007 First Light

007 First Light Review

007 First Light is IO Interactive's take on the James Bond franchise, and if you want the practical answer first, this is a game that fits around your life rather than expecting your life to fit around it.

It is a game you can comfortably play for an evening instead of sacrificing an entire weekend. Missions are broken into manageable chunks, making it easy to finish one, switch everything off, and come back a few days later without wondering what was happening. For anyone balancing work, family, and bedtime routines, that alone makes a huge difference.

 The Short Version

James Bond games carry a lot of nostalgia. For many of us, GoldenEye set the standard, and every Bond game since has been compared against it.

First Light wisely avoids trying to recreate that formula.

Instead of another first person shooter, IO Interactive has built a third person action adventure that blends stealth, gunplay, and cinematic action. If you're expecting a direct successor to the old shooters, this isn't it. If you're looking for a modern Bond experience that gives you freedom in how you approach each mission, you'll probably have a great time.

What It Actually Plays Like

The opening mission had me hooked almost immediately.

One minute I was creeping up a moonlit beach, silently taking out guards. The next I was in a full firefight because, as usual, my carefully planned stealth lasted about thirty seconds.

The best part is that the game never punishes you for changing your mind. If stealth falls apart, it simply becomes an action sequence. It never feels like you've failed because you stopped being quiet.

That flexibility makes it perfect for tired evenings. Sometimes you've got the patience to sneak through every room. Other nights you just want to throw caution out of the window and feel like James Bond.

Keep your eyes on the road Bond!

Every time the game handed me the keys to a car, I expected the excitement to ramp up. Instead, the driving sections felt like something to get through before the next great mission started. 

I actually found myself relieved whenever a driving section ended because I knew another proper Bond mission was waiting. They never reached the same highs as the on foot gameplay, and after the second or third one they started to feel like interruptions rather than highlights.

Built For Busy Evenings

This is where First Light really impressed me.

Most nights I only had an hour or two before bed, and I never felt like I was making slow progress. Missions are substantial enough to pull you into the story, but checkpoints are frequent enough that you can stop almost anywhere.

If one of the kids suddenly wakes up, someone needs a drink, or bedtime turns into an unexpected disaster, you can put the controller down without losing twenty minutes of progress.

It genuinely feels designed for people who don't always have uninterrupted gaming sessions.

Combat

Even after a long day at work, combat was the bit I looked forward to.

The weapons feel weighty, accurate, and satisfying to use, but the real fun comes from how interactive every environment is. Running out of ammunition doesn't mean standing there awkwardly reloading. More often than not, you'll instinctively throw the empty weapon straight into someone's face before diving into hand to hand combat.

Almost everything around you becomes a weapon. Coffee mugs, bottles, furniture, even mirrors become part of the fight. Slamming an enemy into a bathroom mirror and watching it shatter around them never really gets old.

More than once I finished an encounter, put the controller down for a second and simply laughed because it felt like I'd just played through a Bond film rather than a scripted action sequence.

Those are the moments that kept pulling me back night after night.

The Gadgets

In typical James Bond style you meet Q and he provides you with a plethera of gadgets all of witch I only used two, the poison dart to distrack guards and the Q watch to active electrical traps, the rest where just not that needed, I don't even recall half of them. 

The Big Bluff

By the time the credits rolled, I still had more than ten bluff tokens left. I kept waiting for the game to force me into using them, but it never really did. Whenever I got caught, it was quicker, more satisfying, and honestly a lot more Bond to throw a coffee mug at the nearest guard and deal with the consequences.

Replayability

Although First Light has its TacSim mode after completing the main campaigne I honestly don't think I would pick it back up again, it was a brilliant game but for me it was a one and done, some mission I know for the platinum trophy would be such a grind I couldn't bring myself to attempt it. 

The verdict

Did I wish the gadgets had been used more? Absolutely but only if they are truely useful.

Did the driving mission miss the mark? Yes, they could have pulled something from the Bond archives. Ejector seat Bond

Did either stop me looking forward to putting the kids to bed so I could play another mission?

Not even close