Admittedly, my fanfare of James Bond from his celebrated history in film is somewhat limited. I’ve seen my fair share of the movies from Diamonds are Forever to No Time to Die, but none have really absorbed me as a devoted fan. On the other hand, GoldenEye (the game) is a gem that I still find myself playing on occasion, and I’ve always felt that Agent 007’s potential could be much more fleshed out outside of film. IO Interactive might’ve been the perfect developer to capture the essence of James Bond in video game format, having a lot of experience making the Hitman franchise. To several ends, they’ve succeeded because 007 First Light is not just a fantastic Bond origins story; it’s a rock-solid game.



As the name implies, 007 First Light is a prequel set before James Bond was known as Agent 007. Drawing inspiration from Ian Fleming’s novels, it follows Bond as a relatively inexperienced MI6 agent that takes on a risky mission which will earn him his 00 title. The mission? Track down a rogue agent, but of course, this is a spy thriller at its core and there’s a lot more at work beneath the surface, including corruption, terrorism, and espionage.



Without giving away too many story details, 007 First Light’s narrative is absolutely riveting and hooked me from the get-go. The storytelling here is terrific, filled with clever writing, quippy dialogue that actually earned a few chuckles, and twists that genuinely caught me off-guard. IO Interactive’s writing has vastly improved since the Hitman games and bordering on some of the best in the Bond series, including the films.

The storytelling here is terrific, filled with clever writing, quippy dialogue that actually earned a few chuckles, and twists that genuinely caught me off-guard.

This is all backed by a great performance by young Dexter Morgan himself, Patrick Gibson, who turns in professional voice acting and motion capture work that makes a very strong argument for why he’d fit perfectly as the next cinematic Bond too. The supporting cast turns in committed performances as well, including Priyanga Burford as a younger M and Noemie Nakai as Isola Vale, who might be my favourite Bond girl since Eva Green in Casino Royale. You can tell the cast is definitely having fun, camping it up when necessary while delivering those big emotional swings with equal passion.



007 First Light’s great story and performances are backed up by awesome gameplay. It throws some elements of Hitman into the mix, especially when Bond is tasked to go undercover or perform stealthy infiltration, but it’s actually much closer to Uncharted or Tomb Raider. Satisfying, punchy third-person gunplay combined with fun hand-to-hand combat and everything in between, Bond’s youthful agility and suave action hero moveset is on full display.

The game gives players a surprising amount of options in how they can tackle missions. If you simply want to walk into a mission guns-blazing and cause untold chaos, you can do so without many repercussions. You may get a few harsh words from M, but this version of Bond is yours to sculpt and make as ruthless as you want, which I really appreciated since I’m a fan of Craig’s more Batman-esque “punch first, ask questions later” take on the character. That said, it also lets you approach most missions tactically. Using stealth, bluffs or the environment to sneak your way around buildings, parties and gatherings while fooling people certainly feels more like Hitman, but the thrill you get from stealthily finishing your mission without a single bullet fired is well worth chasing and makes you feel like, well, a secret agent.



However, Bond has morals (to an extent) and you can’t just mow down half the population of a country like Nathan Drake. You mostly use non-lethal force during fights, subduing enemies and hiding bodies to melee-only options if you want less collateral damage. The gloves come off when you’re given the “license to kill” if enemies show intent to kill you (which is, like, 70% of the game, to be honest), allowing you to use guns freely. Still, IO Interactive shows respect for the character and gives him his signature code – no, not the Dexter Morgan kind. You have to really get into the mindset of an MI6 agent because more often than not, the non-lethal path is the easier one, even if it takes longer with more obstacles thrown your way.

However, Bond has morals (to an extent) and you can’t just mow down half the population of a country like Nathan Drake.

For example, some NPCs can simply be talked to or neutralised rather than engaging in an all-out gunfight in the lobby, but you’d have to take the patient route and work your way towards that goal. 007 First Light rewards patient players who take the time to learn their environment and inhabitants, engage with every possible non-lethal option, and closely look for cues to make their next move. For the most part, the aggressive route is what I went for since it’s the most fun, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t cause me much more grief than what I would’ve run into had I approached the mission from a different, less violent angle (which I’m sure M will be quite vocal about).



As for 007 First Light’s presentation, this is simply a gorgeous game. IO Interactive’s stunning choice of locations gives the game a lot of character and variety, from tropical resorts and millionaire parties that would make Gatsby blush to grimy facilities and hideouts that made my inner GoldenEye fan smile. Character models are especially detailed, capturing the slightest nuances in facial expressions and reactions with terrific use of lighting to boot. As mentioned before, Gibson’s performance doesn’t miss a beat thanks to the excellent mo-cap work, perfectly encompassing Bond’s mannerisms with a little bit of egotistical charm fitting of his younger years as a smooth-talking womaniser. It greatly serves as a weakness to his character too since we get to see a rough-around-the-edges Bond still learn and ins and outs of being a secret agent.

Character models are especially detailed, capturing the slightest nuances in facial expressions and reactions with terrific use of lighting to boot.

However, this might be one of 007 First Light’s biggest flaws too. Sometimes the writing, as strong as it is, does the character of Bond a disservice by making him uncharismatic and cocky rather than charmingly funny. Most might say this is simply 26-year old James Bond not coming into his suave agent persona yet, but it doesn’t make for very captivating character development later on. A few lines of dialogue actually made me cringe instead of chuckle, and I’m really not sure if that was ultimately the goal or not.



I reviewed 007 First Light on PS5 Pro and it is pristinely polished, save for a few hiccups. I noticed some texture pop-ins during the game’s slightly wonky driving segments where environment details and textures sort of jump-scared me in the background. My game also crashed on one occasion but luckily the forgiving checkpoint system threw me right back into a mission without too much progress lost. Visually, it’s firing on all cylinders and it’s another impressive example of current-gen hardware delivering extraordinary detail and graphical punch.



007 First Light is one of the best James Bond games ever made, though that’s not a very high bar to clear excluding the N64 GoldenEye. IO Interactive’s expertise from the Hitman franchise carries over into this spy fantasy action extravaganza, sometimes outdoing themselves with its stronger focus on story, fantastic writing, and cinematic-level performances from its memorable cast of characters. A few things hold it back from being perfect, but if you’re a Bond fan, you really can’t ask for much more than what IO Interactive has accomplished with this game.

007 First Light is now available at Nexus Hub for R1,380