has reviewed 007 First Light, and its verdict is that IO Interactive’s Bond prequel finally gives the franchise the game it has been waiting for. The studio behind Hitman, the review says, goes loud this time, but keeps enough stealth and invention to make young Bond’s origin story feel fresh.
That matters because the bar has been low for a long time. The review says there has not been a great James Bond video game in decades, and there has not been a Bond film in five years either. 007 First Light is available on PC, Xbox and PlayStation 5, and the timing gives Bond fans something new to argue about now instead of another long wait.
The game does not start with the polished, untouchable spy that audiences know from the films. It joins Bond in his pre-00 days as a petulant, belligerent, rule-breaking trainee, with Patrick Gibson playing the younger version of the character. M is also reworked for the story as a green leader trying to make her mark, which gives the setup a different kind of pressure than a standard save-the-world mission.
IO Interactive’s background is part of the appeal. The review frames the studio as a natural fit for Bond because of Hitman, where patience and disguise are the point. Here, that same instinct shows up in moments of social stealth, but the game is not content to stay quiet for long. One whole chapter is given over to a glorified training montage that moves from getaway driving to stealth and then to gunplay, turning Bond’s early career into a sequence of escalating tests.
The details the review highlights are the ones that make the game sound like a Bond story rather than a generic action title. Q introduces Bond to the wonders of vinyl, and in another scene teaches him how to tie a bow tie. The game also sends him through a Slovakian castle, a setting that sounds built for secret passages, locked doors and bad decisions made in expensive clothes.
When the action arrives, the review says the guns are enjoyably punchy. It also says the scripted fights lean toward explosive theatrics rather than strategy, which suits a Bond game that wants spectacle as much as finesse. In fist fights, Bond comes across as a barroom brawler, and when sneaking collapses, fists and guns follow. The result is less a clean stealth exercise than a messy spy fantasy that keeps breaking into violence.
That mix is where the game appears to separate itself from both pure stealth and pure shooter design. A Bond game has to let the player feel clever, dangerous and stylish at once, and the review suggests 007 First Light understands that balance even when it is willing to abandon it for a louder finish. ’s praise is not subtle about that point: it calls the game “the stealth masters behind Hitman go loud for this game about Bond’s brilliant beginnings” and goes even further, describing it as “a triumphant James Bond game made by obsessive fans.”
The bigger significance is simple. For the first time in years, Bond has a game that sounds like it knows exactly what the character should be in interactive form: not invincible, not fully formed, and not afraid to let the mission fall apart in the name of a good fight. If the review is any guide, 007 First Light does not just borrow the Bond name. It turns his early mistakes into the point.
