IO Interactive spent five years building a James Bond game in the shadow of its own Hitman trilogy, and the result treats its hero as a trainee rather than a legend. 007 First Light is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with a Nintendo Switch 2 version scheduled for March 2027. It scores 8.2 out of 10.
The pitch is simple and smart: this is Bond before the tuxedo, before the confidence, before the number. Players control a 26-year-old James Bond, played by Patrick Gibson, as he works through MI6’s revitalized 00 program. He starts months behind six other candidates. He is not yet the man who saves the world with a raised eyebrow.
Trailer, via IO Interactive.
Iceland and the helicopter crash
The game opens with a retrieval operation gone wrong. A Special Air Service team is ambushed in Iceland. Both helicopters are shot down. Bond, a Navy aircrewman, is the sole survivor.
Guided by an MI6 handler, he reaches a research camp studying a crashed satellite. The camp is occupied by a mercenary group. Bond defies orders, rescues the captive scientists, and destroys the camp before the asset can fall into enemy hands.
That defiant rescue is what gets him noticed. M, voiced by Priyanga Burford, recruits him into the 00 program. It is an origin story that earns its premise rather than just announcing it.
Training under John Greenway
The training section is where 007 First Light slows down in the best way. Bond arrives months behind the other candidates. His instructor is John Greenway, a reluctant MI6 mentor and former 00 agent played by Lennie James.
Greenway is the game’s best original character. He is not a father figure and not a drill sergeant. He is a man who has seen what the 00 program does to people and does not want to watch it happen again.
Bond grows close to his team, especially recruits Monroe and Cressida, played by Chris O’Reilly and Jessica Rhodes. The game spends real time on these relationships. That time pays off later.
The Slovakia ambush and the Murto Twins
A few months in, the team is sent to a hotel in Slovakia to apprehend Rhys Beckett, a rogue agent and former 009. Bond spots a suspicious staff member. That person is one of the Murto Twins, the personal assassins of the game’s villains.
What follows is the hardest scene in the game. The twins fatally stab Monroe. A bomb kills two other recruits and cripples Cressida. Beckett escapes.
Bond manages to attach a wristwatch to Beckett’s plane. MI6 tracks him to Mauritania. Bond and Greenway follow, only to find Beckett already dead.
They deduce Beckett was the target of the bombing, not its architect. The proof is destroyed in a mercenary ambush. M declares Beckett responsible and closes the case. Bond and Greenway both suspect a larger plot. The game trusts the player to feel the same frustration.
Sir Nicholas Webb and the THEIA problem
The conspiracy leads to Sir Nicholas Webb, an AI pioneer voiced by Anthony Howell. Webb’s quantum supercomputer, THEIA, has been making fatal errors. Webb is covering them up through terrorism.
When Webb uses stolen MI6 data to secure immunity, Bond goes rogue. He teams with Isola Vale, a professional thief voiced by Noémie Nakai, and infiltrates Webb’s Antarctic base to destroy HYPERION, Webb’s replacement AI.
The cast around Bond is deep. Gemma Chan plays Selina Tan, a psychology and game theory expert. Lenny Kravitz plays Bawma, a flamboyant arms dealer. Bart Edwards plays Damien Webb, the villain’s son. Alastair Mackenzie is Q. Kiera Lester is Miss Moneypenny.
The final confrontation with Damien happens in the tunnels beneath MI6. Bond earns his 00 status and designates himself 007. He vows to track down Isola and recover the stolen THEIA core. It is a clean setup for a sequel, and the game knows it.
How the licence to kill works
The combat system is the most interesting mechanical idea in 007 First Light. Bond is usually restricted to non-lethal means. He can parry attacks and perform takedowns. He can bluff his way past enemies or use environmental items to slip through.
Lethal force unlocks only when enemies show the intent to kill him. The game grants a “licence to kill” in those moments. Firearms become available. It is a clever way to make the series’ most famous phrase into a mechanic rather than a tagline.
Players can complete missions aggressively or quietly. The game supports both. Q’s lab supplies Bond’s attire, weapons, equipment, and vehicles. His main tool is the Q Watch, a modified Omega Seamaster Diver 300M that can hack electronics. The game also features an Omega Seamaster chronograph designed specifically for it, alongside the Aston Martin Valhalla.
Release schedule and platforms
| Version | Platform | Release date |
|---|---|---|
| 007 First Light | PlayStation 5 | 27 May 2026 |
| 007 First Light | Windows (PC) | 27 May 2026 |
| 007 First Light | Xbox Series X/S | 27 May 2026 |
| 007 First Light | Nintendo Switch 2 | March 2027 |
The Switch 2 version is still months away. Everyone else can play now.
Where the game stumbles
Not everything lands. The middle section, after the Slovakia ambush and before the Antarctic infiltration, drags. The investigation beats repeat themselves. Bond finds evidence, loses evidence, finds it again.
The game also leans on quick-time events and cutscenes more than it should. IO Interactive proved with Hitman that it trusts players to solve problems. Here, it sometimes takes the controller away at the exact moment things get interesting.
Webb is a weaker villain than the game’s structure deserves. His scheme is timely, but he never gets a scene as strong as the Slovakia ambush. The Murto Twins are more memorable than the man they work for.
What the 00 program gets right
007 First Light earns its 8.2. It is not a perfect game, but it is a confident one. IO Interactive understood that an origin story only works if the hero is genuinely unfinished, and it built Bond as a recruit who makes mistakes and pays for them.
The Slovakia sequence is the proof. Killing Monroe and crippling Cressida costs the game something real, and it does not undo that cost later. That restraint is rare in a franchise game.
The licence-to-kill mechanic is the other reason this works. It turns a catchphrase into a rule, and rules are what make stealth games tense. When lethal force is a reward rather than a default, every confrontation carries weight.
The Switch 2 delay is worth watching. If the port holds up in March 2027, this becomes an easy recommendation across every platform. If it does not, the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC versions remain the ones to play.
4 million units sold by August 2026 suggests players showed up. The game deserves that. It is the first Bond game in over a decade that feels like it was made by people who understood why the character lasted this long.
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