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Title: The first new Bond game in over a decade is Hitman meets action
blockbuster

Date: Wed, 03 Sep 2025 18:35:51 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/gaming/007-first-lig...

IO Interactive seemingly wrapped up its assassination series Hitman in 2023,
launching the anthology on practically every game platform. But itΓÇÖs not
done with sneaking, subterfuge, and… sniper rifles. The game developer
announced that it was making a new James Bond game, teasing an "unrefined"
Bond in training ΓÇô yes, itΓÇÖs another reimagined origin story.

At a closed-door briefing at Gamescom, I watched the team play through some
early parts of 007 First Light, with Bond part of a team of more seasoned
spies hunting down a rogue double-ΓÇÿoΓÇÖ agent. Ah, that sounds like a Bond
plot.

The gameplay was separated into three parts. First, the creative, exploratory
sandbox part, as Bond tries to elbow his way into a bougie mansion ΓÇô when
he should be readying the escape car. Like Hitman, Bond can sneak around,
triggering items to draw away guards or distract from his own actions. He
scrambles up a building to get in through an open window, while vaguely
flirting with staff and pretending heΓÇÖs meant to be there. The team
explained that social interactions will form another part of how the rookie
agent can interact with people and progress through areas and toward goals.

Some features differentiate First Light from the aforementioned bald-headed
assassination games. First of all, itΓÇÖs far less centered on all the
killing (at least until the full-throttle action sections later), with the
team attempting to reflect Bond adventures beyond bullets and grizzly ends.

ThereΓÇÖs also an Omega-branded Q Watch that attempts to elegantly fold in
HUD features like location markers, weaponry, and gadget selection. ItΓÇÖll
also help analyze the environment for interactive parts and opportunities for
Bond. Players will apparently have a degree of freedom to decide how they
approach missions and areas, even if we only saw one approach during this
presentation. It did manage to convey the stress and pressure IΓÇÖd expect to
feel from an IO Interactive game.

The early demo diverges from Hitman familiarity elsewhere. IO Interactive
said that while 007 will offer a linear adventure of sorts, players will
still have ΓÇ£control of their adventure.ΓÇ¥ A blend of action setpieces and
more measured, thinking, exploratory sections should separate it from other
games and other Bond games, too, which have typically been first-person
shooters, some of which are terrible.

The demo jumps ahead as Bond follows the rogue agent in an exciting-looking
car chase. These reminded me of Uncharted car segments, filled with
destruction and chaos. Bond drives through a Swiss market, with something
catching on his car tires for the rest of the chase, while there are jumps,
explosions, and near-misses as you fight to catch up. ItΓÇÖs a shame that, at
this early stage at least, you can tell that regardless of your honed driving
skills, you will never catch up to your quarry until the game wants you to.
The chase ends at a very well-guarded airbase.

This leads into the other facet of First Light: gunplay and way too many oil
drums and trucks filled with gasoline. The final segment includes Bond
rushing the airbase and chasing a military transport craft as it takes off.
Fighting is a mix of duck-and-cover, using the environment, and, if all else
fails, throwing your gun once itΓÇÖs out of bullets.

ThereΓÇÖs a great point after Bond barely makes it on board the plane just
before it takes off. He uses his Q Watch to tilt the plane, swinging cargo
and enemies into the walls of the plane or even out the cargo door.
Eventually, 007 is flung from the plane too, and as he falls, has to claim a
parachute.

ItΓÇÖs a real change of pace from the early part of the demo but suggests
First Light might cover all the Bond movie beats. I might not be sold on
another Bond origin story, but hopefully, IO Interactive can successfully
blend three different types of game together.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/gaming/007-first-lig...
183551755.html?src=rss

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