{"id":9748,"date":"2026-05-26T15:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/?p=9748"},"modified":"2026-05-26T17:53:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T14:23:21","slug":"007-first-light-review-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imdbnews.ir\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/007-first-light-review-so-far\/","title":{"rendered":"007 First Light Review So Far"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Like the man himself, a James Bond game should ooze style and swagger. There\u2019s no point in a timid tie-in with neither the balls nor budget to bring the Bond fantasy to life, and I\u2019ve never particularly wanted one that simply gaffer tapes all the loudest bits of Call of Duty together and stuffs them into a tuxedo. What I\u2019ve wanted is a Bond game that\u2019s confident and charismatic; one that both ebbs patiently and peaks violently as it segues between social stealth, dangerous infiltrations, gadget-driven shenanigans, and destructive, never-tell-me-the-odds action. What I\u2019ve wanted is a Bond game like 007 First Light \u2013 and I\u2019m having a fantastic time so far.<\/p>\n

Since its arrival at IGN over the weekend, I\u2019ve put around 14 hours into First Light over the last two days. This appears to have brought me to within a couple of chapters of the end of the story, which feels likely to take a few more hours based on the generally juicy lengths of each chapter I\u2019ve played to date. I\u2019ve been very happy with the pace so far and, since the world around Bond has been so thoughtfully and convincingly fleshed out, I\u2019m finding it largely impossible to rush. Whether it\u2019s Bond\u2019s London apartment, or the bustling MI6 headquarters, First Light seats its iconic secret agent in a believable world that doesn\u2019t fall to pieces the second you try to scrutinize it. As a Bond fan, it\u2019s delightfully immersive. You try moving through Q-Lab without pressing every button. Q\u2019s helpless lackeys aren\u2019t going to temporarily blind themselves, after all.<\/p>\n

First Light doesn\u2019t rush itself, either, and patiently moves through Bond\u2019s first encounter with MI6 as a Royal Navy aircrewman in the wrong place at the right time, to his initial double-0 training, and onto his transformative first field mission that sets up the core story to come. In another developer\u2019s hands all of this may have been smooshed into a single opening tutorial, or partially handwaved off in a cutscene. Not so in First Light, which is unfolding much more like a prestige TV series than a film. The chapters are lengthy and rich with peripheral detail to explore, and this significantly bolsters First Light\u2019s ability to build a world I can feel properly immersed in. Allow me to stress that this is absolutely the last thing I\u2019d want from Amazon when it comes to Bond\u2019s live-action future. For First Light\u2019s purposes, however, it works splendidly. <\/p>\n

Developed by IO Interactive, the home of the Hitman series since its inception way back in the year 2000, First Light admittedly shares some very obvious DNA with its bald-and-barcoded stablemate. Running on the studio\u2019s in-house engine, the look and feel of First Light are immediately familiar to me as a veteran player of the Hitman series. The sandbox nature of Hitman\u2019s level design is also here to a certain extent, albeit in the more managed fashion of 2012\u2019s Hitman: Absolution. That is, First Light stitches together open areas that have multiple approaches with linear sequences you need to play the way the developers dictate.<\/p>\n

There are levels here with large, crowded areas akin to those like the Paris fashion show in 2016\u2019s Hitman, or the German nightclub in 2021\u2019s Hitman 3, while other sections are a little more adjacent to something like the Uncharted series. The latter sequences are occasionally guilty of limitations that look a little silly in practice \u2013 like Bond\u2019s inability to clamber up a small, rocky slope \u2013 or duck under a waist-high booby-trap string. However, this is the kind of seam you can typically pick at in even the best third-person shooters in the business.<\/p>\n

I will note that this isn\u2019t simply Agent 47 by way of His Majesty\u2019s Secret Service, and there are a bunch of bespoke tweaks here that imbue First Light with its own and very distinctly Bond-branded flourishes.<\/p>\n

Some of these do work better than others. Bond\u2019s abilities as a brawler put Agent 47 to shame, and there\u2019s a layered system of dodges, counters, and satisfyingly devastating environment attacks. Melee combat is perhaps a little clunky at times, particularly when Bond finds himself swarmed, but it is nonetheless a major distinction between First Light and the Hitman series.<\/p>\n

First Light is also far more suited for run-and-gun shooting. I initially found the shooting a little clumsy \u2013 and did find myself wondering about the worth of a mechanic that allows Bond to toss an empty gun right at the face of the nearest goon. Now, however, I\u2019m honestly kind of relishing running out of ammo, hurling an SMG like an oversized shuriken into some hapless bloke\u2019s head, and snatching his own weapon.<\/p>\n

For clarity, there are also parts of the Hitman formula that haven\u2019t crossed over into First Light\u2019s universe. Disguises, for instance, are limited to only when they\u2019re scripted necessities for the story, and Bond can\u2019t hide or drag the bodies of guards he\u2019s knocked out \u2013 which leaves First Light\u2019s stealth feeling a little archaic in 2026. <\/p>\n

Perhaps above everything so far I just adore the attention to detail, from the big-picture consideration of giving Bond the long, vertical scar on his right cheek the character boasted in his literary origins, to tiny embellishments like the scratched rims and ziptied trim on the busted-up, 2006 Aston Martin seeing out its time in the service as the training car at MI6\u2019s Malta-based training camp. If you don\u2019t walk around and ogle it like I did, this car only spends about a minute or two on screen during this chapter. Yet the fact that IO saw fit to weather, damage, and field repair it like a teenager\u2019s taped-up, track-day drift toy speaks volumes about where the studio set the bar for the level of authenticity it wanted to capture here \u2013 and I love that.<\/p>\n

007 First Light has made a fabulous first impression, and I\u2019m certainly already quite comfortable to say it\u2019s the best Bond has been since GoldenEye. I\u2019ll be updating this review as soon as I\u2019ve finalised the story and experimented with TacSim mode, which allows us to replay previous missions with extra challenges to earn new rewards.<\/p>\n

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