007 First Light review: the best Bond game since GoldenEye

Fourteen years after the last James Bond game limped onto shelves, IO Interactive has done what felt impossible for most of that wait. 007 First Light is not just a good Bond game. It is a confident one, and that confidence shows in every corner of it.Graphics and performanceThe first thing that hits you is how it looks. The Glacier engine has nothing to envy in Unreal Engine 5. On our PC we ran it cranked all the way up, no AI upscaling, and the framerate held rock steady the whole way through. Environment and character design are superb, full of detail and personality, and the immersion during missions is some of the best the studio has put out. You believe the places you are sneaking through.GameplayThe gameplay does not try to reinvent the wheel, and that is fine. It moves well and rarely tips into repetition, even if you cannot escape the yellow and blue traversal markers nudging you around each level. Missions give you real freedom in how you tackle them, which surprises nobody given this is IO and its years of Hitman behind it. The comparison is almost impossible to avoid at times, yet First Light holds onto its own identity rather than feeling like a reskin.The boss fights are not hard once you read the mechanics and use the tools the game hands you. That tells you where First Light puts its chips. Its strength is cinematic spectacle, not deep shooter mechanics, and it knows it.Sound and musicThe soundtrack lives up to the Bond name. There are original tracks alongside fresh takes on familiar themes, and the whole thing brings a new energy to the franchise. Lana del Rey's title song, First Light (written with longtime Bond composer David Arnold), drops you straight into the world the moment the game begins, the same way the films pull you in before a single line of dialogue.Story and charactersThe story hooks you, with characters who have enough charisma to carry their scenes. This is also a Bond who looks back rather than forward. Patrick Gibson's 007 feels closer to the spies of old, more Pierce Brosnan or Sean Connery than the grounded, bruised Daniel Craig version. He carries himself with a bit of swagger, and it suits the tone.If the game stumbles anywhere, it is in the transitions between locations and points in time. The jumps can feel abrupt, and you occasionally find yourself wondering how Bond ended up where he is. The good news is that it sorts itself out naturally as the plot moves forward, so it never becomes a real problem.Cast and cameosThe cameos are a nice touch. Dimitri Vegas turns up as a DJ you can actually interact with, and he produced a remix of the Bond theme for the occasion. The wider cast pulls real weight, with Lenny Kravitz as the villain Bawma, plus Lennie James as Bond's mentor Greenway and Gibson anchoring the whole thing.Replay valueWhere First Light earns its replay value is in how you clear missions. Different approaches unlock challenges, which give you a reason to go back and try again, and there is a steady stream of collectibles to hunt down on top of that. If that loop sounds familiar, well, yes, Hitman fans will feel right at home.Year One roadmapHeads up, mild spoilers aheadIO Interactive is not done with this one yet. At Summer Game Fest, the studio laid out a full first-year roadmap, and there is plenty to dig into. Headlining it is a new story mission that brings Bawma back, sending Bond to Aleph at the pirate king's own request. It is a smart pick, since Kravitz's villain felt underused the first time around, so this reads like the spotlight he deserved. No release date yet, just "later this year."The rest of the roadmap is built around features that were notably missing at launch. New Game+ is on the way, along with a dedicated photo mode, and a new gadget, the G2 smartglasses, that should open up fresh approaches once it arrives. There are also new challenges and upgrades planned for the TacSim side mode, and on PC a technical update will finally add path tracing, the one visual feature absent at release. The Nintendo Switch 2 version is still targeted for summer 2026. IO has not pinned any of this to firm dates, filing it all under "Year One" with a warning that things may shift or be delayed.Add the open ending, which signs off with a flat "James Bond will return," and it is clear IO sees this as the start of something rather than a one-off. The door to future installments is wide open, and on the strength of First Light, that is very good news.