After watching a 007 First Light presentation, it’s safe to say it looks like Uncharted meets HITMAN. We also interviewed a developer from IO.
At Gamescom 2025, IO Interactive gave press and content creators a behind-closed-doors presentation of its highly anticipated upcoming game, 007 First Light. The booth was certainly a looker, especially with a shiny Aston Martin placed in front of it to remind everyone how big this brand really is.
Inside, we were shown footage from one of the game’s early missions. After just a few minutes, it was clear that the Copenhagen-based studio was doing things quite differently from its HITMAN series. There’s a decidedly more cinematic style to everything, which is far from surprising given that we are talking about James Bond, one of the most iconic movie characters (even though, of course, he originally appeared in Ian Fleming’s novels and short stories) of all time. Every character has more flair, starting with Bond himself, who is immeasurably more charismatic than the glacial Agent 47. At this stage, he’s also a lot more brash and cocky than we’re used to in the movies; that is because IO Interactive and the licensing partners have decided to go with an origin story that’s going to explore how Bond becomes a double 0 agent in the first place. In the mission, Bond is assigned to keep watch outside of an important event, but he cannot help himself and goes inside after noticing some odd behavior from certain guests.
The gameplay eventually shows some of the gadgets available to Bond at this point in the game, but what’s quickly obvious is that this is not going to be anywhere near as open-ended a sandbox as HITMAN. In fact, it appears to draw a lot of similarities with Uncharted-style games, which is why I came up with the headline. There are even big setpieces akin to what we’re used to from Naughty Dog’s games.
There’s nothing wrong with that – I loved the Uncharted games, and so did millions of people, if the sales are anything to go by – and this is going to be multiplatform, unlike those titles. It’s just that HITMAN fans should be aware this will be quite a bit different from the usual fare they’ve come to expect from this studio. Visually, the game looks great in the latest version of the Glacier engine, although character models aren’t quite as good as what we’ve seen recently from other engines. I noticed frame rate slowdowns at least a couple of times, but 007 First Light is still in Pre-Alpha, so that is to be expected.
After the presentation, I was able to chat for a bit with IO Interactive’s Senior Licensing Producer Theuns Smit. As a reminder, the studio is targeting a 2026 launch on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and Nintendo Switch 2.
Can you explain what your role entails?
As you would expect from a licensed IP like James Bond, we have a great collaboration between IO Interactive and our partners at Amazon and Metro Goldwyn Mayer. This means that everything that goes into the game, we collaborate with them on that, so there’s submissions and reviews and approvals and all of that. It also means that, as we’ve been crafting this experience, we have been granted access to the consultants who have been working on this IP as well, collaborating together on all of that. I help keep track of things that are moving in, getting approved, and working with our brand partners. James Bond is synonymous with working with Omega, Aston Martin, Land Rover, these folks were all equally and extremely excited to partner on this, and I just help manage those interactions.
007 First Light is an original story, though, correct?
That’s exactly right. Obviously, we have over 25 years of experience in the agent fantasy genre with HITMAN, but for 007 First Light, a big focus for us is that from the get-go, we wanted to tell an original, standalone, reimagined origin story. This means that we get to go back to before James Bond is at MI6, before he earns his double 0 status, fresh out of the Royal Navy. We are given the opportunity to explore that space.
In the presentation, Bond seemingly kills some people. Does that mean that by that point in the game, he has already earned the famous License to Kill?
I almost feel like I don’t want to completely spoil a few things, because there’s a deep narrative connection to it. As you know from 007 lore, it takes two kills to earn double 0 status, and that is something that we lean into, of course, and that is part of the journey you’re taking on. But that license to kill doesn’t just mean you go into any situation with guns blazing. When met with deadly force, you reciprocate, and in certain moments, like the one you saw in the presentation, it is very much all action all throughout, but in other areas, where perhaps there’s a more open approach to a specific area. You try to get back to situation contact. So, License to Kill, do what you need to immobilize the enemies around you, and then go back to situation contained.
Of course, you previously mentioned IO Interactive’s track record with agent fantasy games. Even in the presentation, it was revealed that 007 First Light would have a mix of linear and more open missions. Can you share whether it will be an even balance between the two, or should players expect to see more of one type?
For us, it’s about the full experience you get in our game. There’s the underlying story, the narrative that drives things forward, but that is in combination with the wealth of gameplay we provide. So, various missions will take you to various locations. Some of them are a little bit bigger. Some of them are a little bit smaller. It is what the story calls for, what we need to drive forward in this moment that we will either, you know, enlarge that space, an environment at that location, or put it a bit more on guardrails to tell what we need to tell. So, it’s a third-person story-driven action adventure, and that is what determines kind of where we want to make things go more open up and where we want to be more linear.
During the presentation, at some point, I noticed a lure ability greyed out, and the game told the player that they required more ‚agency‘. Can you explain what agency is?
Yes. Same as what you saw on your watch, for example, there’s a bit of resource management to the different gadgets that you need to use. Here, it’s about relying on James Bond’s instincts, basically, so your instincts also have a bit of a gamified gameplay element to them. I’m not going to go into too much detail right now, but to keep things fun and balanced and not completely overpowered, there are moments where you need to or you get to rely on your intrinsic ‚Bondiness‘, so to speak—Bond’s charm and wit. Perhaps luring people over or bluffing your way through a situation. You saw a glimpse of that in the infiltration, where some folks are startled by this man jumping from the window and Bond goes like, penetration test, all good. That was an automatic reaction, but later in the game, there’s this fun gameplay that comes into it where certain actions allow you to hold that metre up a little bit, and then using that to bluff your way out of a situation, something like that.
Obviously, in HITMAN, disguises were a core component of the gameplay. Are they going to be a lot less prominent in 007 First Light?
That’s a good question. We definitely wanted to focus on the fact that these two different games and with James Bond, there are certain things that we get to lean in on more. It goes back to that trademark Bond charm, a little bit of social manipulation, espionage, and leaning into Bond’s double 0 training. You can manipulate those around you to get into certain areas where you need to be, and so there are contextual outfits for the stories that you go on, but it is not the same of like, just grab an outfit and go as you’re used to in the HITMAN games. We lean into the strength of Bond being Bond and his charm and his wit and his guile to get through situations.
Is there some form of character progression system in the game? Can you unlock some new abilities for him through a dedicated system, or is it just narrative-driven?
For us, it’s a bit more narrative driven instead of what maybe it’s picked from a role playing game kind of thing. We have definitely found some really fun and interesting ways of taking you through character and player progression. Some of it is tied to the gadgets that to unlock through the story, but also, as you’re going for training, as we said, you start off as a young Bond, you can maybe throw fists a little bit, but yeah, you you haven’t been the Mature and well rounded agent that he becomes. As you work through that to earn your number, there are key moments where we can expand on the things that you, as the player, get to do. So, it’s about taking you and Bond on that same progression journey together from a narrative point view and I feel it works very well.
Can you share an estimate for the game length of 007 First Light?
Yeah. I suppose it depends on what kind of player you are. It comes back to our variety of locations. There’s a big story to tell. Some of the locations are going to be bigger. Some of them are going to be a bit smaller. But we’ll also focus a lot on the immersion; this is not just an action/adventure game, this is a James Bond action/adventure game. That means there’s a certain level of immersion that you would expect of the locations you find yourself in. As you saw in the previous trailer, even going to the MI6, what does that mean as a player? Explore around, feel, get immersed. All of that has an impact on the full flow and works out for you to play for yourself.
I know that you’ll be giving players the ability to replay the story missions with modifiers, correct?
It’s more coming down to the creative approach. This new chapter for Bond in gaming means that you go through certain areas, perhaps you’re focusing more on being stealthy or more on using gadgets or something like that, and we wanted to make it so fun that you played again and perhaps tried something else. Take a different approach. That is where we focus when it comes to replayability.
Do you plan to have some kind of online leaderboards like in HITMAN, where 007 First Light players compete for mission scores or something like that?
Perhaps in the future, but for now, we’re focusing on this standalone, action/adventure experience.
Can you share the status of the game? Was the presentation grabbed from a Pre-Alpha or Alpha build?
Yeah, it was a Pre-Alpha, very much work-in-progress build that you saw.
Good to know. Thank you for your time.

007 First Light might cover all the Bond movie beats.
IO Interactive seemingly wrapped up its assassination series Hitman in 2023, launching the anthology on practically every game platform. But it’s not done with sneaking, subterfuge, and… sniper rifles. The game developer announced that it was making a new James Bond game, teasing an „unrefined“ Bond in training – yes, it’s another reimagined origin story.
At a closed-door briefing at Gamescom, I watched the team play through some early parts of 007 First Light, with Bond part of a team of more seasoned spies hunting down a rogue double-‘o’ agent. Ah, that sounds like a Bond plot.
The gameplay was separated into three parts. First, the creative, exploratory sandbox part, as Bond tries to elbow his way into a bougie mansion – when he should be readying the escape car. Like Hitman, Bond can sneak around, triggering items to draw away guards or distract from his own actions. He scrambles up a building to get in through an open window, while vaguely flirting with staff and pretending he’s meant to be there. The team explained that social interactions will form another part of how the rookie agent can interact with people and progress through areas and toward goals.
Some features differentiate First Light from the aforementioned bald-headed assassination games. First of all, it’s far less centered on all the killing (at least until the full-throttle action sections later), with the team attempting to reflect Bond adventures beyond bullets and grizzly ends.
There’s also an Omega-branded Q Watch that attempts to elegantly fold in HUD features like location markers, weaponry, and gadget selection. It’ll also help analyze the environment for interactive parts and opportunities for Bond. Players will apparently have a degree of freedom to decide how they approach missions and areas, even if we only saw one approach during this presentation. It did manage to convey the stress and pressure I’d expect to feel from an IO Interactive game.
The early demo diverges from Hitman familiarity elsewhere. IO Interactive said that while 007 will offer a linear adventure of sorts, players will still have “control of their adventure.” A blend of action setpieces and more measured, thinking, exploratory sections should separate it from other games and other Bond games, too, which have typically been first-person shooters, some of which are .
The demo jumps ahead as Bond follows the rogue agent in an exciting-looking car chase. These reminded me of Uncharted car segments, filled with destruction and chaos. Bond drives through a Swiss market, with something catching on his car tires for the rest of the chase, while there are jumps, explosions, and near-misses as you fight to catch up. It’s a shame that, at this early stage at least, you can tell that regardless of your honed driving skills, you will never catch up to your quarry until the game wants you to. The chase ends at a very well-guarded airbase.
This leads into the other facet of First Light: gunplay and way too many oil drums and trucks filled with gasoline. The final segment includes Bond rushing the airbase and chasing a military transport craft as it takes off. Fighting is a mix of duck-and-cover, using the environment, and, if all else fails, throwing your gun once it’s out of bullets.
There’s a great point after Bond barely makes it on board the plane just before it takes off. He uses his Q Watch to tilt the plane, swinging cargo and enemies into the walls of the plane or even out the cargo door. Eventually, 007 is flung from the plane too, and as he falls, has to claim a parachute.
It’s a real change of pace from the early part of the demo but suggests First Light might cover all the Bond movie beats. I might not be sold on another Bond origin story, but hopefully, IO Interactive can successfully blend three different types of game together.