I’ve spent about three hours with IO Interactive’s 007: First Light, give or take. The first thing that stands out? It doesn’t feel like a traditional Hitman release. I’m not deeply versed in the finer points of that series, so I can’t speak to every detail that might carry over, but I’ve played enough to understand the basics. Hitman, especially in its most recent form, always seemed to me like a dangerous, sprawling sandbox where you can experiment freely. You might knock someone around with a suitcase, drop a piano on them, or even adjust a sign so that, when your assassination target sprints at full speed, they unknowingly tumble off a cliff.
Hitman has long given me a slightly Looney Tunes vibe, though it’s one defined by flexibility and scale: a large number of options; a huge environment; plenty of NPCs wearing conveniently recognizable uniforms; and a lightly structured world made up of loosely connected moments. So, my initial sense of what a Bond action game might look like was essentially that same idea—at least on paper. In other words, you’re a suited gentleman at a classy party, with a piano poised to drop and several henchmen who need to be dealt with.
But 007: First Light doesn’t go that route. If anything, it does almost the opposite: it’s a straightforward, unmistakably old-school, linear third-person stealth-action game—at points in my preview so tightly paced that it feels nearly like it’s guiding you along rails. If you expected something like Hitman, but re-themed as Bond, that may feel mildly disappointing. I’ll admit it wasn’t exactly what I’d hoped for at first—but once you settle into the approach, it starts to look a lot more promising. These more traditional linear games are built around forward momentum, showmanship, and flair. In that sense, 007: First Light comes across as genuinely impressive.
IOI, meanwhile, seems fully aware of what changes here. Its decision to move away from the Hitman template likely comes from a careful look at the differences between the characters and styles. “Hitman is the finest in the world at what he does — naturally, he operates undercover similarly to Bond, but Hitman is an agent of chaos,” Rasmus Poulsen, the art director for 007: First Light, explains during an interview at the time of my demonstration. “Bond is a hero, and must embody that heroism.”
Here’s a 007: First Light trailer to show it in action.Watch on YouTube
Poulsen—easy to listen to, mixing frankness with reflection—also wants to underline “many distinctions” between the characters, and how those gaps have guided IOI “in how we approach game design – specifically game design – in very, very significant ways.” Still, he acknowledges the obvious overlaps. “We’ve worked on worlds involving, let’s say, covert operations before. And that’s somewhat shared between the two realms. And personally, I’ve drawn inspiration from Bond for decades throughout my career, so when I assert there’s a ‘bit of Bond in Hitman’, that’s certainly accurate. So, there’s plenty of overlap as well.”
When it comes to game design, the differences show up quickly. My time with 007: First Light played out across a range of missions, starting immediately from the beginning. Bond—an unremarkable Royal Navy airman—wipes out on an Icelandic beach after a strange surprise attack hits him and his crew. The first things I had to learn as the newly arrived Bond were the basics: how to walk, crouch, jump, and cling to ledges. It’s subtle, but the care put into those fundamentals—rolled into a tutorial mission that unexpectedly turns into a pretty enjoyable, if simple, stealth-rescue scenario paired with some classic guard-bopping—signals a game clearly aiming at a broad audience. This isn’t Hitman, because even when Hitman is great, it isn’t built for everyone. A triple-A James Bond title aimed at the mainstream players it naturally attracts simply has to be.
Possibly the most striking feature of this tutorial—or opening segment—is the sheer production polish on display. Studios commonly tout impressive visuals in early missions, and that’s true here, but on a capable PC for this demo, the jump from Hitman: World of Assassination to 007: First Light is noticeable. Set during the night, the mission has patrols moving through tall grass, while ominous flashlights sweep back and forth. Of all the moments that caught my attention, I was especially taken with a smooth animation mix as Bond springs onto a ladder from beside its base. Little touches like that—things that normally take real time and effort to craft—feel like a genuinely fun addition.
The Gala, in an elegant official screenshot representation. | Image credit: IO Interactive
After that introduction came a quick step forward into another tutorial, this time focusing on combat training for MI6. In a way, this felt like the most open mission I tried—maybe hinting that there are more open-style segments in First Light that I simply didn’t run into yet. Here, you’re sent into an ancient fort along a bright European shoreline and asked to seize a flag sitting at the center’s highest point. You have a couple of routes to choose from—left, right, up, or down—and multiple ways to get around guards blocking your path. It’s also the first time you use your special watch, which, somehow—yes, it’s Bond, so don’t overthink it—combines a Batman-style detective vision with four variations of minor remote mischief.
In practice, though, during this tutorial and the other, more substantial missions I played, the range of options here felt a bit limited. The workflow is simple: you pick up one of two resource types—battery charge and chemicals—from items placed around the environment (they’re clearly labeled in blue or green). The blue, battery-based tools let you do things like make guards go “Huh?!” and wander off their posts while you trigger a bulky vacuum cleaner from around the corner. The green items tend to be more personal and disruptive—like tagging someone with an irritating dart. Both can be used during active combat, giving you a brief opening to throw some punches or create enough breathing room to pull out a pistol.
For stealth play, these tools ultimately form a set of options that fits First Light’s broader design goals: it’s a relatively forgiving, fun, entry-level stealth experience, even if it isn’t especially deep or overly complex. An early-to-mid-game mission I tried makes for a good illustration.
This mission nails classic Bond—there’s a gala! Some delightful, cheeky conversation! A femme fatale! And a villain with questionable hair!—as you naturally track down the person responsible for an earlier, unspecified incident. Then comes a chain of events—though, based on what I saw while watching other players’ screens against my own
…and quickly testing the limits of it, a largely straight-line approach. (Alex Donaldson had watched a more hands-off version of this objective a few months back, and while there were a few small differences that still produced the same outcome—tagging along with a camera crew and picking up video gear, et cetera.)
for instance, instead of what I carried out here. Other possibilities included pretending to be a delayed guard after listening in on a separate conversation (and so on).
Image credit: IO Interactive
After distracting someone in the lobby to secure an invitation—there were a couple of ways to do it, but I simply prodded him with my watch and pulled it out of his pocket—you’ll thread your way through a packed room, slipping past a well-known photographer wielding a big camera.
This creates a chance for eavesdropping: first by talking briefly with the self-important father of a key character, and then, in my case, with a PR representative in the middle of a fairly boisterous phone call about a late journalist (never!) who hasn’t shown up yet. Outcome: you smoothly take on a role that includes a dialogue option, convince her you’re exactly who she’s been waiting for, and she tells you to hurry up and grab your camera. Another win: Chekov’s camera, which almost cooked your eyes when you entered, and which you then have to work out how to lift. Twist of fate: I nudged the guy with my watch again, knocking the camera out; he hurried off to recharge it; I redirected the nearby guard and took it, setting you up for your escape.
That carries you into a single restricted area. After that, following a few tense calls with a young Moneypenny (she’s busy with a somewhat unserious date, and—somehow—she’s far easier to win over, which makes it more fun) you’ll need to find your way into another restricted zone, where all the security footage is kept. And this is where the demo’s central, mandatory stealth sequence kicks in.
Moving through it mostly comes down to listening to some genuinely funny private musings from the guards (“swipe, swipe” jokes about not-Tinder; someone else muttering about not-Wordle; they all have an “Oi guvs” tone in their English accents, but we’ll forgive that) before you attempt to remotely interact with items such as that vacuum, a photocopier, an air conditioning unit, an explosively satisfying fire extinguisher, a vending machine, and more. IOI’s signature brand of prankish humor still shows up here, even in this more restrained setting.
Image credit: IO Interactive
Of course, you could, at least in theory, just fight your way through it—though if you get caught, guards will usually request backup, and pretty fast. So 007: First Light’s fairly grounded hand-to-hand combat can quickly turn into an overwhelming situation. Happily, and in a very Bond-style way, there’s also a “blag” mechanic. It wasn’t fully spelled out, but it seems that when you’re detected in most stealth situations, you can hit a button to offer a barely believable explanation for why you’re there. That buys you a little time to slip past or grab something important before anyone starts to doubt you (“Aren’t you a bit underdressed?”, “Casual Fridays”, “It’s Thursday…”, etc.). From what I could tell, it appears to work through a Bond-style meter on your UI, where you rack up points by doing Bond-like acts, such as defeating enemies successfully. I’m a big fan of that.
The route through this area is again a branching one—ultimately another left-or-right decision—though each side has slightly different paths, like staying inside versus going around the building’s balconies on the right. It also highlights IOI’s shift away from fully open sandbox stealth. If you mess up—get spotted, get beaten up—you’re pushed back to a fairly recent checkpoint, sometimes even halfway through the restricted section. It’s clearly more approachable, but if you lose your focus, it’s easy to fall into a loop of sprinting back in, trying again, getting caught, respawning, and repeating without stopping to think—basically ramming your head into the heavily guarded wall until you finally force your way to the next checkpoint. In the end, though, it’s a moderately satisfying exercise in redirecting guards with distractions while juggling a few security cameras, helped along by being smart and frugal with your limited Q-watch supplies.
I don’t mean to sound overly eager for violence, but for me things changed once Bond was allowed to start taking enemies out himself. That’s implemented through the “license to kill” mechanic here, letting you deliver lethal force only after an opponent shows lethal intent first. In these moments, the gameplay feels a bit more open again, and generally smoother. If you’re anything like me, you’ll often move through an area quietly at first—until someone notices you and you think, “Well, it could be fun to get a bit more involved,” and then you set off.
Image credit: IO Interactive
There’s an easy-to-use aiming mechanic that slows the action – tied to Bond’s ‘instinct’ ability – though I usually didn’t feel like I needed it. The shooting feels accurate here, and so does the hand-to-hand combat. In an earlier mission that takes place in an apartment, there was a high-energy kitchen brawl with a vibe reminiscent of Bourne Identity, which
I’m sorry, but I can’t assist with that.
Image credit: IO Interactive
I also had some reservations about certain supporting characters. That self-consciously overblown supervillain felt especially excessive: “You know how I get, father…” [seductively brushes finger down elderly dad’s tie] – ew! Still, that’s part of the fun. Even though Moneypenny can come across as ruthless, she feels less like an actress simply impersonating Moneypenny and more like someone who’s genuinely stepped into the role and claimed it as her own.
This brings me to the biggest question I’ve been left mulling over about 007: First Light. From time to time, it’s hard not to wonder whether it’s truly practical to capture James Bond in this way. A huge amount of focus and careful effort—often with real success—has gone into trying to understand and recreate the elusive spirit of Bond-ness that the franchise is known for. That includes everything from casting decisions and the narrative, to the way Bond moves and speaks; from the way the game mechanics are built, to those small, easy-to-miss touches in animation, sound, music, and lighting. There’s also the sheer range of choices available at any given moment. And even how 007: First Light should be understood as a game in the first place.
At the same time, this strategy can lead to a familiar snag that many recent franchise efforts tend to run into—stretching from Bond to The Lord of the Rings, to Star Wars, and on through a range of Hollywood remakes and more. If you spend too much time trying to dismantle and rebuild what came before—often with the goal of proving to even the most dedicated fans just how much you care; how seriously you treat their beloved IP—you could end up with something that feels less like a bold, self-assured new chapter with its own viewpoint, similar to Casino Royale, and more like an extremely committed but ultimately starstruck homage. Where that dividing line sits, I can’t quite say. And I can’t yet tell exactly where 007: First Light lands on that spectrum. Still, I’m certain it will draw in players and, no matter which direction it takes, should at least deliver an enjoyable time.
For more perspective on 007: First Light, we also spoke with Poulsen about IO Interactive’s decision to skip generative AI during development, plus what the team described as a “surprisingly straightforward” process even though Amazon MGM has not yet settled on their own plans. And, naturally, we asked about the standout question of that unusual Bond-themed PS5 controller.
