“007 First Light” in the test: The best Bond game since “Goldeneye”

The Danish development studio IO Interactive has decided on a tried-and-tested approach to bringing James Bond back to the video game stage after numerous more or less successful attempts: it is turning the 007 timeline back to the beginning. In “007 First Light” players experience the transformation of an aspiring but unpolished Royal Navy soldier into a double zero agent. This works so well that this excursion will undoubtedly be the start of a new series.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

After young Bond saves several hostages in a daring solo effort, MI6 takes him into the revived 00 program. The game takes its time for this early phase in Bond’s life, which also serves as a tutorial. The training at the MI6 camp in Malta lasts a good three hours before Bond and his new team are sent on their first mission and are soon hunting down a renegade 00 agent. However, the introductory phase will not be dry. IO lays the dramatic foundation here, introduces important characters, develops Bond’s character and his relationships and stages these first hours with a pinch of humor.

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Although the actions of the young recruits don’t always seem believable, their escapades always remain entertaining. This also applies to the rest of the 20-hour long campaign, which doesn’t allow for boredom. The tension remains stable until the last third, recovers after a small dip and finally delivers a furious finale that brings all the threads together. Bond connoisseurs could recognize one or two wrong tracks in the story path early on. Overall, “007 First Light” offers a rock-solid spy story that has the DNA of the film series dripping from every pore.

You only live twice

Although Bond, played by Patrick Gibson, is only in his twenties, he lacks none of the qualities of the world-famous agent: charm, sharp tongue, cleverness – all there. The only thing the young recruit lacks is a bit of toughness, which is also clearly evident in his first fight for life and death. Unfortunately, “First Light” gives up this part of character development all too quickly in favor of gameplay, because soon after the agent is given the license to kill and no longer has any qualms about sending hundreds of enemies across the Jordan.

Overall, however, IO draws the characters harmoniously, usually takes enough time to give them the necessary depth, and manages to create dramatic highlights even outside of the action. Only when it came to the antagonist team did the authors lack the courage to do something extraordinary. With one eccentric exception, evil remains largely one-dimensional and predictable.

The world is not enough

“007 First Light” sends players halfway around the world over the course of the story through vivid settings that are more than worthy of a Bond adventure. The expectant 007 sneaks, fights and flatters his way through a venerable grand hotel in Slovakia, a Mauritanian black market in the desert, a luxurious spa in Vietnam and a magnificent museum in the heart of London.

In the espionage segments, Bond often has to make his way through crowds of people who naturally react to bumps, carrying on conversations, dancing, admiring art, eagerly following a chess game, or engaging in excited trading at the market. Graphically, IO can’t (yet) keep up with the absolute best in AAA, but it shows once again that it can depict busy places with its in-house Glacier engine more credibly than almost any other studio.

On a secret mission

The missions, which last up to two hours, are mostly divided into simple climbing passages, espionage sections and confrontations that can be solved by sneaking and distracting or swinging fists and shooting. The whole thing is rounded off by chases, quick-time events and spectacular rides in chic luxury cars, speedboats or repurposed commercial vehicles.

In the espionage sections, players have to gather clues by eavesdropping on conversations, shadowing people, finding documents or stealing cell phones. Once the necessary traces have been discovered, they often go into a restricted area, where creativity is also required: sometimes all it takes is distracting a security guard with a turned-on garden hose or setting fire to a trash can. Sometimes employees have to be deceived or security systems have to be hacked. Especially in the first half of the game, the quiet sole remains the method of choice almost throughout. Anyone who is caught by armed opponents is usually quickly faced with superior forces that are difficult to defeat. Only later does the amount of action increase significantly and the game often allows brute force as the simplest solution.

In these stages you can also see IO’s years of experience with the sandbox levels of the “Hitman series”, which now includes countless missions around the world, including VR mode. Even in “007 First Light” players often have several possible solutions. The basic principle of these sections hardly changes and they rarely reach the level of freedom that Agent 47 takes in “World of Assassination”. However, due to the great variation in the game environment and a well-thought-out dynamic in the mission design, they remain exciting until the end.

License to kill

Incidentally, Bond is only allowed to kill if he is given the license to do so, and he only gets this if an opponent opens fire first. If there are arguments beforehand, it turns into hand-to-hand combat, and the brawls in “First Light” are a real highlight. Bond cleverly dodges, counters, grabs his opponents and uses everything in his environment. Keyboards and coffee cups fly, the empty pistol lands on the attacker’s forehead, or he flies headfirst through a plywood wall – and best of all, everything one after the other in a fluid combination that looks like a well-rehearsed ballet of destruction. Splendid!

The firefights are also a real delight for action fans. Although the enemy AI is not always the brightest light in the muzzle flash, there is no lack of tactical freedom in battles. Enemies can be disarmed or stripped of their armor with well-aimed shots, and the environment is ideal for gang play. No matter whether it’s a fire extinguisher, an electrical box, a gas container or a chandelier, there’s always some helper to decimate the overwhelming force or break up a formation.

Fireball

If you want to solve problems without guns and fists, you can equip the infamous Bond gadgets in Q’s laboratory – a place made for Bond fans, as it’s full of Easter eggs and references to the films. In “007 First Light” there are a total of six of these agent gadgets, all of which are controlled with a sophisticated smartwatch and are unlocked one after the other as the game progresses. The watch itself serves as a hacking instrument and is always with you as a basic tool. It is expanded, for example, with a laser that cuts cables or locks, a “dart phone” that shoots nausea-inducing arrows, or the “missile pen” that does exactly what it sounds like.

Equipment slots are limited, but ultimately it hardly matters which gadgets are included. Somehow you always reach your goal. Although the sneaky passages in particular can be tricky, experienced players sometimes lack the challenge. There are sections in which the solution is so obvious that it almost seems absurd. In addition to the usual color codes for orientation, arrows sometimes disguised as graffiti and sometimes entire words catch your eye faster than you can look around. Also striking and at least as questionable is the product placement of luxury watches, mobile vehicles or soft drinks, which runs through the entire game.

Conclusion: “007 First Light” – greetings from Denmark

IO Interactive stages “007 First Light” like a real Bond film – with everything the agent checklist has to offer. That may sometimes seem a bit exaggerated, but where else, if not in a Bond game, would you crush humanoid robots in an Antarctic fortress with a giant remote-controlled ball after recently wiping out half an army under constant fire from a mining truck?

What might make you shake your head in the film triggers a satisfied smile with the gamepad in your hand, because even such exaggerated outliers are a real pleasure to play. “007 First Light” does not offer anything fundamentally new and, viewed in isolation, does not win gold in every individual discipline. The gameplay mix of story, espionage, stealth and action sections is so well balanced that you won’t want to put the controller down.

Patrick Gibson works as a charming but hotheaded apprentice agent. Even if not every character otherwise reaches their full potential, all representations are at the highest video game level. The hunt for a rogue 00 agent takes up contemporary themes that, although not dealt with in depth, still fit perfectly into a Bond story in 2026.

With the new origin story about the most famous agent of all time, the developers have chosen a good entry point to attract a younger audience without much prior knowledge of Bond and to lay the foundation for a new series. Despite the fresh approach, “First Light” tells a classic Bond story that should also appeal to long-time fans of the franchise.

Even if the villain ends up being perhaps a bit too conservative and “007 First Light” doesn’t really do anything new in terms of gameplay, IO Interactive delivers a thoroughly entertaining Bond game. Would like more of it!

“007 First Light” will be released on May 27, 2026 for PC (via Steam or Epic), Xbox Series X/S and Playstation 5. We tested the game on the PS5 without any technical problems. Dialogues are set to English, there is no German voiceover. Those who pre-order the digital version can play one day earlier. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is planned for summer. The price is 70 euros and the USK approval is 16 years old.

(joe)