(Played on Steam Deck. The Steam clock said 15 hours after credits roll on the lowest difficulty aptly called Novic, for this is the first James Bond game I ever booted up.)
I consider myself a James Bond aficionado. The mixed bag of 25 movies across 6 decades is just basic, for yours truly read everything Ian Fleming himself wrote on the character, novels and all. On top of that, I quite enjoyed Carte Blanche, the hard reboot novel by American mystery novelist Jeffery Deaver in which 007 served in Afghanistan during the aughts. IO Interactive’s First Light rebooted the character yet again as an orphan born in the year 2000.
Interactive media is always a blind point for me regarding the 007 franchise. I’m a PC gamer to the bone while Bond games tended to stay on consoles. I was not planning on playing First Light until I saw the game being Playable on Deck. The only thing kept the game from being Verified is the size of some text. As the thirst for some action-packed cinematic blockbuster came over me. I rolled the dice and was quite glad that I did.
Beginner’s luck
British Naval Aircrewman James Bond was the lone survivor of his unit during a mission of recovery in Iceland. Since he managed to save a crew of MI6 eggheads on his way out of the fiasco, Bond was asked to join His Majesty’s Secret Service. Being the seventh recruit of HMSS’ recently reactivated paramilitary wing called Double-O Program, he has a lot to prove in the dangerous world of international espionage.
Partially due to my hope for narrative in video game being in all-time low, I found First Light’s story to be quite good. Both in terms of being spy fiction and action narrative, it’s spot on. And the tutorial is disguised very well, as the cold opening Bond franchise is known for and training montage.
Spy fiction is detail-oriented and First Light’s writing certainly got several details right just to sell its bullshit. The following 2 within the game’s first act out of three stand out to me.
The game’s M, played by No Time to Die “guest star” Priyanga Burford, having a diplomacy career before leading HMSS is a chef’s kiss acknowledgement about where this whole “swashbuckling gentleman spy” shtick came from. Great Game of the 19th century was allegedly played by diplomats.
Due to Mr. Robot’s popularity, Social Engineering in Hacktivism is seen as “something cool”. The deception involved makes it sounds spies’ tradecraft. So, of course espionage training in the 21st century has a course called that.
On the action front, First Light gave me flashback about flicks released 3 decades ago. The whole rookie rising up to the task is like 1996’s first Mission: Impossible movie and the Rock. In fact, this Bond is so green that the third of three ladies he shags (Off the screen, so no 2005’s God of War style dicking around.) in this story can be described as the Ada Wong to his Leon S Kennedy in Resident Evil 2, down to being a sequel tease. The vehicular mayhem in this game also got that John Woo flair in Face/Off.
The game got no poor performance from its cast. Lennie James as John Greenway is the experienced and jaded spy the British actor plays well. Patrick Gibson just kills it as James Bond. The real man got the right look as an action lead though the polygonal model is too close to “Tom Holland as Nathan Drake” for my taste despite the facial scar being a nice touch and nod to Fleming’s writing. Mr. Gibson’s vocal performance does make up for it, as he delivered on the dry wit front.
The rouge galley is especially delicious in comparison to the overall underwhelming offering during Daniel Craig’s tenure. The closer to BBC scripted program casting here is certainly mopping the floor with Academy Award winners under subdued directions. The campiness is mostly ringed in, yet the mastermind’s monologue certainly has that larger-than-life quality found in science fiction by Arthur C Clarke and in turn Liu Cixin. Then of course imperial agent in training James Bond can always tear the statement new ones with his own comebacks.
The title First Light is referring to young Bond himself rather than this first mission he is on. It gives the mostly cold and hard story of this game a sense of warmth. For a power fantasy sold at 70 us dollars and specializing in destruction of properties, it’s nice of it to pats the player on their backs or even going as far as giving them hugs instead of throwing them back in the open world salt mine.
Recruit’s predicament
First Light is IO expanding on their formula established Hitman: The World of Assassination. The basic movement is the same, no dedicated jump button but everything functions well enough. 47’s instinct is kept as MI6 standard issue lens. This world of espionage is bit more loosey goosey in comparison to add some cinematic flair.
One big addition is vehicle segments. It’s an inherent part of the franchise since it began with the novel titled Casino Royale having no combat but containing a car chase. It’s not just the token arcade like high octane bits.
The game’s counterpart to films’ establishing ariel shots for exotic locations is relatively slow vehicle segment. James Bond would be driving to places while having character interaction and seeing the main game level showing itself on the horizon. Other than that, the left trigger, right trigger affair serves its purpose and keep changes up but not much else.
The game can be separated into 3 Ss: social, stealth and shoot-out. Social and stealth is also taken from Hitman, with the disguise out and Bond having to Bluff his way in or using gadgets. There are 3 types of resources, battery, chemical and what Yahtzee Crowshaw called “Austin Power’s Mojo”. The first 2 assigned to different gadgets and can be picked in game levels. The third to Bluff and can be restored in combat by gunning down or knocking out goons.
The social bit usually has one single objective and Bond needs to follow 2 out of 3 leads to accomplish unlike Hitman’s one lead for one target. It’s of course not as rigorous, but one might waster resources. The game does have several sitting across the table with Bond’s enemies moments, not a cut scene, but gameplay sections where one can choose some dialogue without changing the storyline and use gadgets.
The pistol Bond turned in during 1962’s Dr. No had always indicated that the character on film is a brawler, and First Light mimic that with relatively robust melee combat. In terms of face buttons, left to strike, down to dodge and right to parry. Right bumper plus strike to perform charge and right trigger either to grab block enemies or objects to throw at enemies.
Cockup cascade during this game’s stealth usually involves a squad of 3 goons, 1 to radio in for reinforcement while 2 kept Bond busy. If player knocks them all out fast enough, usually with the one with radio down first, situation contained and stealth continues. If not, it had led to the same as mandatory shootout the game refers to as “License to Kill”, where Bond needs to either kill them both or shoot his way to a destination.
The shootout is your standard over-the-shoulder cover-based affair with vaulting and cover taking mapped to 2 buttons. The game rarely gives Bond more than 2 full magazines, including the one locked and loaded, for any gun. So, throwing empty guns with left trigger and up face button is crucial to disarm goons.
Aforementioned Mojo is also used in shootout for the bullet time game calls Focus, as the slow motion would automatically stop after a headshot. And all melee movements function here if one prefers the divide and conquer approach.
Overall, First Light might not be as satisfying as say Batman Arkham or the severely underrated Sleeping Dogs. But the mechanics here are enough to provide playing a James Bond movie in a package closer to the 8 episodes series on Amazon Prime. Guess Bezzo’s house got a er, house style.
Case closed with extreme prejudice
First Light can be seen as a confident well, first installment of a potential trilogy. Though one piece of sequel tease with a cabal unnamed made one question IO’s confidence a bit. Like are they going to make up a name like the Providence in their newest Hitman games or are they waiting for Amazon MGM licensing out SPECTRE. And of course Amazon Games’ weird comment haunts the sequel like a er, spectre.
Still, this game managed to bring some enjoyment to me. It certainly scratched an itch after I thought long and hard about Metal Gear Solid in the last couple of months. Even if IO is not allowed to finish the trilogy, this product stands well enough alone.