007 First Light is Hitman meets Uncharted, but not very James Bond

007 First Light is shaping up to be a fine stealth action game. But does it have a grasp on the iconic character?

The studio retrenched and spent 15 years consolidating Hitman into a perpetual murder playground of endless possibility. At the same time, its management bought the studio back from then-owner Square Enix and transitioned to self-publishing. These things ultimately did work out. Now IO is an independent powerhouse that's been entrusted with one of the biggest and most jealously guarded licenses in the world: James Bond. IO's take on the character, 007 First Light, is nearly upon us.

It's also been nearly 15 years since there was a James Bond video game (2012’s 007 Legends). The iconic spy and his refined-yet-outlandish exploits have proven surprisingly hard to pin down in game form; the license has defeated all but one developer, Rare, which gave us the legendary GoldenEye 007 in 1997. Aside from that, though, even studios as talented as Bizarre Creations couldn't make it work. Can IO?

Based on around three hours of play across three missions from 007 First Light, yes, IO has made it work — although its grasp of the gameplay style that would make a perfect James Bond game is a good deal firmer than its grasp of the Bond character itself.

First Light is an extremely slick and handsome third-person stealth action game. In terms of polish and production values, IO has stepped up to the AAA realm of Naughty Dog and Rocksteady Studios with some confidence. It looks and plays like a class act — at least, it does on the very fancy PC I used to demo the game.

But the most impressive thing about it is the smoothness — the Bond-like suavity, if you like — with which it slips between its two distinct gameplay idioms. Sometimes it's a linear action blockbuster in the Uncharted school, with the camera maintaining a cinematic frame on Bond as he clambers and sprints across the environment, ducks and weaves through gunfire, or pilots vehicles in hectic chases. Sometimes it's closer to a Hitman or Metal Gear Solid game, offering open areas where Bond can make use of many different tactics to progress: stealth, gadgets, hand-to-hand or armed combat, and even social manipulation.

Bond is no assassin, though. Well — that's a point of some dispute among Bond scholars; you can certainly interpret Ian Fleming's original character as a blunt, bloodthirsty instrument of the state. But IO's vision of the character as a young and idealistic agent-in-training, and its surprisingly strict interpretation of his famous license to kill, give him a much firmer moral compass than the Bond of the books (even if the body count eventually runs predictably high).

In First Light, you can only start shooting if enemies themselves approach you with intent to kill. It's not that hard to provoke them into it — make enough of a loud nuisance of yourself, and they'll draw their weapons. But it's interesting that IO is willing to go this far in preventing the game from turning into a shooting gallery, either through concern for the character's morality, an attempt to avoid narrative dissonance, an eagerness to tout the breadth of other gameplay options, or all three.

The first level I played is the opening of the game, and sees Bond, as a humble Navy Airman aboard a helicopter, shot out of the sky during a routine patrol off the coast of Iceland. Washed ashore as a sole survivor, he stumbles on a mysterious facility which is in the process of being raided by an equally mysterious mercenary group. An MI6 officer guides him through an impromptu intelligence-gathering and rescue mission over the radio. It's a well-paced and atmospheric introduction that emphasizes traversal and stealth, with mild Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes vibes.

In the next mission, Bond is on Malta, at an MI6 training facility. He plays at infiltrating a ruined castle patrolled by guards and reaching the flag at its tower. This brief level is a showpiece for First Light's game systems, and IO encouraged us to try it multiple times. Bond can sneak and use his gadgets to create distractions, blind guards with a laser pen, or hack locks and trigger radios using his watch. If he gets caught, efficient use of the fluid hand-to-hand combat to knock enemies out can get the situation under control and prevent triggering the License to Kill. The level has a wide range of routes and gameplay permutations; I didn't manage a pure stealth run but did complete it without drawing my weapon on my third attempt.

The final mission I played is set in London. Bond catches infiltrators in his apartment, triggering a rooftop chase, and then tracks them down to a swanky party in a Kensington museum. This is a showcase for the game's Hitman-style social gameplay; no disguises here, but through exploration, eavesdropping, and chat, Bond can find multiple ways to slip into the party and, later, into the security nerve center. I found I could either pose as a journalist (requiring the theft of a camera) or exploit a gap in the security roster (which can only be accessed by bamboozling the servers at the bar).

When dealing with security personnel, Bond also has the option to bluff. This doesn't work on the more vigilant Watchers, or if one is nearby. But Bond has a set number of chances to talk his way past rank-and-file goons, which is a handy way to avoid escalation. To be clear, First Light is not a sandbox game. But IO has gone to some lengths to provide real tactical variety as well as flavorful gameplay options that fulfill the fantasy of the smooth-talking spy.

Ultimately, the Kensington mission escalates into giant rooms full of armed enemies where stealth is a much more challenging option and the frustrated player might end up succumbing to wars of attrition. (The shooting handles nicely, mind.) But that's not before a boss fight in which Bond is unarmed and must use his wits and gadgets to prevail. Another intriguing scene finds 007 tied to a chair, where he must use dialogue options to lure the villain close enough to hack his phone, but not anger him so much that he gets beaten to a pulp.

Without straying too far from the slick delivery of a mainstream action-adventure, IO has gone to some lengths to endow 007 First Light with gameplay features that give it a distinctive flavor. The locations are spot-on and the mood is very modern Bond: a Daniel Craig-era world of corporate espionage, fancy tech, punchy athleticism, and high-toned yet grounded glamour.

I had one big problem with the preview: Bond himself. Although I was inhabiting a very James Bond world and playing in a very James Bond way, at no point did I really feel that the character I was playing was James Bond. As played by Patrick Gibson, he was too young, too eager, and far too chatty, narrating his own actions in the classic manner of the contemporary AAA protagonist. He just didn't have the cool — or, as Bond would probably call it, the sang froid.

Perhaps this is an inherent risk of choosing to tell an origin story, when the character has yet to assume his trademark cynicism and worldliness, or refine his hard edge. I had the chance to speak to IO's Rasmus Poulsen in detail about the studio's attempt to summon this elusive, sometimes problematic icon in a mainstream 2026 video game, and I understand the reasoning behind the team's choices. Perhaps the character will ease into his own skin over the course of the game. But for now, I'm unconvinced. What's a James Bond game without a convincing James Bond? And if the answer is "just a very good stealth action game," will that be enough?

---

007 First Light will be released on May 27 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. A Nintendo Switch 2 version will be available in summer 2026.