I Played the New 007 James Bond Game. It’s Hitman With a Heart

When a trailer popped up at last year’s Summer Game Fest for 007: First Light, fans breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that studio IO Interactive was behind it. Gamers thought that IOI’s beloved Hitman infiltration and assassination games would provide good groundwork for a game about the world’s most famous spy. And you know what? They were right — at least for the three hours of 007: First Light I got to play.

At an Art Deco-themed Los Angeles restaurant space, I tried out three chapters of the game, giving me a sense of what’s in store for prospective players curious about the first James Bond game to come out in 14 years. While the 1995 game GoldenEye was wildly popular, subsequent Bond games were far less successful in adapting the spy’s adventures to the medium. From the preview, 007: First Light looks like it could be a confident and inspired take on the James Bond franchise. We’ll know for sure when it launches on May 27.

A lot of that comes from how heavily 007: First Light draws on the Hitman gameplay it’s built on, to the point that it feels like a spy narrative wrapped around the games IO Interactive has already made. That’s not inherently a bad thing, but there were several moments where I felt like Bond was just another disguise that Hitman protagonist Agent 47 wore. Much of 007: First Light’s individuality will depend on the strength of its overarching narrative — not just to distinguish it from the story-light Hitman games, but also to live up to the globetrotting, high-society and high-octane adventures of the James Bond films and books.

And as a wholly new version of Bond, complete with a unique origin story, 007: First Light has a lot to prove. I’m not surprised, then, that the first of the three chapters I played began at the start of the game, with Bond as a Navy airman. That was followed by a peek at his training as an MI6 agent and finally a slice of the game after plot intrigue (and tragedy) kicks him into high gear, infiltrating a fancy gala.

What I played probably wasn’t representative of the whole game, and there are plot twists and turns I’ve been forbidden to write about. But I can say that it seems like it’ll be a unique 007 adventure that doesn’t retread the territory of any of the films. It offers something they don’t: In this game, Bond has close friends, and their impact on him changes the story. Perhaps he’ll grow into the womanizing lone wolf agent fans know so well, but at least in the early parts of 007: First Light, he’s more social — and human — than we’ve come to expect of the superspy. 

How 007: First Light retells the James Bond story

As the game kicks off, we’re shown a young James Bond, portrayed by actor Patrick Gibson, as a Navy crewman on a routine mission who’s about to have a very bad day. En route to a training exercise near Iceland, his helicopter is shot down over open water. He barely manages to make it to shore. Bedraggled and cold, Bond — just a humble serviceman in a flight suit, for now — evades patrols of unknown gunmen and snags a radio to call for help. 

An MI6 agent responds, relaying instructions and pressganging the unarmed Bond into reconnaissance of what turns out to be one of the British intelligence agency’s secret research bases that’s been hijacked by a mystery mercenary outfit. Part tutorial and part introduction, the first mission shows the seeds of potential the young aircrewman has for skulduggery. He clocks key details to identify mercenaries, bluffs his way past gunmen and sneaks around to free imprisoned MI6 researchers, guiding them to safety during a hectic gunfight before finally blowing up the base.

Like any good Bond prologue, it’s followed by the story’s signature theme song, First Light, sung by Lana Del Rey.

The second segment I played was more freeform. After such a promising debut, Bond is inducted into MI6 agent training on the sun-dappled Mediterranean island of Malta, culminating in a mock infiltration obstacle course to test each prospective spy’s mettle. As Bond, I snuck in under the guise of instructors tracking my performance and fellow agent trainees cheering me on or taunting me with light banter as I made my way through. 

Here’s where I learned the basics of 007: First Light’s infiltration system, which is very much like Hitman’s. I crept through tall grass and shadows, performing stealthy takedowns of guards as I worked toward the exit. I also got my first taste of the game’s simple but essential gadget system, using a watch to disable cameras and other electronics, then recharging it by snagging batteries from the occasional phone or car battery I came across. (Later, you can pick up chemicals to disorient and drug targets from a distance.) When I accidentally alerted a guard, Bond’s trusty fists — along with a decently deep fighting system featuring parries, dodges and throws — helped handle enemies. Guns will do the trick, too.

The third section was where things went sideways — and Bond starts to become 007.

007: First Light gives Bond relationships he doesn’t run from — for once

Sometime after presumably graduating training, Bond heads into a mission that goes awry and his whole team is suspended. Recuperating, he returns to the apartment in Kensington, London, that he shares with fellow 00 agents he’s grown close to. Going room to room, Bond muses over the silly little things that crop up when you share a home and a life with close friends: restaurant menus and little notes that speak to human connections. It felt like the boldest departure 007: First Light makes. The young, orphaned Bond has his own little family.

And as he realizes after finding a fake suicide note in his room, he has enemies. Bond fights off several assassins and dashes across rooftops while trying to evade a sniper, using his gadget watch to distract them and buy time. He tracks the last one to a gala thrown by a tech mogul — which, naturally, he must infiltrate.

Hitman fans know what comes next, and the mission plays out much like it would in those games. Bond pickpockets a ticket, then must finagle a way upstairs to track the last assassin. How you do it is up to you: Do you pretend to be a photojournalist showing up for an interview? Bluff your way past security guards? Steal a security pass? This part of the preview — finding a way through glitzy gala attendees and fooling or fighting my way past layers of security — felt like the perfect blend of Hitman and James Bond.

Less so the subsequent boss fight with the final assassin, since Bond’s gadget vision outlines enemies through walls, draining tension as I snuck around to ambush my foe again and again until a climactic finish. I then ran through some tedious back rooms before emerging back into the gala to find Agent Roth, a beautiful and mysterious woman who had apparently appeared earlier in the game, setting her up as a classic Bond girl-style femme fatale. Before long, both she and Bond are locked up by the game’s antagonists (whom, again, I can’t reveal).

After narrowly escaping death and sneaking around for a while, Bond runs a climactic gauntlet through a video art gallery — a long hall where screens glow a moody red as dozens of armed and armored gunmen file in. Here we go: peak Bond moment. While the previous encounters felt like quizzes on how to use your full array of guns, grappling tools and gadgets, this was the final exam. I hacked an electronic art installation to make a smokescreen, tackled guards, stunned foes and shot them dead. Exiting under gunfire from yet more enemies, I stole a garbage truck and careened through the streets as the 007 theme played. Fin.

007: First Light is promising, though not perfect, with issues such as misaligned footstep and voice audio pointing me in the wrong direction as enemies snuck up on me — something crucial in a stealth game that I hope gets fixed before release. Hitman fans may be split on how much of their favorite gameplay is repackaged for Bond’s adventure — a great tonal match that could still feel too familiar. Those new to IO Interactive’s games will likely enjoy it.

But despite how polished the stealth gameplay was, a lot hinges on the plot IO Interactive is building out, one that marks a novel departure from other Bond narratives by telling the story before the spy became super, yet one that’ll be tricky to get right. We’ll know soon enough when 007: First Light comes out May 27.