007 First Light: 10 Tips and Tricks We Wish We Knew Sooner

IO Interactive has exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic James Bond fans, with 007 First Light being hailed as the greatest Bond video game in decades, or maybe even the greatest Bond game ever released. It does all of this within the same game engine that you may recognize from the Hitman series, and while 007 First Light might not be the most complex game you have played this year, there does lie within it a surprising amount of depth.

Although First Light looks like a typical cinematic third-person action/adventure title at first glance, once you penetrate that surface layer and begin to experiment with the array of gadgets and stealth mechanics that beef out the moment-to-moment gameplay, you quickly realize that there is a surprising amount of things you can do that aren’t spelled out to the player by the developers. Below are the tips that we wish we had known earlier in 007 First Light.

10 The Tacsim Courses Should Not Be Ignored

A Class Above

The first couple of hours of 007 First Light is basically one big organic tutorial, as it depicts Bond training to become a 00 agent. While many of the basics of melee combat and shooting mechanics are integrated into this smoothly delivered sequence, it really just scratches the surface of all that the gameplay encompasses.

Sure, if you are playing on the lower difficulty, you can get by without engaging with Gemma Chan’s character at all. However, if you are looking to really nail the flow of combat and truly feel as slick and capable as James Bond by gaining a deeper understanding of things like charged melee attacks, and situational gadget usage, then these immersive agent training sequences are well worth your time.

9 Don’t Just Throw Hands, Throw Everything

Ran out of Ammo? Toss a Stapler!

In the heat of combat encounters against multiple enemies, seeing that prompt appear onscreen to throw a nearby item at an enemy can be a real godsend. If nothing else, it at least allows you a brief moment of breathing space when overwhelmed to plan your next attack. Anything from wrenches to bottles can be thrown directly at a foe and tapping that shoulder button helped me more times than I can count during my playthrough.

Even more convenient than that is seeing an enemy standing remotely near a ledge while you are within reaching distance of a throwable object. Your adversary doesn’t even need to be right next to the drop; even if they are within a few feet of it, and you clock them in the head with an empty glass, they will always go flailing off the ledge to their death.

8 Bluffing Can Be Just as Powerful as Stealth

Gaslighting Guards Is a Legitimate Strategy

If you’ve been playing games like Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell for years like I have, then your first instinct when playing as Bond here may be to sneak through every restricted area carefully, expecting that being seen, means an instant failure. You may be making your life harder than you need to. 007 First Light is actually more forgiving in this regard than you might expect.

More often than not, if you are spotted and confronted in a restricted area, playing it cool and pressing the bluff button is enough to avoid raising the alarm. As long as you don't push your luck by lingering around for too long, you'll usually be able to grab the item you snuck in for, and then swiftly leave the area without much fuss.

7 Not All Distractions Are Made Equal

Loud Noises

It would be quite easy to play through the entire game thinking that the distraction mechanic in 007 First Light is one-size-fits-all. This is actually not the case; different enemies do not react the same, and often it will depend on what kind of distraction you are utilizing.

Things like a basic remote Q Lens hack on a radio won’t make an enemy guarding the entrance to a restricted area up and leave their post. These guys require a louder, more disruptive distraction; something like lighting a bin on fire that will cause multiple NPC’s to go together to check out what’s going on.

6 Disguises Are Easy to Miss

Fake It Until You Make It

Disguises in 007 First Light, don’t work like they do in the Hitman games, also developed by IO Interactive. However, on the rare occasion when they do crop up in First Light, they can save the player a great deal of time and hassle. Therefore, they are well worth keeping an eye out for.

Don’t expect to be able to knock out a guard and steal his uniform. The disguises here appear more in the form of things like a spare hat lying on a table that appears as an optional environmental item that you can choose to interact with.

5 Use Your Environment in a Shootout

Shoot First, Ask Why It Exploded Later

I am not going to patronize anyone by telling them to shoot the big red glowing tank that is conveniently placed behind the enemy in a standard video game shootout. Unless 007 First Light is your first rodeo, then I am sure you are already well versed in the art of making bad guys go boom.

The distinction to be made here is that First Light’s shootouts are often designed around the environments that a shootout takes place in, meaning that often times, frequently targeting these flammable tanks is the only way through if you want to preserve your health and ammo.

4 Brute Enemies Require a Different Approach

The Bigger They Are, the Harder They Fall

Along with the standard enemy types, 007 First Light features a number of enemy brutes that you’ll have to face off against in melee combat. If you try to go toe to toe and trade punches with them, Bond will lose that fight almost every time.

The key to quickly dispatching these guys is variety. As soon as you see a brute begin to approach you, use the charged attack that you are taught in Malta at the beginning of the game. Then, quickly use it a second time as the enemy staggers. After that, you want to use the right trigger to engage a grapple and get a few free hits. Once you have carried out this attack sequence, landing a couple more punches should bring up the finisher prompt to dispatch these guys once and for all.

3 There Is No Need to Hoard Your Gadget Energy

Go-go Gadget!

If you're anything like me, you play most video games saving up energy for the most powerful attack in your arsenal, only to be overly conservative and rarely actually utilize it. In 007 First Light, there really is no need to have that "I'll save it for when I really need it” mentality. This is because the resources to top up the gadget energy meters are plentiful.

Too many times, I got to the end of a fight, or even an entire mission, before realizing that I had barely utilized my gadgets in the previous level. So don’t be like me, make sure that you use every single one of the tools that are afforded to you, and use them as frequently as you’d like.

2 You Don’t Need to Be Online

Play the Old-Fashioned Way

At first glance, 007 First Light’s online features seem a bit vague. Although they promise the optimum experience, there really is no need to be connected to the internet when playing through 007 First Light.

Unless you care about arbitrary nonsense like online leaderboards, challenge tracking, and progression-based systems tied to optional modes, then you needn’t worry. Campaign progress is saved locally, and the main story remains completely intact without a connection.

1 Don’t Waste Time When Your Gun Runs Dry

An Empty Weapon Is Still a Weapon

During an intense gunfight in 007 First Light, the ammo in your current weapon can run dry far faster than you had anticipated. This can be a bit frustrating, but thankfully there is a way around it. Basically, try not to get too attached to your current gun and instead prepare to violently launch it at the head of the next enemy in front of you.

If you are able to nail it and last that throw smoothly, the enemy will then be disarmed and throw his weapon up into the air. Bond can then catch the loaded weapon and immediately begin using it against the rest of his lethal assailants. Hesitation is always the enemy when trying to find your flow state within First Light’s combat.