007 First Light Gives You The Power To Be Any Bond You Want To Be
Here’s what IO Interactive's Bond origin story gets right, warts and all.
There's a reason why, 64 years after the release of Dr. No, James Bond is still one of the most consistently successful and popular film franchises of all time. Aside from being the ultimate spy power fantasy, filled with over-the-top action spectacle and a protagonist that is charming as hell, there's also the sheer versatility offered by the character – every actor to embody 007 has approached the character in their own way, with their own individual quirks and characterization. Sean Connery set the template, George Lazenby was the lover, Roger Moore was hilarious, Timothy Dalton was closer to Ian Fleming’s brutality, Pierce Brosnan was a blend of the best of Bond, and Daniel Craig was a little more psychologically scarred. But, somehow, all of these men are Bond.
But what the new video game, 007 First Light, asks is: What kind of Bond do you want to be? Sure, certain 007 tropes are required, but the immersion in this new origin story is unprecedented in the franchise. In terms of Bond games, GoldenEye 64 is widely considered one of the superspy's best outings, as well as one of the most influential first-person shooters ever made – but in the decades after that game’s release, James Bond titles became stuck in the rut of familiarity, constantly falling back on FPS gameplay with the aesthetics of either Pierce Brosnan or Daniel Craig. Ten years after the failure of 007 Legends, we finally have another Bond game, one that builds its own distinctive mythos for the character from the ground up – and even with some minor warts, 007 First Light is a remarkable achievement that, for the first time, allows players to embody Bond in their own way.
The key novelty of this Bond game is that the character is not yet the weathered, suave assassin present in the cinematic depictions. The tutorial mission opens by introducing us to a 26-year-old Bond – still an aircrewman in the Royal Navy, he and his team are shot down during a mission by a mysterious criminal syndicate with access to a hijacked MI6 asset. Almost immediately, as if making the best out of a bad situation, James is temporarily enlisted into a new mission by a mysterious voice through an earpiece, and we get to experience firsthand the tenacity, improvisational skills, and courage that eventually lead to him officially joining MI6. It’s an “origin story” for the character that evokes the subtle mythos building of something like Batman Begins, and the best part is that from the moment the game starts, the player is in the driver’s seat, slowly becoming Bond piece by piece just as the character does in-game.
Part of the way the game constructs its own unique version of James Bond is in the dynamic cast, which is filled with familiar faces as well as old ones. Patrick Gibson steps into the role and imbues 007 with certain immediately recognizable traits – the effortless swagger, his level-headedness, the unrestrained charisma – and yet we get to see the unrefined, more youthful edges as well. Bond himself is just one element of an eclectic ensemble, however: the relationship between James and his fellow 00 recruits is a surprisingly high point, as is his tense mentorship under John Greenway, played by Lennie James. The repetition of visiting MI6 headquarters would feel trite and boring in a different game, but it becomes one of First Light’s little joys because it means getting to further develop the budding connection between characters like Moneypenny (Kiera Lester) and Q (Alastair Mackenzie), whose status as crucial figures in the Bond mythos makes getting to see the beginnings of their connection with the superspy immensely meaningful.
The more you play, the more you feel as if you can peer 15 years into the future to see what Gibson’s Bond would be like as an older, more experienced agent.
Of course, the brunt of the game takes place outside of MI6 headquarters, and for the most part, the gameplay loop truly forces players to consider the variables it takes to wear Bond’s suit. The lessons learned by IO in their work on the Hitman games are repurposed here but the scope of the sandbox is still just as big: whether it be breaking into a lavish hotel for the elite rich, or trying to gain access to a private auction for international arms dealers, you get to approach a situation in any number of ways specifically suited to the kind of 007 you want to be. Bond games no longer have to be trapped in the purgatory of trying to imitate the success of GoldenEye; IO instead understands that part of the power fantasy of the James Bond films is getting to live vicariously through the covert infiltrations and daring escapes, and actively involves you in planning and executing them.
Their approach to gameplay truly complements the staggering cinematic scale the game is aiming for. 007 First Light is fashioned to be indistinguishable from a big-budget Bond blockbuster, complete with a great deal of globe-trotting, dramatic turns, and high-octane spectacle. The story isn’t tertiary to the gameplay but it also doesn’t come at the expense of satisfying interactivity either – just as the mechanics encourage you to inhabit the mind of the character in your own way, so too does the narrative decouple itself from recognizable cinematic depictions of the character in favor of creating a wholly new take on Bond that still honors the tropes and aesthetics of what Bond films have been for over 6 decades now.
IOI’s Bond teaches players to be as adaptable as 007 himself — you’ve gotta be just as ready for a chaotic firefight as you are for a covert stealth approach.
If there were any stumbling blocks in First Light, the biggest is still a relatively minor one – at times, the game feels surprisingly railroaded, almost against its better nature. Occasionally, the game’s transition between interactive sequences and cutscenes feels seamless and fluid, but other times it breaks up the flow of what would otherwise be total immersion. Jumping out of a plane and having the game show you Bond’s miraculous escape through a quick-time event is fun to watch, but how much more fun would moments like that be if they were fully guided by the player in the moment?
It’s a small critique for what ultimately amounts to perhaps the best video game adaptation of 007 since the 90s. What IO has done with the IP is arguably an extension of what studios like Rocksteady and MachineGames did for Batman and Indiana Jones – create an interactive experience where the mechanics and narrative are lovingly tailored to the franchises they inhabit. Every stealth takedown, every gadget improvisation, every slick defusal of a tense situation with a bluff – all of it is another notch in the belt of a Bond becoming who he’s destined to be, and it also further immerses the player in the experience of becoming the iconic secret agent from the comfort of their couch.
