Let’s be honest, when IO Interactive was announced as the studio making a James Bond game, most people had the same reaction. Of course. These are the people behind Hitman, one of the greatest stealth game series ever made. A game literally inspired by James Bond. It felt like the most obvious, perfect fit in gaming history.
But here is the thing that actually got me thinking. A Bond game cannot just be Hitman with a different suit and a British accent. It has to feel like Bond. It has to have that specific energy the charm, the danger, the style, the moments where everything goes wrong and your guy still somehow pulls it off looking cool. That is a different thing entirely.
So does IO pull it off? Yeah. They really do.
007 First Light Review: The James Bond Game We Needed
A Fresh Start That Actually Works
007 First Light tells a completely original story. No Daniel Craig. No established MI6 setup. This is Bond at 26, still in the military, not yet connected to any secret service. New actor Patrick Gibson plays him, and I will be honest I was not sure about that going in.
By the end of the game, I could not picture anyone else in the role.
This younger Bond is a different kind of character. He is stubborn. He makes mistakes. He rubs people the wrong way, including his fellow recruits and his supervisor John Greenway, played brilliantly by Lennie James. He is not the polished, untouchable super-spy yet. He asks for forgiveness instead of permission, and that gets him into trouble constantly. I loved that about him. The best Bond has always been the one who gets knocked around a bit and keeps going anyway. First Light takes that idea and builds a whole character around it.
Yes, It Feels Like Hitman In a Good Way
Early in the game, Bond is sent to infiltrate a big, busy hotel where a rogue agent is supposedly planning something. The moment you walk in, you feel it. A massive space full of people moving around, guards watching certain areas, conversations happening in corners that contain useful information. It is very familiar if you have spent time in Hitman.
And that is not a complaint. IO knows how to build these kinds of spaces, and they use that knowledge well here. You can distract guards and slip past them. You can eavesdrop on conversations to learn things that help you later. You can bluff your way through checkpoints by just acting like you belong there the game calls this the Bluff mechanic, and it works on certain enemies who are not suspicious enough to question a confident young man walking with purpose. You can grab disguises. You can shimmy along pipes on the outside of buildings.
If you love Hitman, these sections will feel comfortable and fun. If you have never played Hitman, they will still feel natural and satisfying.
The Combat Is the Best Part
Here is where First Light really surprised me. When your cover gets blown and it will the game shifts into third-person action, and this is where it truly shines.
The melee combat in this game is genuinely great. We are not talking about a simple punch-and-dodge system. We are talking about sliding across tables to kick a gun out of someone’s hand, catching it mid-air, and shooting them in the leg before finishing them off. We are talking about grabbing someone and throwing them into a computer desk and watching the monitor and keyboard fly everywhere. The environments react to everything. Throw someone into a railing and you can toss them right over it. Throw them into an electrical panel and they get zapped. Every fight feels like a scene from a Bond movie, except you are the one making it happen in real time rather than watching it.
Gunplay is solid too, though I kept going back to fists because it just felt more right for the character. One clever touch is that guns in this game never have much ammo. You are constantly picking up weapons from enemies you just dropped, and when a gun runs out completely you can actually throw it at someone’s head. Combined with a slow-motion aiming mechanic and enemies that genuinely try to flank you, the shootouts feel frantic and creative every single time.
Gadgets That Actually Feel Like Bond Gadgets
Q is here. The Q-Watch is here. And the gadget system is one of the best parts of the whole game.
Your watch lets you scan through walls to spot enemies and interaction points similar to detective vision in the Batman Arkham games. You can hack electronics with it. You have a fake phone that fires poison darts to move people out of your way. A pen that explodes things. Before each mission you pick which gadgets to bring, and you almost always regret leaving one behind when the situation changes.
That feeling wishing you had brought the other thing is actually a sign of good game design. It means all the options are useful. Nothing feels like a waste.
The Story Holds Up
The villain is genuinely interesting. Without giving too much away, he is the kind of antagonist that feels pulled straight from today’s headlines, which is exactly what the best Bond films do. The classic Bond characters are here too M, Moneypenny, and others and they all feel fresh rather than like costumes worn by new people.
The story runs about twenty hours and mostly keeps its momentum. There is one early plot thread that sounds dangerously close to Skyfall territory, but it moves away from that quickly and finds its own direction. There are also some nice quieter moments Bond in his MI6 apartment with other recruits, for example that a film would never have time for, and they genuinely add something.
Where It Falls Short
No game is perfect, and First Light has a couple of areas that let it down slightly.
The driving sections are the biggest disappointment. Bond without a car chase is not really Bond, and the game does include them Aston Martins, speedboats, various vehicles across different missions. But they all feel a bit too restricted, almost like you are following a set path rather than actually driving. They look great and sound great, but they do not feel great. They exist mostly to move you from one exciting section to the next rather than being exciting in themselves.
There are also a handful of puzzle sections later in the game, usually involving locked doors, that bring the whole energy down. The pacing just stops dead in those moments, and after an hour of exciting spy action, being asked to fiddle with a door mechanism for ten minutes is a bit of a mood killer.
The secondary TacSim mode a combat challenge mode where Bond trains against virtual enemies is fun and well-designed, but the rewards are underwhelming right now. IO has said they will keep updating it, and that could make it much better over time. As it stands, do not go in expecting Hitman’s Freelancer mode. It is not there yet.
My perspective
007 First Light is a really good game. It is more like Hitman than I expected going in, but it is absolutely not just Hitman in a tuxedo. IO has taken what it knows, applied it thoughtfully to a new character and universe, and delivered something that feels genuinely authentic to what Bond is supposed to be.
Patrick Gibson is a great Bond. The combat is excellent. The gadgets are fun. The story is smart and well-paced for most of its runtime. And there is a real sense that IO understands what makes this character special not just the action, but the charm, the vulnerability, and the world he operates in.
Hollywood is still figuring out what to do with Bond after No Time to Die. IO Interactive clearly already knows.
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Also Read: Innovation, Inspiration, Investment And Internationalism Are The foundation Stones Of iGB L!VE 2026
