007 First Light

007 First Light is an action-adventure game from IO Interactive, the Danish studio behind the Hitman series. It is a James Bond origin story and the first major Bond game in over a decade. You play as a 26-year-old James Bond, a Royal Navy air crewman who is talented, promising, and frequently reckless. He is not yet the man in the tuxedo. He has no licence to kill, no Aston Martin, and no vodka martini. He is a recruit trying to earn his place.

The game is played from a third-person perspective and blends stealth, investigation, hand-to-hand combat, and gunplay. It is entirely single-player. IO Interactive brought its experience from Hitman, where you study a location, find a way in, and choose how to handle each obstacle. In First Light, you can go silent or go loud. You can fight with fists or firepower, use gadgets to infiltrate, or bluff your way past guards. The approach is up to you.

For Newcomers

You do not need any Bond background to follow this story. The game assumes you are meeting James Bond at the same time the people around him are, as someone unproven. If you have seen any Bond film, you will recognise M, Q, and Moneypenny. Here they are younger and still figuring out what they will become. The cast includes Priyanga Burford as M, Alastair McKenzie as Q, Kiera Lester as Moneypenny, and Lennie James as John Greenway, Bond’s reluctant mentor. New characters include Gemma Chan as Dr. Selina Tan, Lenny Kravitz as the Pirate King Bawma, and Noemie Nakai as the mysterious Miss Roth.

The Story

The story begins with Bond as a rookie air crewman on a covert mission to Iceland. The plane is shot down. Bond is the only survivor. MI6 takes notice and taps him to retrieve a mysterious asset from a remote island base. Shortly after, he is summoned to join MI6’s newly resurrected 00 program. M sees something in him, even if his instructors do not.

Bond’s first major assignment is to hunt down Agent 009, a former British agent who has gone rogue. The mission ends in tragedy. Bond is forced to work with Greenway, who is sceptical of him, to expose a deep conspiracy and stop a coup at the heart of the state. The conspiracy revolves around THEIA, a quantum supercomputer that uses artificial intelligence to track criminal syndicates and direct MI6 agents in the field. THEIA is supposed to be MI6’s greatest tool. It is flawed, compromised, and has been sending agents on misguided missions for years. Its creator, billionaire Sir Nicholas Webb, has been covering up its failures and using the technology for his own gain.

Bond’s investigation takes him across the world. He crosses paths with Isola Vale, a woman whose identity and intentions remain unclear even to MI6. In the end, Isola betrays Bond, kills Webb, and steals the core of Hyperion, a mirror version of THEIA. She escapes. The game ends with M granting Bond the 007 codename. The gunbarrel sequence plays. “James Bond will return.”