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.