Oh no, poor IO Interactive getting coerced into making as much money as possible with shitty business practices again by the evil corporations 
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$300?!
Hakan probably
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No no, they’re complicit in doing it for sure, but I’m sure it was first Amazon’s idea, being all “Ahaha yes, please make us an EXCLUSIVE version of the game with EXCLUSIVE DLC that you can’t pack up into the Collector’s edition…!”
ggrrrr grumble grumble
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I have the feeling that, like Hitman WOA, the game itself will be pretty good in it’s own right but will have lots of issues related to Live Service that will taint the experience as a whole. Hope I’m very wrong with the LS part but with what we have seen so far, including the milestones for wishlisting, eh…
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Even if a PS5 player was willing to buy two editions to have everything, this option will likely be limited to US-based players only.
Sony has always region-locked DLC so that to redeem a code, you need to have a PSN account that matches the region the code is for - then you also need to be playing on a digital or physical release for that region for the game to even work with the DLC. So non-US players are locked out.
Thankfully I decided long ago I’m not buying into this inevitable disater, otherwise this would annoy me.
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I mostly enjoyed the livestream, but not sure it’s exactly the best representation of the game. I do think the big question is about replayability, and how much openness there is. Yes, it’s clear that missions are segmented into sections, but how much each section is replayable is the big if here. Definetly makes me wonder what the side content besides the main story would entail, or indeed, if this is a live service game, what content would be added in the future?
The editions of the game are pretty stupid. Actually really annoying for the classic tuxedo to be a pre-order item, that’s the kind of outfit that really should be unlockable. That Legacy edition is a bit genius, because I’ll tell you right now: Bond fans, even ones who have no intention of playing this game, will snap it up purely for the Golden Gun replica. That’s the kind of thing a Bond would fan would love to own as a bit of merchandise for their collection. Also annoying that the Golden Gun skin is also locked behind, when again, it arguably should be a skin in-game, or an outright weapon. The Golden Gun has a proud tradition of being an item in previous Bond games. In Goldeneye Rogue Agent, there was a multiplayer mode that would spawn one in the map, and the gun would instant kill any player.
Although speaking of editions, I find it interesting there is no mention of a season pass or DLC being included with any edition, which is something a lot of games do, like Hitman 2 did. So very curious what the post-launch of the game is meant to be like.
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I think it looks awesome.
I’ll say something controversial: Gamers are a demanding and difficult bunch.
It’s got Hitman DNA but it’s its own thing. I like linear games and I like open ended games. Judge it on its own terms, or be disappointed even if it’s good.
Is it going to run on Xbox Series S? Sales materials only show the Series X. I guess we are past the point of expecting the S to be catered to. That’s okay, it had a good run, and still has great value. Baldur’s Gate 3 was just the beginning…
How will we on the forum abbreviate IOI’s James Bond: 007 First Light, Part 1: The Prequel ?
- FL
- 007FL
- 0071
- H007
0
voters
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Considering one of the main points in the ‘core pillars’ and store pages of the game is the ability to revisit “missions with added modifiers for ‘endless replayability’”. I hope that what we see in Hitman 3 with the Main Scripted vs. Alternate starting locations are kind of early versions of what they might put in 007.
Playing the mission as normal gives you all the story sequences and scripted openings, but replaying missions let you skip or play a condensed version where you’re simply dropped in the level at the first main gameplay sandbox.
Will be very interested to see how they’ve organized the game’s structure in any future previews.
The game is being advertised as a cinematic adventure, but promises the iconic freedom of approach from Hitman, while also being Live Service with various skins, weapon skins, and more to unlock, which… simply reminds me of Hitman’s very “cordoned off” menu approach to missions? You have to select a full loadout before getting into the individual mission, which might feel weird to put in a very story-heavy Bond game so far.
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I’ve been deliberating on the stream and the pre-orders all night to work out what to say about it.
And to be honest, I’m just annoyed by the end of it all. The gameplay itself is honestly not bad, reminds me very much of Absolution mixed with WOA elements, and sprinkle in a bit of Watchdogs hacking.
But then we come to similarities that make me think this is a Bond Game being beefed up with WoA game mechanics. The Gunplay is quite good, but WOA’s gunplay isn’t bad either. The asset reuse (which is a lot) probably cut down on development time…but it can give the impression the developers are also being a bit lazy too. Enforcer dots return, Hidden status returns, Instinct returns (only this time it seems to be regenerative, ala Absolution). The only new things that actually wowed me was the driving section (Driving in WoA!), and the “hidden in smoke” ring, which i’m surprised isn’t in WoA. Oh, and doors can have their doorknobs lopped off. That made me laugh.
However, it left the impression that it’s a bit…derivative. I know that sounds bad, and given Bond’s track record in gaming, derivative is probably still better than anything else. And I’m sure it’ll play fine, excellently even. But Hitman WoA also plays excellently, so I have the strangest feeling playing First Light will be like playing a more actionized WoA…which I can do by playing Freelancer.
The frame rate was also…not encouraging. 40fps in the driving section, 5-30fps in the shootout…and they willingly showed that? I get it, the game is still being worked on, but you’d think they wouldn’t partner up with Sony for this, because that PS5 is struggling.
What has probably killed my interest now is the editions of the game. The price is £60, so I’d be waiting for a sale regardless. The Legacy edition is bad enough, costing $300 and having exclusive skins tied to it, because apparently IO didn’t learn their lesson from Hitman 2.
The Amazon edition is the straw that breaks the camels’ back for me, as it locks the classic tuxedo outfit as an exclusive to it. Yes, Bond’s signature outfit in every movie he’s ever been in is a bloody exclusive unlock!
To quote myself from Discord:
I’m sure sugardaddy Amazon is happy, IO. All you had to do is sell your standards away.
I think this state of play only confirms what I’ve suspected for a while: IO are trying very hard to act like the AAA company they claim on their god-awful website, with the all the negative aspects that follows such a moniker. Absurd game and edition prices and exclusive skins, aforementioned overly-flashy-website, a lot of ports with mediocre reviews that seem to exist for brand awareness, and a lacking of self-awareness of their own flaws. Oh, and not talking to us as much as they should.
IO has changed, perhaps corrupted by the hands of Amazon, perhaps trying to copy what Warner Bros has done. Or maybe, they were always like this, and were waiting for the right time.
I want to buy 007 First Light, the prospect of a Bond game is something I’m looking forward to. But it is too expensive, has absurd editions to satisfy partners with exclusive content that means no one edition will get you everything, and the gameplay, while having some new features, is far too similar to what I’m already playing.
I know this is yet another negative post, and I’m sure those hyped for the game will either ignore this or continue to be hyped and run on Hopium/ Copium. Maybe it does get better and relies less on WoA staples later on. But they haven’t shown that. I really wish this wasn’t what I was feeling after yesterday’s stream. But…that is what I’m feeling.
Sorry =/
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Honestly, I’m looking forward to the six versions of the game I can buy and be confused about which version has the full game!
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This immediately reminds me of Hitman Absolution, where 3 pre-order suits were tied to 3 different retail stores. A terrible move, especially considering that for many, Hitman WoA is also a game about collecting multiple unlocks. The next logical step, it seems, will be adding other iconic suits to Twitch Prime
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That was a pretty common thing for games to do around that time. And more often than not, the pre-order stuff never went up for sale later on. It was either you buy all those copies ahead of launch or you missed out forever.
At least at some point the new normal became sell it for peanuts later on.
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First impressions: I wonder if this will be a little too Absolution for me. It seemed very segmented to small open areas like in Absolution. The gameplay is probably gonna be more exciting with multiple paths, gadgets, bluffs etc.
Absolution suffered from most of the gameplay loop being frustrating cover gameplay and a broken disguise system, so First Light will hopefully feel totally different even if it’s structurally similar.
The whole “license to kill”-thing does seem very restrictive. My guess is that melee/sneaking/social stealth is your only option for sections like the hotel/chess game. That total sense of freedom I love from Hitman just probably won’t be there.
EON was very keen on a less shooter-focused James Bond, and I know they’ve been overseeing the development with multiple meetings a week, so it could have come straight from them.
Also, some of the Uncharted references online are a little off. I see similarities as a game ofc, but the falling out of a plane specifically is most likely directly referencing 1979’s Moonraker. James Bond did these things first.
Hope they optimize frame rate of course. I do think they made some improvements here during the WOA lifetime, so fingers crossed. I think the motion blur is there to kind of hide the jankier Glacier animations so I kind of doubt that they can be turned off.
Anyway, I see that it is a super ambitious project. It’s like multiple games in one, and that could be the strength or the weakness here. Visually amazing, environments look varied, stylish and beautiful. Features like bluffing, lasers, luring, new distractions look to be potentially fun and fresh. Loved the sabotage door feature (remember these for Hitman please). Hoping for the best!
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Overall happy with what I saw, and do intend to get it at some point, but probably will wait for at least a minor discount (hopefully don’t have to wait too long, sometimes a 15% discount has been offered around launch on some sites)
Pros:
- Maps way bigger to accommodate driving etc
- Driving (I’m just interested in how it goes in an IO game, probably won’t be that amazing in the end)
- European guards have European accents (Hope I can port to AOM
) - Somehow everything looks better than WoA despite essentially being the same engine
- Enough sandbox there for me to have hope of player choice
Cons:
- Unless new game modes are announced (something resembling contracts mode or escalations/ETs) I’m worried many sections will not have much replayability (like that airfield section. I hope there’s a stealth way to do it, but worried the guard turning around and shooting at you and the ensuing mass combat is forced; plus stealth probably wouldn’t work with rushing to catch the plane)
- Way too many explosives barrels everywhere
- Concerned that the game just plain blocks you from doing suspicious acts like climbing that railing when someone is looking… why can’t they just let the player try it then get shot at?
- In a similar vein, was disappointed that it seemed you’re unable to take the empty SUV to drive and catch up to the plane, instead getting stuck in sluggish explosive combat on foot. Seems like vehicle opportunities are tightly prescribed. I wish they’d take a leaf out of Mafia 1’s book where you can use vehicles whenever you like if one is around, including at their own airport level; and where if you’re skilled enough you can kill one of the targets earlier and avoid a big sequence
Mixed:
- Close combat system looks much better than terrible quick time events, but I’m not sure I saw a single guard punch back. I hope this was just easy mode for demonstration purposes.
They’d have to have a lot of unannounced stuff they’re holding back on for me to get anywhere near the playtime in it I have in Hitman. It seems like a one-and-done kind of game, even though it seems like a good game
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Replayability is also my number one concern right now. But for me it’s being further compounded by my dislike of the live service style cosmetics, which are annoying me just as much as they did in Hitman. “Oh cool I got a new Camo skinned sniper rifle? What’s the point when the Sieger 300 Ghost exists.”
Give me a reason to want to use this stuff please IOI. But outside of that I also hope there is some kind of hook to make the player want to replay the levels in this game.
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You do realise the last reskin of a sniper rifle was for the Sieger 300 ghost: The White Ruby Rude 300 Sniper Rifle | Hitman Wiki | Fandom
Hell, both Freelancer and the Concrete DLC reskin the same rifle. So it’s not like they took a random sniper rifle and reskinned it…they did reskin one of, if not the best, sniper rifle in the game.
As for the other unlocks, yeah, I’m not pleased with a cocktail shaker or a goddamn wine bottle.
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Ok and?
That just means they also reskinned the sniper I pointed out which was objectively the best. The other reskins still exist as well. I could have used a handgun or an explosive as my example and it would have been just as true.
EDIT: My point is there is no reason to use half the stuff you get. In case that got lost.
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My point was more “you couldn’t have chosen a worse example”, rather than “you are wrong”.
But yes, we have too many reskins. And I’d say that reskins of useless items are much worse than reskins of good items, because the useless reskins feel especially redundant, like filler for the inventory. At least with a colourful Cherry Blossom Baller, it’s based on the Silverballer, a gun I use fairly often.
I’d even say most of the reskins and items we get these days for this live service isn’t all that good. I can name two items in recent memory that have bucked that trend (and they have the precise opposite problem).
Game looks good but I do worry about the future of Hitman. I agree with some of the conspiracy theories that Hitman WoA was a test bed for 007.
Glad they have actual action/ car sequences (imho required for Bond) but so much of the stealth is Hitman. Hope future interviews with IOI directly and continually ask that question: with 007 having many parrallels with Hitman, does Hitman have a future with IOI? Did you folks just “trade up?”
Hope folks ask this. While I’m a fan of Bond, I’ve been a bigger fan of 47.
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As I wrote above, the footage of gameplay that they revealed gave me impression that this game will be just like Hitman, but a bit enhanced.
Like a 00747 of some kind.
So I guess we’ll get a chance to be busy while they working on a new actual Hitman.
At least those who’ll buy the game.
I doubt I’ll be in a first row though. Maybe at some point with a good discount
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