007 First Light is one of the best James Bond games ever made: review

The first rule of spycraft, we learn early on in 007 First Light, is to always do the unexpected. The thing is, the game – an origin story chronicling how James Bond becomes a 00 agent – is full of what you’d expect from a Bond story: quippy one-liners, endless charisma, highly competent people romping around stunningly beautiful places and a story so over the top you can’t help but shake your head at it.

But what is unexpected is how the somewhat clichéd individual elements are shaken (not stirred) together, creating a brilliant Bond cocktail that rivals the franchise’s best films while being a thoroughly excellent game to play.

Developed and published by IO Interactive, First Light takes us back to before James, portrayed by a pitch-perfect Patrick Gibson, was known as 007. When the game opens, he’s a 26-year-old British navy aircrewman, headstrong and resistant to authority with a quicksilver tongue and a somewhat reckless need to save the day. But one explosive prologue later, he finds himself as the newest recruit in MI6’s newly rebooted 00 programme.

From here, the stakes gradually increase. A mission goes horribly wrong, lives are lost and James is compelled to get to the bottom of what actually happened. What follows narratively is on par with films like Casino Royale and Goldfinger, taking James across the world as he contends with nefarious villains, romantic entanglements, hurtful betrayals and ruinous grief.

Across 15 hours, you watch James mature from cocky and impulsive to someone we can root for, thanks in no small part to the stellar acting of the characters around him, including Alastair Mackenzie’s Q, Kiera Lester’s Moneypenny and Priyanga Burford’s M. These iterations of beloved Bond characters are more than just background players; they’re layered and interesting in their own right, and they grant a realistic dimensionality to James’ evolution throughout the game.

IO Interactive is best known for its stealth-focused Hitman franchise, and it brings that sensibility to First Light. James, first and foremost, is a spy, and the game wants you to sneak around, use subterfuge and take advantage of your environment to get where you need to be.