#68 - 007 First Light

Hey, it's been a while! 007 First Light released in late May 2026 and, as a huge James Bond fan, I knew immediately I needed to write a review of this game.

Before I started writing about video games, I had a movie review blog where I essentially did this, but for films. And the James Bond film franchise was my magnum opus. When COVID put everyone on lockdown, I decided to re-watch the entire franchise and write a daily review of each film, starting with the first TV appearance of James Bond, the Climax! Mystery Theater episode, Casino Royale (1954). You can read each film's review throughout April 2020 in the blog archive at that link, with the most recent film, No Time to Die (2021), reviewed in October 2021.

Anyway... I've been a big James Bond nerd since my childhood, so this new game caught my attention. I know the film franchise has been struggling in the past couple decades, and with Amazon buying out MGM Studios and then green-lighting this game, I knew it'd live up to the quality of the film franchise.

By the way, this game is developed by IO Interactive, the Danish game development company known for the Hitman games. So it was no surprise to find stealth and infiltration elements from those games in this one. Honestly, it was nice to actually use stealth, bluffs, and misdirects to sneak around an area, instead of just going in guns blazing like most James Bond games. The puzzles and sneaking were so much more satisfying than just rushing through a level with a gun. Made me feel like a real spy.

NOTICE: I will only be discussing the first four chapters of this game (chapters 00-03), in generic detail, so as not to spoil the main plot of the game. Basically, I'm just going through the intro, tutorial, and slight introduction to the main plot, which surprisingly takes a whole four chapters to get going.

Also, this game is extremely lore heavy, so I will be summarizing a lot instead of getting into the fine details. I want you to enjoy the full plot in your playthrough, not have every minor detail explained in advance here.

Note: I didn't realize it until after I beat the whole game, but I had a graphics option titled "radial blur effects" turned on, which apparently blurs the edges of my screen. I didn't notice during gameplay, because I was mostly focused on what's in the center of the screen, but looking back at my screenshots, I now see that the edges are all blurry. Sorry about that!

This game is actually an origin story for James Bond, not only rebooting the franchise, but showing how he came to join the British Intelligence office of MI6.

It starts with a baby-faced Aircrewman James Bond, part of a rescue team on a mission to Iceland. As they near the coastline, suddenly their fleet of helicopters are shot down! Being next to an open door, Bond is thrown out and manages to survive the crash into the icy ocean waters.

We see this is how he got his iconic cheek scar. Ian Fleming, the original author of the James Bond novels, described Bond as having a faint scar across his right cheek; a distinct trademark missing from his movie appearances.

Bond finds a radio in the ruins on the beach but is immediately set upon by enemies, scouring the wreckage for survivors. He manages to sneak past them and move further inland.

When he does get a signal on his radio, the intelligence office MI6 intercepts and asks who he is. There's a classified research base in the area that belongs to them. It's been taken over by some sort of terrorist organization and MI6 asks Bond to sneak in and give them a SITREP (Situation Report) so they can take control of the situation.

You find out that MI6 has bombs planted all over the research facility, to avoid any secrets escaping. This plays in the favor of the terrorists, who have stolen the detonator and plan to blow up the site when they're done looting it. You sneak in a window and don an enemy's coat and mask, allowing you to walk among them.

You enter the large tent in the center of the base and find a wreckage being excavated. MI6 asks you to pull the on-board computer, but it's already missing.

You find yourself fighting consciousness and MI6 informs you that a nerve agent was released in the tent and has contaminated you. You have precious little time to find an antidote before you're dead. You manage to inoculate yourself and survive, but your terrorist disguise is contaminated, so you ditch it. You now have to sneak around the camp in your aircrew outfit. No more blending in.

With the information you collected for MI6, they determine who the terrorists are and where they're going to sell the on-board computer. They tell you the situation is contained and that you should clear out of the area and wait for an extraction.

But Bond isn't finished. He discovers there are still scientists being held captive, and this terrorist group doesn't leave survivors. MI6 informs him that he has a less-than-one percent chance to rescue everyone and escape and that he should stand down. Bond accepts those odds and hangs up on MI6.

Bond gets ahold of the detonator and manages to make a run for it with all the survivors, but draws the attention of the whole base in the process. In a desperate attempt to escape, Bond and the survivors fight up a rocky valley until they find themselves cornered on the edge of a cliff over the ocean.

Bond tells the terrorists to stand down or he'll blow them all up. They call his bluff, and in true Bond fashion, he follows through on his threat and detonates the entire base.

Cue a standard James Bond title sequence, with the game's theme song, credits, and lots of dancing silhouettes and guns. You can't call it a Bond property without one.

We cut to MI6 headquarters a month later, where James Bond is being brought in for questioning. We meet Moneypenny in the lobby, who escorts Bond to M, the head of MI6.

Despite the disastrous Iceland conflict, where Bond chose to destroy the asset rather than let MI6 retrieve it, M actually offers to recruit Bond as a spy. He's brash, difficult, and ignores orders at his whim, but his methods managed to save lives and stop terrorists, despite a very slim chance of success.

M has recently reactivated an old 00 program, which was previously discontinued. There are already six recruits in training for it and M makes Bond the seventh. He's shipped off to Malta, where he'll attend basic training with the rest of the recruits.

Bond meets John Greenway, the training instructor, who immediately dislikes Bond. He assigns the top two recruits, Cressida and Monroe, to catch Bond up to speed.

Bond then proceeds to flash through several training courses including driving, sharpshooting, hand-to-hand combat, and capture-the-flag from OpFor (Opposing Forces).

I especially like that they brought back the 2006 Aston Martin DBS from Casino Royale (2006) for you to practice your driving with.

RANDOM TRIVIA: The DBS was originally only available from 1967-'72. Aston Martin resurrected the DBS model for Casino Royale (2006), giving it a modern spin for the spy flick. Commercial DBS models were then sold from 2007 on. I still see Casino Royale (2006) as a modern James Bond film, so it hurts my old heart when Bond calls it a classic car in this game.

Upon graduating basic training, Bond returns to MI6 where he's issued his standard gear from Q-Branch.

We meet Q, who gives Bond "Q-lenses" that provide an AR (Augmented Reality) overlay for him, so he can see stats on his equipment like weapons, ammo, and gadget supplies.

We're also issued the standard Omega watch. You're allowed to choose which one you'd like. As far as I can tell, the only difference is the color of the wristband.

You're assigned to a luxurious safehouse in Bayswater, London, with Monroe and Cressida as your roommates. You're informed that you will be bouncing between Malta and London as your 00 training requires.

The game flashes through seven months of a training montage. Upon completing a final training course in Malta, the recruits decide to enjoy a night out in a club in London.

Unfortunately, your celebration is cut short when you're all given a mission. Some leaked government information is being exchanged at the club you're attending, so you split into teams to track potential targets and investigate the situation.

This is where you learn how to eavesdrop on conversations; an important information-gathering skill in crowds.

Upon a successful mission, the recruits are all informed to report to M at 8 AM the next day. Turns out, the former 009 from the previous 00 program, despite being underground for years, has reemerged.

He, and several other 00 agents, were marked as traitors to the crown, which led to the end of the 00 program. All had been eliminated except 009, who vanished. Now, he returns claiming to have evidence of a conspiracy against the state. He requests a full pardon if he turns it in, but he will only exchange it with John Greenway.

The meeting place is set for the Grand Carpathian Hotel in the High Tatra Mountains of Slovakia, during a World Chess Championship.

The 00 recruits are tasked to track down and monitor 009 until the exchange with Greenway concludes, since they're all new to the system. Their faces aren't really known yet, making them perfect infiltrators for the clever and dangerous 009.

Greenway, finding Bond to be reckless and unreliable, tasks him with being a chauffeur stuck with the vehicle, while everyone else gets to dress up and attend the fancy event. Bond is bored, hanging out in the parking lot, until he sees a suspicious blonde bellhop dump someone's luggage over a railing.

Ignoring orders, Bond pursues the suspicious person, eventually finding himself wrapped up in a grander plot within the hotel that changes the course of the whole story.

From here, Bond will travel all over the world in pursuit of a global threat, from a pirate king's black market city on the desert coastline of Mauritania...

To a luxury resort in Vietnam...

To a secret research facility hidden in Antarctica.

Bond will experience all sorts of adventure...

Danger...

And even take some... recreational breaks.

The young Bond will even learn to tie a bow tie for the first time, in a quick-time event with Q.

Oh, and the pirate king is played by Lenny Kravitz, who plays it as... Lenny Kravitz.

This game was loads of fun! It took me about 17 hours to play through it and it felt like an immersive James Bond film the whole way through. The music was incredible and the visuals were spectacular. Every time I thought the story was reaching its peak, another twist would occur that would ignite a new direction for the plot.

And when you're done with the campaign, there are "Tactical Simulations" you can play, where Bond can explore custom missions with timed goals to accomplish. You can train in these simulations and get ranked based on your score.

You can actually find the employee who designed it while talking with people in Q-Branch during your gameplay, and she'll offer to let you try it out before you continue. So it's not strictly an endgame thing.

This was one of the rare games where, as soon as I finished it, I was tempted to start it up again from the beginning. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it! I really hope this spawns a franchise of connected games, instead of the random one-off Bond games we've had over the years.