007: First Light (2026): The Review

Overview

007: First Light is exactly the kind of experience James Bond fans have been waiting years to finally play. It doesn’t just adapt the franchise, it understands everything that makes 007 iconic, blending thrilling espionage, stylish action, cinematic presentation, and a gripping narrative that captures the essence of becoming the world’s most famous spy. Every mission feels like a celebration of Bond’s legacy while still confidently creating its own identity, delivering a game that feels both familiar and refreshing. More than just a great adaptation, 007: First Light stands as the definitive Bond gaming experience, a new benchmark for what the franchise can achieve in interactive form.

Score: 9 out of 10

The Positives ✅

James Bond has survived for decades because he isn’t just one thing. He’s not simply the expensive suits, the impossible gadgets, the luxury cars, or the explosive action sequences. Those elements are important, obviously, but Bond has always worked because of the fantasy behind them: walking into impossible situations with confidence, intelligence, charm, and just enough recklessness to make every mission feel like it could collapse at any second. 007: First Light understands that better than any Bond game before it.

Instead of simply handing players the legendary 007 everyone already knows, IO Interactive does something far more interesting, it asks what kind of person could eventually become him. This is not Bond at his peak. He isn’t the perfectly composed spy who enters every room already knowing the outcome. He’s younger, inexperienced, impulsive, and constantly allowing instinct to overrule caution. The confidence is there. The charisma is there. The complete inability to follow orders is definitely there. But underneath the suit is someone still learning what the number 007 actually means.

And honestly, that’s what makes this interpretation of James Bond so compelling. Patrick Gibson’s performance captures a version of the character who already has flashes of greatness but hasn’t fully earned the myth surrounding him. Throughout the story, you see pieces of classic Bond slowly emerge: the dry humor, the effortless charm, the thrill-seeking nature, and his tendency to ignore every superior officer telling him not to do something incredibly dangerous.

The opening mission in Iceland immediately establishes this version of Bond perfectly. After an operation goes wrong and leaves him isolated, Bond doesn’t react like an experienced agent carefully weighing every possible outcome. He trusts his instincts and throws himself deeper into danger because he believes it’s the right thing to do. That becomes a recurring theme throughout the entire game. Bond’s greatest strength and biggest weakness are exactly the same: he refuses to walk away.

What surprised me most was how much First Light actually explores the person behind the spy. Similar to the Daniel Craig era, the game understands that Bond’s emotional baggage is just as important as his missions. The aftermath of “All the Time in the World” in Slovakia is one of the strongest examples of this. Watching Bond deal with the deaths and disappearances of fellow agents reminds you how brutal this world actually is beneath all the glamour. Espionage isn’t just casinos, cars, and clever one-liners, people disappear, missions fail, and sometimes there isn’t anyone left to save.

The quieter moments sell this especially well. After chasing 009 during “The Past Never Dies” in Mauritania, seeing Bond return and quietly process everything his teammates left behind adds a surprising amount of humanity to a character usually defined by control. Even conversations with Moneypenny and Isola about his parents and childhood reveal a lot by showing how quickly he avoids talking about them. Bond isn’t emotionless. He just refuses to stay vulnerable long enough for anyone to notice.

Isola Vale also deserves a lot of credit because she’s easily one of the strongest parts of the story. Bond characters like this can sometimes fall into predictable territory, but Isola works because she constantly feels like someone operating on the same level as Bond, if not above him. She’s colder, more calculated, and often more professional, creating a great contrast against Bond’s more instinctive approach. The mystery surrounding her motivations remains interesting throughout, and by the end, she feels like the perfect character to build future stories around.

Gameplay-wise, First Light feels like someone finally figured out what a modern James Bond game should actually play like. The easiest comparison is a mixture between Hitman and Uncharted, but even that doesn’t fully explain why it works. The game takes IO Interactive’s love for open-ended mission design and combines it with the cinematic chaos expected from a Bond adventure.

The mission where you need to earn $100,000 to access an exclusive auction perfectly represents the game at its best. Instead of giving you one obvious objective marker, the game lets you explore and figure things out yourself. Maybe you enter an underground fight club. Maybe you compete in a shooting competition. Maybe you trick a scammer and walk away with a valuable diamond. The objective is simple, but how Bond gets there is completely up to the player.

And that’s where the game truly understands the character. Bond isn’t Agent 47. He isn’t supposed to silently enter a room, execute a perfect plan, and leave unnoticed. Sometimes the plan completely falls apart, and the fun comes from adapting. One moment you’re sneaking through a restricted area, and the next you’re improvising through a massive shootout because everything went wrong.

The combat is also far better than it initially appears. On the surface, it seems straightforward: punch enemies, dodge attacks, parry, shoot. But the beauty comes from how smoothly everything connects together. Getting pushed out of cover, vaulting over obstacles to disarm enemies, using gadgets like the Laser Strap to create openings, throwing empty weapons when you run out of ammunition, and constantly moving between melee and gunplay creates this chaotic flow that feels incredibly Bond-like.

The presentation ties everything together beautifully. IO Interactive clearly understands that Bond needs style. The nighttime London gala, the abandoned ships of Mauritania, the luxury resort in Vietnam, and the Antarctic facility all carry that expensive cinematic identity the franchise is known for. The moment where the classic Bond horns kick in during a chase while escaping an ambush in a garbage truck is ridiculous in the exact way a Bond sequence should be.

It’s stylish, dramatic, and maybe slightly absurd.

The Negatives ⚠️

For everything 007: First Light gets right about Bond, it does stumble in one area where the franchise usually excels: its villains.

Great Bond stories are often remembered just as much for their antagonists as Bond himself. Goldfinger, Blofeld, Alec Trevelyan, these characters work because they don’t simply oppose Bond physically. They challenge him ideologically. They’re reflections of who he could become under different circumstances.

Unfortunately, Nicholas and Damian Webb never quite reach that level.

The foundation is absolutely there. The idea of weaponizing artificial intelligence and trusting calculated predictions over human instinct is a genuinely interesting contrast to Bond’s entire personality. Bond survives because he improvises. He breaks rules. He does things that logically shouldn’t work. Creating a villain obsessed with removing uncertainty should have been the perfect opposite.

The problem is that the game introduces its strongest villainous elements too late. Damian especially feels like he should be Bond’s true mirror, but he never gets enough time to properly develop into that role. There’s a version of this story where Damian is another MI6 recruit, someone who follows every rule, trusts the system completely, and believes Bond’s instincts make him dangerous. Revealing him later as the person working against Bond could have created a much stronger emotional conflict.

Instead, the villains mostly work as obstacles rather than unforgettable characters.

The stealth systems are another area where the game doesn’t quite reach its full potential. Considering this is IO Interactive, expectations are naturally high. The studio created some of the best stealth sandboxes ever made, so it’s slightly disappointing that First Light occasionally feels more limited.

Stealth works, but it doesn’t have the same depth as the action. Not being able to move bodies, limited interaction with enemy awareness, and fewer options for manipulating situations make quiet approaches feel less developed than simply adapting when things explode into chaos.

The strange thing is that sometimes it almost feels like the game prefers when things go wrong. Enemy AI becomes aggressive, they push your position, and encounters clearly encourage movement and improvisation. That creates incredible action sequences, but it means stealth players might feel like they’re fighting against the game’s strengths rather than using them.

Visually, while the game looks fantastic, it also occasionally plays things safer than expected. IO clearly focuses on what it does best: detailed interiors, controlled environments, and beautifully crafted mission spaces. The locations are gorgeous, but the game rarely pushes into truly massive or experimental environments.

It’s not a major flaw, but considering how imaginative Bond locations can become, there were moments where I wanted the game to go even bigger.

The Experience 🎮

Playing 007: First Light made me realize something: making a good James Bond game isn’t about giving someone a tuxedo and a gun.

It’s about making chaos feel elegant. That’s what IO Interactive understands better than anything else. The moments that stayed with me weren’t just the massive explosions or cinematic chases. It was walking into a location, analyzing everyone around me, looking for opportunities, and slowly putting together a plan knowing there was a very real chance everything would fall apart.

Because honestly? That’s when it becomes Bond.

One of my favorite things about the game is how naturally it transitions between intelligence and insanity. You can start a mission calmly gathering information and end it desperately fighting through enemies, stealing weapons, using gadgets, and barely escaping alive. Somehow, both sides feel equally appropriate.

The tutorial itself represents that journey perfectly. Instead of feeling like a checklist of mechanics, it plays like Bond’s actual training process. You’re learning alongside him. Every exercise, every mistake, every improvement slowly builds toward the idea that this reckless young agent might actually become something special.

And that’s why this origin story works. The game isn’t interested in showing us the finished product. It’s interested in showing why James Bond becomes James Bond.

The confidence isn’t effortless yet.

The emotional walls aren’t completely built.

The legend hasn’t replaced the person.

That makes his journey far more engaging than simply playing as an already perfect super spy.

Yes, the villains could have been stronger. Yes, the stealth deserved more depth. But when First Light works, it delivers something Bond games have been chasing for decades: the feeling of actually being 007.

Not just watching him drive the car.

Not just watching him save the day.

Actually being the person making impossible decisions when everything goes wrong.

And honestly, after so many years without a proper Bond game, that alone feels like something worth celebrating.