I guess, it would even make more sense to give those villains a new look, since every character in the game is portrayed by new actors anyway. But of course, promoting it is easier when you have the known face behind it.
1 Like
Eh, still not a sure thing. What are the characteristics of Bond villains? They have some kind of facial scarring and/or they wear slick suits with high collars and have their hair combed back. Put that up on a screen and it could be any villain.
I see generic bald guy with scar on his eye, and I think âBlofeldâ. Doesnât need to actually be Donald Pleasance. How many people saw Austin Powers and immediately recognized who Dr. Evil was a caricature of?
1 Like
Doesnât just have to be a scarred eye, any part of the face will do. Blofeld, Trevelyan, Zao, Renard, LeChiffre, Silva, Safin, they all have their variety.
1 Like
Bringing in the specific actors would only make sense, if it is a at least well known name anyway. I mean, yes, having the face of Pleasance in the game would be nice for fans of the movies but other than that, nobody would even notice. With Blofeld for instance, it would make more sense to use the Christoph Waltz one, because people at least know him, even if they havenât seen that specific movie.
I personally would take a Robert Shaw or Gert Fröbe anyday of the week, but how many players would even know who they are? Aside from the fact, that they are dead and couldnât do the voice over themselves.
If we assume, IOI wants to do something with celebrities like in Hitman, I think they canât rely on the actors who portrayed the characters in the movies but ârecastâ most of them or even come up with new villains.
I wouldnât want the actual Bond villains in this game. Even as a DLC or escalation or whatever. Itâs the origin story. And no matter what if they put an actual villain from the movie in it, I would the game to be exactly as the movie. That would never be the case.
Well, Blofeld might make sense, since heâs tied to Bondâs origin in one version, and when he first became aware of Bond in another is unconfirmed, as far as Iâm aware.
Amusingly (to me), since I havenât see the later stuff, I didnât know Christoph Waltz even played Blofeld (or was in a Bond movie) so if I saw him in a game I wouldnât think, âhey, itâs Blofeld!â. Iâd think âhey, why is Cristoph Waltz in this?â but, as Heisenberg points on the regular, I am weird.
1 Like
Youâd have the same reaction as me when watching the movie 
1 Like
I think, most people would react like this, because the movie was shit, but my point was, that more people would know Waltz than Pleasance and therefore it would gain more attention for the game, if theyâd use him.
1 Like
There are some interesting points in the new Games Newsletter from the Guardian (not online, yet):
Could 007 First Light be the best Bond game since GoldenEye?
In the wake of the last James Bond movie, No Time to Die, there was a surge of articles asking whether it should spell the end for Ian Flemingâs secret agent. In that movie, Daniel Craig played the character as a fading force, mentally and physically exhausted, and out of touch. âThe world has moved on,â Lashana Lynchâs younger agent told him at one point, and in a lot of ways she was right. A product of the cold war era, 007 was a sociopathic misogynist addicted to booze and amphetamines â Craig tried to play all that down, creating a more rounded character and, controversially, giving Bond the ultimate redemption arc at the end of his final outing.
But five years later, with the franchiseâs new owner Amazon still trying to pull the next film together, weâre about to get what looks to be the best Bond game since GoldenEye. Created by the Danish developer IO Interactive, famed for its Hitman series of anarchic open-ended assassination sims, 007 First Light follows a fresh-faced Bond from his early career as an aircrewman to his first mission as a double-0 operative. The games press was recently given a three-hour hands-on demo to play, and reports suggest that it combines elements of the Hitman games (Bond navigating a gala event, either sleuthing or punching his way to the mission objective) with major set-piece shootouts, chase scenes and miraculous gadgets. (For more on its making, read this piece about how developer IO Interactive brought it together.)
Two main concerns came out of the demo. Some considered the action a little too guided at times, with the player propelled through sometimes narrow corridors of action Ă la the Uncharted series. (The gameâs art director, Rasmus Poulsen, told PC Gamer they were going for a âmore orchestrated experienceâ.) Others thought Bond actor Patrick Gibson was a little much (âtoo eager, and far too chattyâ, reported Polygon). And, in truth, James Bond games have always fallen short of capturing the precise feel of the classic movies: the pomp and bombast, extremely charismatic actors and use of sex and seduction as a driving component. (In a separate, thought-provoking piece, PC Gamerâs Joshua Wolens wondered if these qualities mean ârowing club Tory boyâ Bond can ever work as a video game protagonist.) In GoldenEye, Bond himself was invisible and silent on screen, a disembodied gun touring a series of familiar set-pieces. Electronic Arts made a couple of good stabs â namely Agent Under Fire and Everything or Nothing â which smartly abandoned trying to replicate individual movies altogether, instead creating explosive amalgams that mashed together all the best bits. If you canât beat âem, conjoin âem.
Empowering escapist fantasy ⊠007 First Light. Photograph: IO Interactive A/SBut 007 First Light doesnât look like those older titles. It seems to have a character of its own, an understanding of what a mainstream contemporary audience wants from Bond. So I think it makes sense that Amazonâs first dip into 007 mythology should be with a game â perhaps this is even a ceremonial handing over of the reins. In the cinema, Bondâs legacy as a character has become problematic and his motivations as a modern British secret agent uncertain. In games, though, he can much more easily become a cipher for whatever brand of action a player wants to indulge in. You want him to use his charisma to get out of fights? Fine. You want him to indulge in melee fights with the heavies? Go for it. And in games, there is no overriding expectation for him to form relationships. Itâs too early to say whether First Light will have Mass Effect-style romance options, but if there arenât any, the video game can and will survive.
As acclaimed titles such as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order have shown, modern video games are able to sidestep the complexities of, letâs say, compromised cinematic franchises, giving fans the bits of the experience they want without the detritus of dodgy story arcs and straitjacketed mythologies. Thanks to that mercurial and highly immersive relationship between player and lead character, they can daintily sideline troublesome plot and character elements. Itâs possible that no one will be thinking about Bondâs implicit role as violent symbol of British imperialism while theyâre personally falling out of a helicopter or mucking about with a watch that fires lasers.
Of course, video games can tell deep, complex stories with three-dimensional characters, but they can also just quietly not do that and still get by. Itâs possible what we need from Bond in the 2020s is not games about homicidal state institutions but an escapist action fantasy that empowers the players. This is something video game developers are really good at. The grenade is in their court. If, when the next film arrives, reviewers are, like, âthe movie is OK, but itâs not as good as the gamesâ, we will know Iâm right.
6 Likes
I hope Mr. Bigglesworth is in this game.
2 Likes
And that happens to be the worst movie in the series 
I donât know if I agree with this. This description fits only with the books, specially after Tracy got killed, but those features were never present in any of the movie portrayals, only the misogyny, but even that was portrayed in a way that didnât make the character unlikable. Also, the Brosnan and Craig eras already proved that Bond could live outside the cold war.
4 Likes
Live FAQ link ^
Someone else can recap but the things Iâve sucked up by skimming through:
Only tacsim leaderboards and downloading/scyncing challenges will require a server connection
Outfits only in tacsims
No VR or mod support
Will be sequels if it is popular enough
Drivable boats
Performance and Quality presets for consoles
Controller and Vibration support for all platforms.
6 Likes
No, not really, and even if it were, that has no bearing on the fact.
1 Like
.-.
4 Likes
Does that mean if youâre playing on a console that performance and quality will be preset or does it meant that all versions (including PC) are preset for console performance and quality?
Iâm OK with outfits being only a tactical simulation thing, given I only ever wear one outfit in the Hitman game anyway so itâs not something I think Iâd notice.
I wonder how drive-able boats/cars/etc. will actually be given the game is supposed to be fairly linear? Itâs not like an open world game where you can just drive wherever you want, right? Scripted driving isnât really âdrivingâ the way Iâd want to see it. Weâll see when the game is playable.
Shame about VR support. I like that mode in the Hitman games.
I donât really have an opinion on the server connection issue.
4 Likes
Sorry I meant 2 different modes you can select in the settings.
1 Like
The online elements seem to be less restrictive in this game than in Hitman, which is good. Glad that theyâre treating this like the single player game that it is.
Once again, dissappointing. So itâs going to be like Absolution. Hopefully the tacsim is substantial enough to make unlocking the cosmetics worth the effort.
I wonder if there will be a âcontracts modeâ of sorts for this game. This types of game modes can really help with the lifespan of a game.
This gets me curious, I admit Iâm not a big fan of the driving gameplay theyâve shown so far. It feels slow and too linear and scripted. I wonder if boats are going to be any better.
Itâll probably never happen, but now Iâm wishing for the Lotus to be in the game.
2 Likes
Oops forgot to mention there will be 15 missions (probably also 15 maps)!
1 Like