However, the introductory phase is not dry. IO lays the dramaturgical foundation here, introduces important characters, develops Bond's character and his relationships, and stages these first hours with a pinch of humor.
„007 First Light“ (15 Bilder)
IO Interactive (Screenshots: joe)
)Although the actions of the young recruits do not always seem credible, their escapades remain consistently entertaining. This also applies to the rest of the well over 20-hour campaign, which does not allow for boredom. The tension remains stable until the last third, recovers after a small dip, and finally delivers a furious finale that ties up all the loose ends. Bond connoisseurs might recognize one or two red herrings in the story path early on. Overall, however, “007 First Light” offers a fundamentally solid spy story that drips with the DNA of the film series.
You Only Live Twice
Although the Bond, played by Patrick Gibson, is only in his twenties, he lacks none of the qualities of the world-famous agent: charm, wit, cleverness – all present. The young recruit only lacks a bit of ruthlessness, which is also clearly shown in his first fight for life and death. Unfortunately, “First Light” abandons this part of character development too quickly in favor of gameplay, because soon after, the agent receives the license to kill and has no scruples about coldly sending hundreds of enemies to their doom.
Overall, however, IO portrays the characters coherently, usually takes enough time to give them the necessary depth, and thus manages to create dramatic highlights even away from the action. Only with the antagonists did the authors lack a bit of courage for the extraordinary. Apart from one eccentric exception, evil remains largely one-dimensional and predictable.
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The World Is Not Enough
Over the course of the story, “007 First Light” sends players halfway around the world through vibrant settings that are more than worthy of a Bond adventure. The aspiring 007 sneaks, brawls, and flatters his way through, among other places, a venerable grand hotel in Slovakia, a Mauritanian black market in the desert, a luxurious spa in Vietnam, and a magnificent museum in the heart of London.
In the espionage sections, Bond often has to make his way through crowds, which naturally react to bumps, engage in conversations, dance, admire art, follow a chess game intently, or trade excitedly in the market. Graphically, IO (yet) cannot compete with the absolute AAA top tier, but it shows once again that it can depict lively places as credibly as hardly any other studio with its in-house Glacier engine.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
The missions, which last up to two hours, are usually divided into simple climbing passages, espionage sections, and confrontations that can be resolved by sneaking and distracting or by punching and shooting. The whole thing is rounded off by chase sequences, quick-time events, and spectacular drives in chic luxury cars, speedboats, or repurposed utility vehicles.
In the espionage sections, players have to gather clues by eavesdropping on conversations, shadowing people, finding documents, or stealing cell phones. Once the necessary clues are discovered, it often leads to a restricted area where creativity is also required: sometimes it's enough to distract a guard with a turned-up garden hose or to set a trash can on fire. Sometimes employees have to be deceived or security systems hacked. Especially in the first half of the game, stealth remains the preferred method almost throughout. If you are caught by armed opponents, you usually quickly face an overwhelming force that is difficult to defeat. Only later does the action component increase significantly, and the game more often allows brute force as the simplest solution.
In these stages, you can also see IO's years of experience with the sandbox levels of the “Hitman” series, which now includes countless missions around the world, including VR mode. In “007 First Light” too, players typically have multiple solutions. While the basic principle of these sections hardly changes and they rarely achieve the degree of freedom that Agent 47 takes in “World of Assassination”. They remain exciting until the end due to the great variation in the game environment and a well-thought-out dynamic in mission design.
License to Kill
Incidentally, Bond is only allowed to kill when he is granted the license to do so, and he only gets it if an opponent fires first. If confrontations occur before that, it goes into close combat, and the brawls in “First Light” are a real highlight. Bond skillfully dodges, counters, grabs his opponents, and uses everything in his environment. Keyboards and coffee cups fly, the empty pistol lands on the attacker's forehead, or the attacker flies headfirst through a plywood wall – and preferably all succeeding in a fluid combination that looks like a rehearsed ballet of destruction. Wonderful!
The shootouts are also a real joy for action fans. While the enemy AI is not always the brightest light in the muzzle flash, there is no lack of tactical freedom in the battles. Enemies can be disarmed with targeted shots or stripped of their armor, and the environment is ideal for playing cat and mouse. Whether it's a fire extinguisher, a power box, a gas tank, or a chandelier, there's always some helper to decimate the overwhelming force or break up a formation.
Thunderball
Those who want to solve problems without firearms and fists can equip the infamous Bond gadgets in Q's lab – a place made for Bond fans, as it is full of Easter eggs and allusions to the films. In “007 First Light” there are a total of six of these spy toys, all controlled with an upgraded smartwatch and unlocked one by one during the game. The watch itself serves as a hacking tool and is always included as a basic tool. It is expanded with a laser that cuts cables or locks, a “Dart Phone” that shoots nausea-inducing darts, or the “Missile Pen” that does exactly what it sounds like.
Although equipment slots are limited, it hardly matters which gadgets are included in the end. You always get to your goal somehow. Because although the stealth passages in particular can be tricky, for experienced players there is sometimes a lack of challenge. There are sections where the solution path is so obviously marked that it is almost absurd. In addition to the usual color codes for orientation, arrows disguised as graffiti and sometimes entire words jump out at you faster than you can look around. Also noticeable and at least as questionable is the product placement of luxury watches, vehicles, or soft drinks that runs through the entire game.
Conclusion: “007 First Light” – Greetings from Denmark
IO Interactive stages “007 First Light” like a real Bond film, with everything on the agent checklist. This may seem a bit exaggerated at times, but where else, if not in a Bond game, should you crush humanoid robots with a remote-controlled giant ball in an Antarctic fortress? After having just wiped out half an army under constant fire with a mining truck?
What might cause head-shaking in a movie brings a satisfied smile to the face when holding the gamepad, because in terms of gameplay, even such exaggerated outliers are a great pleasure. While “007 First Light” offers nothing fundamentally new and doesn't win gold in every individual discipline when viewed in isolation, the gameplay mix of story, espionage, stealth, and action sections is so well-balanced. You won't want to put the controller down.
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Patrick Gibson works as a charming but hot-headed agent apprentice. Even if not every character fully exploits their potential, all portrayals are at the highest video game level. The hunt for a rogue 00 agent touches on contemporary themes that, while not explored in great depth, fit perfectly into a Bond story in 2026.
With the new origin story about arguably the most famous agent of all time, the developers have chosen a good starting point to engage a younger audience without much prior Bond knowledge. This will lay the foundation for a new series. Despite the fresh approach, “First Light” tells a classic Bond story that should also appeal to long-time fans of the franchise.
Even if the villain at the end is perhaps a bit too conservative and “007 First Light” doesn't do anything truly new in terms of gameplay, IO Interactive delivers a thoroughly entertaining Bond game. Gladly more of this!
“007 First Light” will be released on May 27, 2026, for PC (via Steam or Epic), Xbox Series X/S, and Playstation 5. We tested the game on PS5 without technical problems. Pre-orderers of the digital version can play one day earlier. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is planned for summer. The price is 70 Euros and the USK rating is 16 years.
(joe)
