Finished 007: First Light today.
I'm not much of a James Bond guy and I came into this as a fan of the Hitman series, the developers if which this was made by, rather than as a James Bond fan, so I suppose some will role their eyes at me when I say: Well, it was pretty alright, but it wasn't a Hitman game.
I think IOI Interactive was probably the obvious choice to make a modern James Bond game, this one being an original story not adapting any of the movies or books, considering the direction Hitman: World of Assassination went. WoA kind of sidelined the grittier, sleazier elements of some of the earlier Hitman games to turn Agent 47 into more of a James Bond character himself, an international man of mystery who visits, mostly, luxurious, exotic locations where the rich and famous dwell and, well, proves that they are mortal after all, hard to believe as that may often be. Agent 47 is a, let's say, somewhat less sanitized version of the fantasy that James Bond represents, whose often invoked "license to kill" is rather conditional and who only ever exercises it, all together now, "For England." Bond is the type of man who would take a bullet for the King, where Agent 47 is the man who would strangle his brother with a piano wire.
What that means, for First Light, is that it's a game that doesn't so much resemble what one would associate with the Hitman series, meaning large, extrememy detailed levels, a handful of targets and an all you can eat buffet of creative ways to eliminate them, as it feels like an evolution of that unwanted stepchild of the Hitman series, Absolution. Which, I always held, was a good game but not a good... well, you know. Much like Absolution, First Light is broadly seperated into three types of gameplay. Open ended, somewhat hitman styled, exploratory sections, usually about gathering information or gaining access to places. Linear stealth sections that more closely resemble a Splinter Cell game. And sections where you are actually permitted to exercise that license to kill, where it turns into something like a Max Payne game, except with more explosives and gadgets to trigger them.
First Light is a game that retains only trace amounts of the Hitman series' sandbox roots, especially seeing how even the more open ended sections very clearly telegraph the different methods to accomplish your goals. And clearly, it's not trying to be, it's before anything else a linear, cinematic action games meant to translate the thrills of a Bond movie to the medium. And I imagine it has everything a fan of those would hope for. Its rookie version of Bond gets to jump from planes, drive sports cars, travel to destinations as diverse as Slovakia, Mauritania and Vietnam, seduce and be seduced by a variety of femmes of different degrees of fatality, infiltrate futuristic villain lairs and face off against a couple of flamboyant villains. All of which is pretty fun, I'll admit. The stealth, melee and gunplay very smoothly transition into each other and all feel fairly good. It's not exactly a hard game, particularly the boss fights were all some combination of "gimmicky" and "trivial" but I'm guessing feeling overpowered is part of the appeal. And the question is rarely ever "how do I survive this?" and much rather "How do I do this in the coolest way possible?"
The story, meanwhile, works well enough as a modern day spy thriller that doesn't get any more political than it absolutely has to. It's a tech thriller, of course, revolving around a quantum computer utilized by MI6 with the supposed ability to make predictions with 100% accuracy, and the shady british tech mogul who built it. I suppose I've had my fill of experimental spy thrillers after playing Zero Parades and watching Reflections in a Dead Diamond, so I shouldn't be complaining about getting the good old home cooked standard version with little in the way of abstract flourishes now and it worked well enough for me. Its version of a young Bond mostly strikes the right balance between sophisticated and rough around the edges. The standout among its cast is probably Bond's surly mentor figure John Greenway, here played by Lennie James, whose relationship with Bond is easily the heart of the game. The rest is... fine. The villains are suitably flamboyant without crossing the line into being too ridiculous for what's overall still a somewhat grounded story. The obligatory Bond girl is as cool and seductive as she needs to be. Bond's mission support team is likable and charismatic, M is a reasonable authority figure, Q is a charming old, gay British man and Ms. Moneypenny is always a delight to see as, as I can't reiterate enough, cute black girls in white sneakers are a gift of god.
So, 007: First Light is a pretty good game, if one that seems more like a victory lap after the absolute behemoth that was World of Assassination. Smaller, more modest, more built around tightly directed setpieces than player expression but, as I said, I'm not gonna judge this by the metrics of a Hitman game. As a cinematic stealth action hybrid that puts you in the shoes of the worlds most enduring super spy, it's hard to deny that it's a success and while I'd be slightly displeased if IOI abandoned the Hitman series for this (mainly on account of the fact that there's just not really anything else that plays like them) I wouldn't mind this becoming a series, I do want to see more of this interpretation of Bond.
