007 First Light interview: driving, stalking, and fast-talking
By Kirk McKeand
007 First Light, the Bond origin story from IO Interactive, tells you exactly what you’re getting into with its tagline: “Earn the number.” You play as a young and (even more) brash James Bond when he’s first granted a license to kill, but still doesn’t have that triple-digit codename.
The mission I’m shown has Bond playing chauffeur. He’s told to wait in the carpark as other agents complete the mission, but then he sees someone acting suspicious and starts doing Bond things — setting fire to a bin to distract a guard, sweet-talking the housekeepers, ordering drinks. By the end of the mission, he’s jumping out of the back of a plane and his new objective pops onto the screen: “Get a parachute.”
That’s what it’d be like for most, taking on such an iconic license: jumping out of a plane with no plan. But it feels like the developers at IO Interactive, the creators behind Hitman, have already been making the best Bond games for years. If you’ve played Hitman, you can imagine Agent 47 sprouting hair and drinking a martini as he stalks his target through a vineyard. IO Interactive already earned the number.
“We have a 25 year pedigree in the agent fantasy world,” senior licensing producer Theuns Smit tells me. “So there's a lot of strength, a lot of expertise we can draw from. But when it comes to First Light, our main focus was to tell a completely new, original, standalone, reimagined origin story.”
Bond is fresh out of the Royal Navy at the start of 007 First Light and we meet him before he joins MI6. The way he moves and fights is closer to Daniel Craig’s Bond in Casino Royale than anything else, though he’s younger and more agile than we’ve seen Bond be before. That’s partly because IO didn’t just look at the movies — the devs also read the books and drew on the original source to create this fresh-faced agent. While Bond’s face is ever-changing for the movies, Ian Flemming wrote that the agent had a three-inch long, thin vertical scar running down his right cheek — it’s a scar that’s present on the face of IO’s Bond, portrayed by Patrick Gibson, best known for his recent turn as a serial killer with a heart in Dexter: Original Sin. A scar of intent.
“For every character that we're casting, it was, of course, a big, deep and wide search to find the best thing,” Smit says. “We have an amazing narrative team who have written an incredible story. We really combed through everything, and it was a collaboration between us, our team, as well as our partners, to pick and choose the right people for the job. And I can honestly say it's phenomenal, the work that they're outputting, whether it's via the performance capture, motion capture, voice acting, all of that is really bringing the character to life.”
With character and story being at the forefront, there are obviously plenty of key differences between 007 First Light and the Hitman series. While there are open sections and sandbox opportunities, these are connected together by more linear set-pieces. And where firing your silverballers in Hitman often felt like a failure or last-resort, with Bond it’s just an excuse to shift the tempo.
“Sometimes we'll lock things in a bit more linear, a bit more focused, because we want to drive the story forward in a specific way,” Smit explains. “And then we open it up a little bit, and it's up to you to figure out how to move forward with brain, brawn, and gadgets. And, of course, stealth.”
Two gadgets that have been revealed so far include the dart phone and laser watch, but he’s also able to use things in the environment like Agent 47. Before he shuffles up a drainpipe in the demo, he has to distract a guard. He sneaks around and grabs some matches, then he distracts another guard before setting fire to a wheelbarrow filled with grass. As the guard investigates, he makes his move. But there’s also that silver tongue, which can get him out of tough situations.
“So one of the mechanics is called bluffing, where you basically talk your way out of a situation,” Smit says. “Diffusing the moment, not with your fists, not with guns. That's a power move — that's something only Bond can pull off with that charm and confidence. But then when things amp up, the focus there is full of momentum. We want to keep the action going. You need to be able to quickly think on your feet if things escalate, and meet force with force. That’s when you are granted the license to kill.”
Action moves at a pace that’d make Jason Bourne blush when things do kick off. Bond shoots, takes cover, rolls, runs out, and disarms goons with frightening speed. He doesn’t even have time to reload, taking from the John Wick playbook of spending the magazine and either tossing the weapon aside for another – without stopping for breath – or throwing the empty gun directly into some unfortunate henchman’s face.
“Even when it comes to hand to hand combat you'll see his motion, his fluidness, being able to deflect and parry and attack and keep the movement there, spotting an enemy taking cover behind a car, running up, jumping over the hood, sliding over to take him out, disarming him. Now it's your hands. The tables are turned.”
There are lots of contextual takedowns like this in the demo, where Bond just runs through people without missing a beat. In one, he rushes toward an enemy in an elevated position. Bond’s out of ammo so he’s moving in, ducking between cover as he goes. When he reaches him, he keeps running, tackling him over the edge and using his body to break the fall. Now he has a new gun, the guy’s body is limp and lifeless, and Bond rolls out before returning fire against the other enemies on the runway.
Behind the wheel, he’s just as much of a menace, and IO has partnered with Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, and other car manufacturers to get across the feel and look of the classy vehicles that are so key to the Bond brand. IO hired new blood to work with the old experts to make these cars sing. It’s part of the seductive, romanticised lifestyle Bond is pulled into – the women, the cars, the fancy suits – and this is something IO hopes to play with in the story, to subvert the image of agency life young Bond may have built in his mind.
“If you look at the title, First Light, it's about a young man finding himself in a new world, perhaps even over his head, stepping into this realm between the light and the shadows,” Smit says of the game’s themes. “This world of espionage that on the outside may seem glamorous, but as he goes deeper into it, you see everything is not a clear cut black or white. There's some ambiguity there, and he needs to balance who he becomes. He's a young James Bond now, but eventually he needs to earn his number.”
The important number you need to remember for now is 2026, which is when you’ll be able to play 007 First Light on console and PC.