I’ve been waiting 25 years for a James Bond game that doesn’t make me want to throw my controller through the television. Twenty-five years since GoldenEye 007 on the N64 proved that Bond and gaming could be a match made in heaven. And for 25 years, every single attempt since has been a disappointment — ranging from “aggressively mediocre” to “genuinely offensive.” So when IO Interactive, the studio behind the brilliant Hitman reboot trilogy, announced they were making a Bond origin story called 007 First Light, I felt something I hadn’t felt about a Bond game in decades: hope.
In this 007 First Light review, I’m breaking down whether the game finally breaks the curse, where IOI’s Hitman DNA shines and where it holds back, and whether “best Bond game since GoldenEye” is actually a compliment or just a sad indictment of the franchise’s gaming history. Spoiler: it’s complicated.
Bookmark this one, share it with your Bond-obsessed friends, and let’s get into it.
The Curse of Bond Games: A 25-Year Disaster
Let me take you on a quick tour of Bond gaming misery. After GoldenEye 007 redefined console FPS gaming in 1997, the franchise descended into a chaos of licensing hell, rushed development cycles, and games that felt like they were designed by people who had never actually watched a Bond film. The World Is Not Enough on PS1? Forgettable. Agent Under Fire? A generic shooter with Bond’s name slapped on it. Everything or Nothing? It had its moments, sure, but it wasn’t great.
And then came the dark ages. Quantum of Solace was a Call of Duty reskin. Blood Stone was… a thing that existed. 007 Legends might be the single most cynical licensed game I’ve ever played — a soulless greatest-hits compilation that somehow made iconic Bond moments feel boring. Even the much-hyped GoldenEye 007 remake on Wii felt like a compromise, a nostalgia play that couldn’t recapture what made the original special.
The truth is, Bond games have been bad for so long that we’ve stopped expecting them to be good. The entire history of Bond in video games is basically a case study in wasted potential. We’ve been conditioned to lower our standards, to accept “not terrible” as a win. And that’s exactly why 007 First Light matters so much. It’s not just another Bond game — it’s the first one in a generation that comes from a developer with a proven track record in the exact genre Bond should have always occupied: stealth-action.
When I look at the landscape of 2026 gaming — and trust me, it’s a stacked year as I covered in my Best Games 2026: 20 Games You Need to Play Right Now roundup — 007 First Light stands out not because it’s the biggest release, but because it carries the weight of an entire franchise’s gaming reputation on its shoulders.
IO Interactive: The Dream Developer for Bond
Here’s why I was so hyped when IO Interactive got the Bond license: they are, without exaggeration, the best stealth-game developers on the planet. The Hitman World of Assassination trilogy — Hitman (2016), Hitman 2, and Hitman 3 — is one of the greatest achievements in modern game design. Those games gave us sprawling sandbox levels where every NPC had a routine, every object could be a weapon, and every assassination felt like a puzzle you solved your own way.
That’s what Bond should have always been. Not a linear shooter. Not a Quick Time Event simulator. A game about being clever, about blending in, about walking into a casino in a tuxedo and walking out with the intel while no one even knew you were there. The Venn diagram of Hitman and James Bond is, as The Guardian put it, “almost an eclipse” [VERIFY].
But IO Interactive isn’t just some hired gun. They self-published 007 First Light in partnership with Amazon MGM Studios, which holds the Bond film rights. This isn’t a rushed licensed game cranked out by a C-team studio to hit a movie release date. This is a studio that fought for this franchise, that clearly loves Bond, and that took the time to get it right — even delaying from March to May 2026 for additional polish. In an industry where studios are being gutted left and right — something I explored in depth in my piece on the Gaming Industry Crisis 2026: Layoffs, AI, and the Death of the Mid-Tier Studio — IOI’s commitment to quality over speed is genuinely refreshing.
You can see the ambition in every detail. They hired Patrick Gibson (Dexter: Original Sin) to voice and mo-cap Bond. They got David Arnold — the longtime Bond film composer — back to co-write the theme song with Lana Del Rey. They built an origin story inspired by Ian Fleming’s original novels, not the film franchise. This isn’t a game that’s trying to ride coattails. It’s trying to be Bond.
Hitman DNA vs Bond Swagger: Does the Formula Work?
Let’s get into the actual gameplay, because this is where things get interesting — and where my feelings get complicated.
007 First Light is a third-person stealth-action game with linear mission structure but open-ended encounter design. Think of it this way: the shape of the game is more Uncharted than Hitman — you’re moving through defined missions with cinematic pacing — but the feel of individual encounters is pure Hitman. You can sneak through vents, disguise yourself, use gadgets to manipulate the environment, and find creative solutions that the game never explicitly points out.
And when it works, it really works. There’s a moment in the Iceland mission where you’re infiltrating a facility and you can either go loud, sneak through the service tunnels, or — and this is the Bond way — charm your way past the front desk with a fake identity and walk right in. That third option, that social stealth mixed with Bond’s trademark charisma, is something Hitman never had. Agent 47 is a blank slate. Bond is a character, and 007 First Light lets you play that character.
But here’s my issue: the game doesn’t commit to the Hitman formula as hard as I wanted it to. The missions are more linear than Hitman’s sprawling sandboxes. The action set-pieces — and there are plenty of them — feel scripted in a way that Hitman’s emergent chaos never does. When I’m in a firefight in Hitman, I created that situation through my choices. When I’m in a firefight in 007 First Light, the game often put me there by design.
IOI’s own narrative director said it best: “James Bond has a style that Hitman doesn’t have” [VERIFY]. And that’s true — Bond needs those cinematic moments, those chase sequences, those one-liners after a kill. But I can’t help feeling like the game sometimes uses Bond’s swagger as an excuse to play it safe rather than pushing the sandbox stealth that IOI does better than anyone.
For a deeper look at how the game plays, Eurogamer’s hands-on preview captures the tension between these two design philosophies well.
Playing It Safe: The One Thing That Bugs Me
Multiple outlets have used the phrase “plays it safe” to describe 007 First Light, and I think that’s the most damning compliment you can give a game. It’s good. It’s really good. But it’s not brave.
Think about what Hitman (2016) did. It launched with one level — Paris — and basically said, “Here’s a fashion show. Kill these two people. Figure it out.” That was audacious. It trusted the player. It said, we built this incredible machine, now go break it.
007 First Light never gives you that level of freedom. It guides you. It paces itself like a blockbuster film — which, yes, is very Bond — but it means you’re rarely surprised by your own creativity the way you are in Hitman. The “multiple approach angles” are there, but they’re more like choosing between Door A, Door B, and Door C rather than realizing you can poison the target’s sushi by disguising yourself as the chef.
And look, I understand why. Bond has a broader audience than Hitman. IOI and Amazon MGM want this to be a blockbuster, not a cult hit. But part of me wishes they’d been bolder. Part of me wishes they’d made the Bond game that only IO Interactive could make — a game where every mission was a Hitman-level sandbox, where the emergent chaos was the point, where Bond’s charm was just another tool in your arsenal rather than a scripted dialogue option.
As Kotaku noted in their hands-on, it’s “a ton of fun despite playing it safe.” And that “despite” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Patrick Gibson, Lana Del Rey, and the Art of Being Bond
Can we talk about the presentation? Because this is where 007 First Light absolutely nails it.
Patrick Gibson plays a 26-year-old Bond — not the suave, fully-formed 007 we know from the films, but a raw, sometimes reckless recruit trying to earn his “00” status. The tagline is “Earn the Number,” and Gibson sells it. He’s got the intensity of Daniel Craig’s Bond but with a vulnerability that makes sense for an origin story. This is Bond before he became the myth, and Gibson makes you believe in the journey.
And then there’s the theme song. Lana Del Rey and David Arnold’s “First Light” is — and I don’t say this lightly — a genuine, top-tier Bond theme. It’s moody, cinematic, and dripping with the kind of melancholy glamour that defines the best Bond music. When the title sequence plays and that song kicks in, I got actual chills. This isn’t a game going through the motions of being Bond. It’s a game that understands what Bond feels like.
The production values across the board are stellar. The visuals are crisp, the locations feel authentic (Iceland in particular is stunning), and the reimagined versions of characters like M (played by Priyanga Burford) give the whole thing a fresh-but-familiar vibe. It’s inspired by Fleming’s novels rather than the films, which means it’s grittier and more grounded — closer to Casino Royale (the book) than Die Another Day (the disaster).
With Amazon also planning a live-action Bond film reboot, there’s already speculation about whether Gibson could transition from game to screen [VERIFY]. I’m not going to start that rumor mill here, but I will say: the man has the chops.
15 Hours for $70 — Is It Worth It?
Alright, let’s address the elephant in the room. 007 First Light is approximately 15 hours long for the main story, and it costs $70. That’s a conversation worth having.
For context, the Hitman World of Assassination trilogy gave you dozens of hours of gameplay per entry if you engaged with the mastery systems, escalations, and contracts mode. 007 First Light is a tighter, more focused experience — and that’s by design. It’s telling a specific origin story, not offering an endless sandbox.
But 15 hours for $70 is going to be a tough pill for some players, especially when the game isn’t on Xbox Game Pass at launch. In a year where we’re also getting massive RPGs and open-world games for the same price, 007 First Light needs to justify its cost with quality, not quantity.
And here’s my honest take: for most of those 15 hours, it does. The pacing is tight, the missions are varied, and the production values are through the roof. But I do wish there was more reason to replay — more Hitman-style contracts mode, more emergent opportunities to discover on a second run. The game has replayability through different approach angles, but it’s not the bottomless well that Hitman is.
If you’re playing on Switch 2 when it arrives summer 2026, you might want to check out my Nintendo Switch 2 Review: The Upgrade Nintendo Fans Deserved to see if that’s the right platform for it. And if you’re on PC, you’ll want solid hardware to do those Iceland vistas justice — a good gaming monitor makes a real difference for the cinematic presentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 007 First Light like Hitman?
It shares Hitman’s DNA — social stealth, disguises, creative problem-solving, and multiple approach angles — but it’s more linear and cinematic than Hitman’s sandbox design. Think of it as Hitman’s stealth philosophy filtered through Uncharted’s pacing. IOI themselves say there are “distinct differences” from Hitman, and Bond’s charm and social interaction options add something Agent 47 never had.
Is 007 First Light open world?
No. 007 First Light is a mission-based, linear action-adventure game with open-ended encounter design within each mission. You have freedom in how you approach individual scenarios, but the overall structure progresses through defined missions, not an open world. It’s “old school linear” with sandbox-like encounters.
How long is 007 First Light?
The main story runs approximately 15 hours based on pre-release information. This has sparked some debate about whether 15 hours justifies the $70 price tag, though the quality and production values are high throughout.
Is 007 First Light on Xbox Game Pass?
No, 007 First Light is not on Xbox Game Pass at launch. It’s available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam and Epic Games Store), and is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in summer 2026.
Who plays James Bond in 007 First Light?
Patrick Gibson, known for Dexter: Original Sin, voices and provides motion capture for the young James Bond in 007 First Light. The game features an origin story where Bond is 26 years old and working to earn his 00 status.
Conclusion
So, does 007 First Light finally get it right? Yes — but with an asterisk.
It is, without question, the best James Bond game since GoldenEye 007. But let’s be honest about what that bar means: Bond games have been so bad for so long that “best since GoldenEye” is almost a backhanded compliment. It’s like being the tallest person in a room of kindergartners.
What 007 First Light gets right is the feeling of being Bond. The charm, the style, the tension of walking into a hostile environment and improvising your way out. Patrick Gibson’s performance, Lana Del Rey’s theme, and the Fleming-inspired origin story all contribute to a game that genuinely feels like Bond — not just a game with Bond’s name on the box.
What it doesn’t get right — what I wish IO Interactive had been bolder about — is the freedom. The Hitman-style sandbox design that made IOI famous is present but restrained. The game plays it safe, and while that safety produces a consistently good experience, it never reaches the transcendent highs of Hitman at its best.
But here’s the thing: this is an origin story. “Earn the Number” isn’t just the tagline — it’s the design philosophy. IOI earned the right to make a Bond game. Bond earned his 00 status. And 007 First Light earns its place as the game that finally, after 25 years of disappointment, gives James Bond the game he deserves. Even if I wish it had been a little braver along the way.
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