007 First Light review roundup: ‘The best James Bond game since GoldenEye’

IO Interactive’s long-awaited Hitman-with-hair game 007 First Light is out today, and as an astute observer of videogames you will have noticed that we don’t have a review up just yet. Why might that be? Who can say.

What we can say is that it’s coming: PC Gamer’s resident Double-O agent Joshua Wolens is hard at work on it at this very moment—he literally received a review key a few hours ago. In the meantime, other sites did receive review keys (just ahead of the long weekend in the US and UK, which frankly I don’t think is very conducive to the creation of thoughtful, well-reasoned reviews, but that’s just me), so we can take a little tour around the internet and see what they all thought of it.

The AI summary version, in the sense that my name is Andy and I am summarizing it: They sure do seem to like it.

“James Bond makes a grand return to gaming at the masterful hands of IO Interactive”

ShackNews – 90/100

ShackNews reviewer Donovan Erskine says 007 First Light represents “a major departure for developer IO Interactive,” with its first non-Hitman game since 2010. I’m not sure “major” is the word I’d use for it, that’s a quibble, and the net result is “is a crowning achievement for IO Interactive and the culmination of the studio’s growth over the years. For the James Bond franchise, it’s an invigorating shot of life.”

“007 First Light is one of the greatest James Bond games ever made”

WccfTech – 8.5/10

Maybe unexpectedly, there hasn’t been a huge amount of James Bond videogames, and only one that’s really stuck in the public consciousness, that being 1997’s Nintendo 64 release GoldenEye. But WccfTech isn’t damning First Light with faint praise: Reviewer Alessio Palumbo calls it “a finely crafted third-person action/adventure game that features a wholly original story worthy of the best James Bond movies.”

“IO Interactive’s Hitman formula fits Bond like a glove”

PCGamesN – 8/10

Paul Kelly of PCGamesN found that 007 First Light “doesn’t feel as free-form and creative” as IO’s Hitman games, with a narrower scope inherent in a story about a specific, well-defined character, even in his “origin story” state.

And as that, “it’s obvious from the first minute that First Light is an incredibly well-made game; a curated experience that’s tight from top to bottom. From the voice acting to the cinematography, it was a genuine pleasure playing something as well-formed as this, with a story more than worthy of propping it all up.”

“Bond’s greatest game to date, this is a well-oiled spy thriller machine”

GamesRadar – 4/5

Josh West, editor-in-chief of PC Gamer’s sister site GamesRadar, is another big First Light fan, and gives credit to actor Patrick Gibson for his “fantastic performance” as Young Jimmy. He did wish occasionally that he was playing the part of the better-known Bond of the films, but described IO’s origin story as “the start of something special” and expressed hope that the studio is given the opportunity to carry the series into the future, stating unequivocally that “007 First Light is Bond’s best game yet.”

“A narrative tour-de-force, though one lacking the replayability of Hitman’s fathomless sandboxes”

Eurogamer – 4/5

In his review for Eurogamer, Rick Lane—who you may also recognize as a regular PC Gamer contributor—found numerous flaws in 007 First Light, including merely “adequate” gunplay, unremarkable villains, restrictive level design, and limited replayability.

But the whole of the experience, as the saying goes, is greater than the sum of its individual parts: “First Light knows exactly when to be funny, exactly when to be serious, exactly when to deliver the right character beats. It every bit lives up to the films in this manner, and it does so consistently for five, ten times as long. It utterly sells you on IO’s decision to give you their Bond rather than your Bond.”

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

“007 First Light completely retcons Bond as we know him, to great success”

Polygon – no score

Like Rick, Polygon reviewer Ford James had some issues with 007 First Light, including bugs, overly slow pacing, driving segments that “are a miss,” and the sense that this game is much more constrained than the best of the Hitman series. Still, they write, “007 First Light is an incredibly shiny, well-polished game that truly lives up to its name. In fact, it’s tough to argue against it being the best Bond game of all time.”

“A triumphant James Bond game made by obsessive fans”

The Guardian – 5/5

Writing for The Guardian, Matthew Castle calls 007 First Light the “full Bond immersion,” saying it “understands that action is only a part of the Bond fantasy.” Guns, gadgets, and fisticuffs are all part of the package, “but this is the first opportunity we’ve had to be a Bond relaxing beside a glittering infinity pool in Vietnam, or a Bond trying to get one over on a shell game hustler.” And yes, that puts it ahead of even the great GoldenEye.

(Image credit: io interactive)

“James Bond returns for a dense, sexy blockbuster”

Newsweek – 10/10

Reviewer Nazmul Roosevelt’s 10/10 score speaks for itself, but what I find especially interesting here is the contention that IO’s young, not-fully-formed Bond provides the character with “a game identity flexible enough to evolve the way the films once did.” And, in sharp contrast to Joshua’s musings that James Bond just shouldn’t be in videogames, that videogames are now the characters proper home: “[007 First Light] doesn’t just prove Bond still works in games. It suggests that games may finally be the medium best equipped to let Bond’s full range make sense again.”

“IO nails the James Bond fantasy with a globetrotting epic”

VGC – 5/5

Writing for VGC, Jordan Middler declares that 007 First Light “is an action game with Naughty Dog levels of spectacle and Call of Duty levels of big-budget excess, garnished with the very best bits of Hitman and blended into a cocktail of Bond at his very best—shaken, not stirred.” The driving sequences aren’t great, but overall Middler thinks this “might just be the best James Bond game ever.”

“The Best James Bond Game Since GoldenEye”

Vice – 5/5

“007 First Light’s narrative has incredible levels of polish that is similar to top-tier studios such as Naughty Dog,” Vice reviewer Brent Koepp, repeating VGC’s comparison. “In fact, I couldn’t help but get flashes of Uncharted while playing through the James Bond origin story. And that’s a massive compliment, as IO Interactive did an amazing job fleshing out the game’s worldbuilding and characters.”

“Not content with being one of the best stealth-action games in years, it also comes with a huge warning to the world”

Windows Central – 5/5

Despite some issues with occasional glitches and spotty performance, Jez Corden of Windows Central is yet another big fan, calling 007 First Light “absolutely essential” for fans of cinematic action games, or James Bond in general. “The fresh take on the franchise gives IOI a huge amount of runway for future installments (hopefully), and offers an angle underexplored by the movies themselves. It pays thoughtful homage to the franchise’s iconic tropes without coming across as forced or ham-fisted, while also putting its own uniquely IOI mark on the legendary canon.”

As suggested by the headline, there’s also a timely take to the narrative that Corden calls—without spoiling anything—”a pretty stark warning about very, very real risks many of the world’s biggest governments are already taking with certain companies and individuals.”

(Image credit: IO Interactive)

Overall then, it looks like a very strong start for IO Interactive’s debut take on James Bond. A similar early reaction can be seen over on Steam, where user reviews currently sit at a “very positive” overall rating. That’s quite preliminary, mind—only people who preordered 007 First Light have access to it, everyone else has to wait until May 27, or May 28 if you’re in Australia—but I have to imagine that IOI is very happy with it.

We’ll have our own 007 First Light review posted soon enough (I’m yelling at Josh about it right now, in fact), so keep your eyes open—you definitely won’t want to miss it.