007 First Light gameplay preview and interview – James Bond returns to gaming

007 First Light – James Bond has returned (Io Interactive)

The latest PlayStation State of Play hosted almost 30 minutes of gameplay footage for 007 First Light, but we’ve already seen it and spoken to developer IO Interactive.

There have been many James Bond games over the years and while there’s disagreement over the quality of the EA titles, from the early 2000s, it seems fair to say that the only genuine classic has been GoldenEye 007 on the N64. As influential as that game was though, it has not aged well and it’s debatable as to how much the trappings of Bond added to the experience, beyond being a welcome veneer for fans.

Replicating every aspect of a movie, rather than just one or two elements, in a video game is almost impossible, as movie action sequences and dialogue works very different than in a game. You only have to look at the supposedly cinematic Metal Gear Solid games, with their overlong, uninteractive cut scenes, or Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, whose action set pieces are so very different to the movies, to see proof of that.

As the prototypical action franchise, the Bond movies are more difficult than most, since Bond is not superhuman and much of his spy work involves impractical gadgets and a reliance upon garrulous supervillains and unfeasibly impressionable women. GoldenEye 007 certainly didn’t feature much of that, but most fans already agree that if any developer is going to get Bond right, it’ll be Hitman creator IO Interactive.

We saw around 30 minutes of live gameplay for 007 First Light at Gamescom last month, but since that’s apparently what is being shown this week, as part of a special PlayStation State of Play, there isn’t much point in describing it in detail here.

Although we strongly advise watching the footage yourself, in short it involves a new, younger version of Bond on a joint mission with a number of other super spies, of varying degrees of experience. The bad guy is a former 009 agent, who seems to be attempting to stage a coup in the UK. Naturally, investigating this involves infiltrating extravagant parties in exotic locales, with the demo starting off with a drive (in a Jaguar XJ) through some attractive-looking European mountainsides.

Bond is told to wait in the car, which he does for about 30 seconds before deciding to investigate a suspicious looking porter and trying to bluff his way into the event. It’s at this point that the Hitman connections become very obvious, with a similar style of graphics and objectives, as Bond is presented with various different options of how to get in, including distracting guards to shimmy up a drainpipe.

The slower pace of the Hitman games means there’s plenty of chances to interact with and speak to other characters, which is great, but IO insist that, especially at this point in his career, Bond is primarily a spy and not an assassin. Nevertheless, we can’t really imagine Sean Connery, or any of the other Bonds, creeping around in a geranium bush or pranking guards with a spraying water tap. Although that may be another reason why IO went with the young Bond concept.

This is where the party was (IO Interactive)

From IO Interactive with love

The demo also showed a lengthy car chase and an explosive action sequence. We didn’t get hands-on with any of the game, so we can’t say how it plays, but we’ll have to be convinced that IO have suddenly learned how to make a racing game, although we did like how the final action scene played out.

It worked very much like a scene from a Bond films, with dozens of soldiers that should have easily been able to overwhelm him and giant explosions being set off everywhere, at the smallest provocation. Climbing into a moving plane, via an airport staircase vehicle, was also very Bondian, even if the sequence did seem increasingly reminiscent of the cargo plane scene from The Living Daylights, which was already ripped off by Uncharted 3 and the Uncharted movie.

The sequence ends with a direct homage to the amazing opening from Moonraker, where Bond is skydiving without a parachute, which makes you wonder how many other moments will be direct nods to the film and whether that will start to get an air of Star Wars style obnoxiousness.

We brought some of these concerns up with senior producer Theuns Smit, but overall we’re cautiously optimistic about the game. Because if IO can’t make a modern James Bond video game work we’re not sure anybody else can do it better.

Formats: Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Publisher: IO Interactive
Developer: IO Interactive
Release Date: 2026

GC: What percentage of your audience do you expect to recognise that that final sequence was riffing on Moonraker? I imagine it’s rather small, even if it was obvious to me.

TS: For us, I think the importance and focus is… we really set out, from the get-go, to create a completely original reimagining origin story for James Bond. So there’s a lot of source material to pull from. There’s the Ian Fleming novels, there’s the films, all of that. There’s a big legacy, right?

But we really wanted to infuse our own storytelling into this, creating our own Bond film from the very beginning. So, yes, there are moments here and there, where you might recognise some nods.

It’s such an amazing honour to work on an IP like this, and you would come to expect spectacle moments. These huge, grandiose… amping up the adrenaline levels to 11, 12, and beyond. So there’s big shoes to fill and we’re excited to do it.

GC: The presentation mentioned there’d be familiar locations and one screenshot seemed to be Scaramanga’s base in China, while the chess tournament was reminiscent of, but not the same as, From Russia with Love. Are there a lot of things that are exactly the same or is it mostly nods and homages?

TS: We’re really trying to do something that’s completely new and fresh, but since there is a legacy to pull from it’s fair to say that, giving the odd nod here and there to this character that has basically crafted… we get to tell our own complete new story, while having those little links and nods. Deep fans will see these things.

As an example, our previous announcement trailer, that we released, a lot of folks picked up on the scar that we added to Bond’s face, that’s from the novel. That’s not something that was in the films.

GC: Oh, is that what that is? That’s very good.

TS: We have a very confident and expert writing team and we’re really leaning into it, while keeping it new and fresh.

GC: I’m glad to hear that because he is a literary character originally, and there’s a lot of stuff from the novels, and the newspaper strips, that don’t or only barely make it into the movies, but which you could probably use quite easily.

TS: For us, the core focus is we really want to use this to usher in a new chapter for Bond in gaming. So particularly, when it comes to the gaming sphere itself, this is where we focus on selling this story driven action adventure journey, that you’re going to go on.

And this comes also with the territory, from a video game point of view, that we absolutely view this as a blockbuster, giving it the attention that it deserves – the quality that our fans expect – and that is where we claim our focus, on quality and game first.

This looks like a villian (IO Interactive)

GC: I get the impression that the exploration and dialogue and puzzle solving constitutes the majority of your game, with more linear action happening in between. Is that right in terms of the basic structure?

TS: So how I would probably put it is we’re looking at the gameplay from a breathing style, so there’ll be moments where we focus in on high spectacle, cinematic narrative moments, on-the-rails, that we used to drive the story forward, to drive the action forward, to keep the momentum going.

We focus on a lot of forward momentum, that you also saw, and the gameplay of the combat and all of that stuff. You’re shooting your gun and you suddenly run out of bullets, what do you do? Do you just drop it? No, throw it at the enemy! Keep going forward!

And in a more macro sense, as we go through the various missions, different locations, we’re telling the story and at some point we open up a little bit again and we give you a lot of creative approach. Meaning there’s a goal, there’s a target that you need to get to, but you’ve got your brain, you’ve got your brawn, you’ve got gadgets. James Bond wouldn’t be James Bond without his trusty Q lab gizmos and gadgets.

GC: I’m always interested when a developer tackles a style of gameplay they’ve never done before. How have you handled things like driving in particular? Did your existing teams just work it out themselves or did you hire in people that were experts?

TS: For us, it’s something that we’re very excited about, when it comes to driving sequences. It’s something that you would definitely expect from Bond, that cinematic drive that we’re including into the narrative.

We obviously have over 25 years of agent fantasy expertise that we get to lean on; a lot of skilled members on our team, to work with. But, obviously, when you’re announcing a new game you get to also expand your team, you get to bring in new talent. So we definitely have a great balance of the old guard and the new coming together to bring this cinematic experience to life. And that goes, as well, for everything that you would expect from Bond.

GC: Obviously IO are Danish, but Bond is very British. So, I balked when there was a moment, in the car, when it seemed Bond had used the word ‘mate.’ Although I was relieved to find that was actually someone else. Are those sort of things something you’re paying close attention to?

TS: Oh definitely.

GC: Do you understand why James Bond would never call anyone ‘mate’?

TS: The thing is, this is a reimagined origin story of James Bond. Much younger than any audience has ever seen before. He has not yet matured into the 007 that we know today, that you might think you know from previous iterations.

So there is a little bit of a creative freedom that is leant to us with the choices we took and how we wanted to craft this character. But that being said, we absolutely focus on the… let’s call it the British authenticity of what Bond represents. Within our writers team, there’s a big focus on that.

It’s funny you brought that up… there was even a discussion at one point about what you were referring to. But we definitely looked at all of that and we wanted to make sure that he’s got that British wit, the charm. Even the little things that you hear from him; this is aimed at ushering in a new chapter for him in gaming. So you will hear things from him to connect with him as a character or sometimes to help move the story and gameplay forward.

GC: Right, but he’s still a posh snob, and sexist to at least some degree. But that’s his character. The more recent movies have, understandably, deemphasised that but at the same time the more rough edges you shave off, the less interesting and distinctive he becomes. But I certainly wouldn’t want to be the person that decides where that line is drawn.

TS: For us, I think the focus is that… even over the past few decades, as you mentioned, there’s been an evolution to Bond. In years past he was influenced by the culture of the time, but evolution has followed him and for us that is a focus in the story and the writing and the narrative.

Yes, he is a hothead. Yes, sometimes he might act like a loose cannon, he might follow his gut… you saw in the presentation: he was meant to stay put. He was given his orders, you’re on perimeter watch, but something was in him, compelling him to bend or break those rules and his hunch played out.

That’s also an Austin Martin (IO Interactive)

So that is an intrinsic part of Bond’s nature, that we definitely put a high focus on. Because that’s who he is. And we put that into the gameplay as well. I can give you a quick example, I was recently playtesting the game a little bit and without spoiling anything I had an objective to reach over there, I did a bit of climbing, got a nice vantage point and saw a lot of ways that I could creatively approach this. Some stealth or some gadgets, etc.

Inevitably, I got into a bit of a sticky situation and in that moment I could’ve gone into combat, I could’ve tried to fight my way out, but instead I went, ‘Wait a second, I’m Bond! I’ve got charm, I’ve got wit.’ And I used, as a gameplay mechanic, bluffing, and I defused the situation. And in that moment, tapping into his intrinsic Bondiness, it’s his charisma, it’s his confidence, that lets you, as a player, step into those shoes and do that.

GC: [laughs] I didn’t get the feeling there were stats behind the charming and bluffing? It’s not that kind of game, surely?

TS: No, we’re not focused on being a RPG. 007 First Light is a third person, story driven action adventure game. But there is a gameplay element to your instincts, so to speak, where it grants you moments to bluff or lure or do these kind of things. There’s a certain amount of resource management when it comes to your gadgets, as well.

GC: But it can’t be a binary situation where a bluff will always work, so what limits them?

TS: [hesitates] We’re not going into the super duper details of under the hood gameplay for now but as you saw there, your heads-up display with your Omega watch shows you your level of instinct. It shows you your resources. That comes into play with these moments of bluffing and so on.

GC: Another element of Bond that has become less obvious in recent years – where Mission: Impossible has taken over its mantle – is the use of real stunt work. To me that’s a very important part of the Bond experience but how do you replicate that in a game? How do you make something look physically difficult in a video game, where you could just cheat and make anything possible?

TS: I think for us, with the territory comes the expectation that there deserves to be these spectacle moments. And that for us is a focus. It’s about the narrative and the gameplay driving this experience forward. So it is definitely something we have focused on, these moments of spectacle, these moments of stunts, these moments of extreme adrenaline. So you can expect more of that in the game. [laughs]

GC: [laughs] Okay, that’s great. Thank you.

TS: Thanks for your time.

James Bond Jr. (IO Interactive)

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