007: First Light Review: Is IO Interactive's Bond Debut Worth Your Money?

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IO Interactive: the studio I trust without question. The Hitman games set my benchmark for precision fused with atmosphere. Walking into luxury hotels as Agent 47—in a tailored suit, identity borrowed—I always sensed something missing. Give him a Walther PPK, hair, and a little charm, and you've got a Bond game.

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So when IO Interactive finally got the Bond license, I reacted coldly, thinking, "about time." A franchise that hadn't gotten a noteworthy game in over a decade now has a product that sounds like it was made by capable people. 007: First Light justifies that comeback and restores dignity to the franchise.

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If you're interested in a family-friendly experience, check out our review of Yoshi and the Mysterious.

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Be the Bond: 007: First Light is A Story-Driven Spy Experience

The first thing First Light makes clear is that this is a story-driven game. This separates it from Hitman, both mechanically and in experience. It is not a sandbox where you pick targets from a menu. Nor is it a mission puzzle you arrange yourself. This is, simply put, a story about how James Bond earns that double-zero through blood, brains, and a hefty dose of luck before the 007.

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And that's felt immediately. Between missions, you don't stare at a menu; you walk around MI6 headquarters. These spaces feel like frames from a film you haven't seen, but somehow recognize. Q greets you in the lab, excited to show you his new experiment and put spy toys in your hands. M, beneath her pragmatism, still values the human touch of field agents. Greenway, Bond's mentor, is the embodiment of contradiction. He dislikes Bond's charlatan approach and disregard for command. Still, he leads him, grumbling but diligent. Even before a single shot, the whole experience feels like a true Bond film.

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The plot starts before James becomes an agent. After a failed mission in Iceland, Bond ends up under MI6's wing, goes through training on Malta, and gets his first real assignment with future colleagues. The training lasts longer than expected, as shown through a cinematic montage. It works as Bond's origin story and a tutorial. I wish this approach had been executed even better this time.

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A Story Carried by Its Characters

What starts as a hunt for a rogue agent soon becomes a global-threat story. Expect mysterious figures, allies switching sides, and the right dose of suspension of disbelief—essential for Bond. It's not a top-level screenplay since some twists are obvious early and the villains lack lasting charisma.

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Still, the story shines with Bond and the other main characters. Patrick Gibson portrays the young Bond well: cocky enough when needed, but without the exaggerated infallibility seen in older Bonds. Q is warm and convincing. The standout is Lennie James as Greenway, Bond's mentor. Over the game, you break down Greenway's prejudice toward Bond, leading to one of the game's best relationships.

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In 007: First Light Gameplay That Blends Hitman and Uncharted

The gameplay is best described as a mix of Hitman and Uncharted, a topic discussed on Reddit. Each mission drops you into a lavish location—a hotel in the Slovak mountains, an island in Vietnam, a ship graveyard in the Mauritanian desert, and more. Each time, you complete the main goal by breaking it down into smaller tasks. Complications arrive at a film-like pace. The structure is Hitman: location, target, tools. The feel is more like Uncharted: linear, measured, and spectacular as needed.

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However, First Light is not a sandbox in the full sense. Generally, you have one path to the final goal. Your freedom comes from how you handle a given problem along that path. You cannot break down and rearrange a mission like in World of Assassination. But does that limitation matter? Surprisingly, it rarely does. That is thanks to your arsenal and the way the game steers you toward using it.

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First Light isn't a full sandbox, but the tools and how you use them reduce the illusion of linearity.

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Gadgets, Wit, and a Silver Tongue

The watch from Q is the heart of your arsenal. You can use it to see enemies through walls, hack electronics for distraction, and more. There are darts that cause nausea, changing enemy routines; smoke bombs for escapes or silent takedowns; and a laser for cutting locks or blinding targets. You refill tools with batteries and chemicals found around levels. Supplies are limited, so each use requires planning.

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The tools have some faults. Some aren't exciting, as they mostly knock out or remove enemies. Some appear only near the end, so you use them little. You also can't bring every tool on every mission. If you leave out the laser, for example, you can't cut certain locks or access some content. This limits your choices, and the game never warns you about it.

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It's not just about gadgets. You also have Bond's best tool—his tongue. When a guard stops you somewhere you shouldn't be, you can press a button to make Bond craft an excuse or fake surrender. This gives you a brief chance to escape or launch a surprise attack. The number of these improvisations is limited, making their payoff more valuable when they save you.

Stealth, Combat, and Pacing Issues in 007: First Light

Stealth is not required, but some missions punish you if you're seen. If a guard calls for reinforcements, you can choose to fight hard, but that's rarely an easy or Bond-like path.

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More often, you'll combine tools—sneaking, lying, and fighting. This loop keeps the game fresh. However, enemy detection can be inconsistent. One moment, a guard spots you instantly; the next, he ignores the chaos close by. It won't bother you much, but these moments stand out in a game aiming for believability.

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The pacing of missions can be a problem, mainly in scouting, stealing, or overhearing phases. These segments sometimes go on too long, especially at mission starts. This slow burn fits the Bond experience, so not every moment must be explosive. Still, in some missions, the slow pace left me wondering, "How much longer?"

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Shooting, Brawling, and the TacSim Mode

As for escalation, start with what you'll do least—shooting. While investigating and doing spy work, you rarely use a gun. The game offers it only as a last resort and in certain sections. Each weapon has limited ammo, so you must take weapons from enemies. The environment can be destroyed, so cover isn’t always safe. Shooting isn't mechanically deep; it's a classic cover shooter. Still, every shot feels impactful, and hit reactions are theatrical and satisfying.

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If stealth fails, you’ll likely get into hand-to-hand combat. You parry blows, dodge attacks, grab, and slam enemies into furniture or machines. The combat seems basic at first, but there’s hidden depth. The game explains combos and advanced moves only in TacSim mode, not in the intro. It’s a shame, because once you learn them, the combat feels as playful as Sleeping Dogs. That playfulness owes a lot to the animations. Bond looks exactly as chaotic and effective as he should during fights.

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TacSim is also the only thing left to do after a campaign that doesn't really invite a replay. Besides giving you a chance to better learn certain aspects of the gameplay, TacSim has its own separate progression where you upgrade gadgets, buy clothing, and compete in specific challenges within limited segments of missions from the main story. Nothing spectacular, but enough to spend another 2-3 hours honing your spy craft. Later on, this segment should also receive additional optional missions and challenges.

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Boss Fights and Driving in 007: First Light

The two weaker aspects of the whole package are the boss fights and the driving. Instead of bosses being the highlight of each mission, they most often boil down to rudimentary, scripted encounters where the emphasis is more on cinematic flair than on creativity. So what should be the tensest moment of a mission regularly ends up being its least memorable part.

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The driving sequences share a similar fate. Bond's cars are too iconic to be absent from a game that places so much value on authenticity, but they feel like they were near the bottom of the list of things a Bond game "has to have" – more like a forced addition than a full-blooded part of the experience. The result is short, restrictive sections that could comfortably have been a cutscene in which you have no control over the vehicle.

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A Five-Star Hotel: Visuals and Performance

The Glacier Engine, the same one that has powered Hitman for years, does an excellent job here too. I'd say, in line with the cinematic Bond franchise, where you already expect a somewhat higher level of production. Not so much in terms of texture sharpness, but generally in the realization and believability of the main characters and locations, which are especially atmospheric and visually very lavish. Each of them has a distinct personality and mood, with the lighting quality standing out most.

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A certain degree of reactivity also helps the sense that these are real places. Passersby follow Bond with their eyes, have believable routines, and generally behave as though they belong to the place they're in. When action kicks in, particle effects fly everywhere, the environment breaks apart under the force of hits or bullets, and so on.

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As for performance, on PC, even at maximum settings, the game isn't overly demanding at native resolution. 1440p with maximum detail settings on a decent configuration easily goes above 60 FPS, and upscalers can somewhat compensate if you're below the recommended specs. Still, a clear sign that the game could be better optimized is that dropping settings from ultra to low doesn't bring as dramatic a performance jump as you'd expect. So if you're playing on a weaker configuration, definitely look into how the game runs on it or wait for a few more updates. Also, keep in mind that the game currently doesn't have the best possible graphics, since path tracing support will be added later, sometime this summer.

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The game is generally in good shape. The sound mixing is incredible, especially when listening on our XP-Panther LED premium headset. There are surprisingly few bugs, but I did experience occasional crashes and stutters during the most bombastic action sequences. There are also small things, like shadows that lag when you suddenly turn the camera, and the occasional object with an unattractively low-resolution texture. Nothing that would ruin the experience, but enough that I can't call the game technically flawless.

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In Conclusion

007: First Light is the gaming comeback Bond definitely deserved. It's not without flaws: the pacing can be uneven, freedom is more often illusory than real, the villains aren't particularly memorable, and the boss fights aren't very imaginative. But all of that amounts to the growing pains of a story's first chapter, not dangerous cracks in its foundation. IO Interactive has proven it understands the essence of James Bond, not just as an action figure but as a complete spy experience in which charm, improvisation, and gadgets form a package from which no part can be missing.

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The only thing that would make me pause before buying is the price relative to its length. Ten to fifteen hours of campaign and a thin reason to replay hardly justify seventy euros, so if that bothers you, feel free to wait for a sale – the game will be even better value with one.

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Whenever you decide to get to it, if Bond in IO Interactive's hands has always sounded like a logical combination to you, 007 First Light confirms that feeling wasn't wrong. This is a very good game, and perhaps even more importantly – an excellent James Bond game. Fans of the franchise can freely add a point or two to the score below, with no guilty conscience whatsoever.

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Rating

8.0/10 – A confident, atmospheric return to form for Bond games, carried by strong characters and a satisfying gadget-driven gameplay loop, but held back by uneven pacing, weak boss fights, forgettable driving sections, and a short campaign for its price.

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Age Recommendation

Recommended for ages 16+. This is a story-driven spy thriller with melee combat, gunplay, destructible environments, theatrical violence reactions, and mature espionage themes (betrayal, global threats, character deaths) consistent with the Bond franchise's typical tone.

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Gemini-Style Summary

This review of 007: First Light, IO Interactive's first James Bond game built on the Glacier Engine (the Hitman engine), praises it as a long-overdue, dignified return for the franchise. Unlike Hitman's sandbox structure, First Light is a linear, story-driven origin tale that follows young Bond's journey to earn 00-status, featuring strong performances from Patrick Gibson (Bond) and Lennie James (Greenway). Gameplay blends Hitman-style tools with Uncharted-style pacing, centered on a gadget-laden watch, limited-ammo gunplay, and hand-to-hand combat, whose depth is primarily taught in the separate TacSim mode. Weaknesses include uneven enemy detection, dragging info-gathering segments, unmemorable boss fights, and tacked-on driving sections. Visually and atmospherically strong with solid PC performance (60+ FPS at 1440p on decent hardware), though not yet supporting path tracing. The reviewer scores it 8.0/10, calling it a very good game and an excellent Bond game, with the main caveat being a 10-15 hour campaign at a €70 price point.

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