(Spoilers) 007 First Light Discussion Thread

[Fleur]

So after having spend around 30 hours with this thing, I feel good sharing my overall thoughts. Hitman will always be my favorite, and for that very reason, the thing I appreciate the most about First Light is how distinctly it is it’s own thing.

When I first played the opening missions, I was both surprised and impressed by the level of polish; minimal bugs, the story, the atmosphere, the graphics - everything is off the charts. The ambition with this thing really shines through, especially being conditioned by years of sometimes endearing, sometimes frustrating trademark IOI jank.

I was skeptical about the idea of a young Bond, but I really ended up liking Patrick Gibson’s portrayal. Confident, funny, charming and very independent minded. I liked the story too, especially where it went in the last 3rd of the game. The idea of the villains cleaning up and correcting for the mistakes of their supposedly perfect quantum computer is a really cool concept and very topical too. Perfect for a Bond story in 2026.

The ambition in terms of gameplay is wild too. It’s like multiple games in one, and First Light does everything really well. The social stealth is deep, there are always more options than you’d think (bluffing is an amazing feature), gadgets are fun and intuitive, the hand to hand system is deep and after a steep learning curve (especially as a first time PS5 player), I’m beginning to look forward to diving into close combat scenarios.

The shootouts are still hard for me (how anyone is good at aiming without mouse and keyboard is beyond me), but I love the brutal improvisationen nature of the fighting… throwing guns at enemies, kicking them up from the ground, shooting weapons out of their hands etc.

And I appreciate how they were going for something original with the shootouts. The low-ammo forces you to be creative and use gadgets, close combat, change weapons all the time. I’ve never really seen gunplay quite like this before.

Standout levels were the Carpathian Hotel, Vietnam and the Antarctic facility. I loved how they mixed up the gameplay with the creepy androids and the ball rolling in the Antarctic facility. Though I am a little sad that I knew the Hotel level so well from the gameplay trailer. It was really a highlight of the game, and it would have been even better, had I not known in inside out already. My own fault though. Time to reevaluate watching long gameplay previews for games I know I’m gonna buy. It made a difference.

Biggest critiques of the game:

• Locations got a tad too gamey at times. Too many office backrooms and grey corridors. The art direction of the level design is were IO really shined with WOA. Almost every location is distinct and feels novel and exciting to be in some way. Some locations had this (like the ones mentioned above), but it could have been more. I hope they take this to the next level with sequels.
• The pacing could have been a little better at times. The training sections stretched on too long (though presented in a cool way), the Webb skyscraper went on too long. Bond and Greenway’s puns on every little thing in the opening parts got a bit annoying too. I know they were trying to portray their relationship improving and Greenway warming to Bond, but it stretched on for too long. Also, the Antarctic facility felt like the real climax to the story and somehow the final MI6 showdown and the reappearance of Damian felt too bloated.

In terms of raw gameplay though, I do appreciate the length of the narrative. Took me 18 hours to complete the first time around - it felt like a lengthy campaign.

The more open areas in the hotel and in Vietnam really appealed to my inner Hitman fanboy of course. Nothing like strolling through an open sandbox-type social stealth arenas.

But it does in no way match a big Hitman sandbox. And I very happy with this.

This game let’s Hitman be Hitman.

007 First Light does other things really well, but it doesn’t play like Hitman. At the end of the day it’s just a way more linear experience but still super creative and open. I am happy that IO is seemingly finally having success with another franchise, and they are getting validation from this. This can only be good for future Hitman titles creatively.

WOA is already becoming a classic, but a fresh take on the franchise is needed and the gameplay loop feels predictable when new content is released.

So, having succes with a new franchise is hopefully gonna instill the confidence in IO to really take Hitman to the next level when the time is right.

[Swangtheugly]

Post Launch Story missions take place after First Lights Story.

The best way to put them is narratively in terms of Bond they’re bite sized stories that continue his adventures in vein of Flemmings Bond short stories The Living Daylights and OctoPussy and not full novels like From Russia with Love and Moonraker.

I’m all for it

[LandirtHome]

The fact Bond was called 007 in the trailer says it all.

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What I wonder is if IOI are “just” going to put bows on the story remaining strands.

Or if they are going to start diving into the spectre side of things they hinted at.
It would allow IOI to go back to the kind of writing they had in the first maps of H2016, Paris to Bangkok.

Seemingly separated stories, lived professionally and a bit detached by the protagonists, yet connections being shaped in the background, pattern emerging to the player, shadow client before his reveal.
Which were, to me, the best part of WoA.

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Speaking of future content:

The Glasses gadget can be found, and examined, on Q desk during Chapter 7.

[Silvereyes]

I’m a big Bond fan, and one who got to experience Bond’s PS2 era. Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, Everything or Nothing, From Russia With Love, all great games. (There was also Goldeneye: Rogue Agent, but we don’t talk about it.) Bond, whilst not being a “video game franchise” per se, I think shares the honour with a bunch of other franchises like Dragon Ball that has such a large number of video games and legacy in the video game space, it should be considered one.

Which is why the 14 year gap since 007 Legends has felt so noticable. Even more so with the long gaps between movies as well, games would often help fill the void inbetween releases, but without them, it meant many quiet years for the franchise lately, with only stuff like new books helping scratch the itch for new content.

At a bit of an opertune time too, between Bonds, with us still waiting to see how Amazon’s Bond 26 will look in terms of story, tone etc. I do think a problem Activision ran into was how to adapt Craig’s Bond to the video games, the more grounded nature of Craig’s first 2 films were not as fertile as the more over the top nature of the Brosnan era.

So IOI basically having carte blanche to create their own little Bond world, rather than having to do a movie tie-in has a range of possibilities. And I love the world of First Light. Patrick Gibson is wonderful in this. Genuinely, great at everything the role demands. If someone said that their favourite Bond was Patrick Gibson, over all the movie Bonds, I would absolutely believe them.

Solid MI6 cast, Q being a real favourite of mine. Can’t wait to see them get more screentime in the next game. Supporting cast was pretty good, even if the Webb villians were both pretty underwelming. Liked the concept, not a fan of the execution. (Stupid question, does Damian appear, unmasked, before the Webb gala? He really seems like he just comes out of nowhere.)

Honestly, I’m not too bothered by IOI wanting to keep the game supported. Like not to say that’s bad, but frankly, I’m happy to treat it as a nice solid single player experience. I’m not returning to the game every week just for a new escalation or what have you. Hoping the tease with Bawma will actually be a proper expansion pack, and not just reusing the levels from his area.

So yeah, great time, worth the wait, and plants the seeds for a potentially phenomenal follow up.

[Axwage]

A good video on game design by a game designer.

I Don’t Like 007 First Light's Level Design (and I'm Wrong) | Design Delve

[LandirtHome]

This is Dartmoor first floor floor plan in 009’s string board, right?

edit: checked in Hitman, it’s the “Mansion Floor Plan” intel item

[Axwage]

Nice catch!

There will surely soon be a dedicated thread to images of asset reuse, no? I’ve already seen some posts elsewhere online. I know I spent more than a few minutes across the game looking for a note to Alan somewhere.

[ewokbuilder]

So, finally beat it. Can someone please explain to me how Damien survived the fight in the mine?

[LandirtHome]

He was off-screen.

[magicdave94]

Has anybody completed the “All In” challenge in TacSim?
I can’t figure out how to get it to pop I’ve tried throwing/rushing/shoving people off the edge in Arctic Skies numerous times.

[Happy_Squirrel]

@magicdave94

in Arctic Skies

I believe this is your problem. ‘All In’ is a universal challenge for every TacSim level - not just Arctic Skies - and it entails doing the move where you charge into an enemy and rush over the ledge with them, using their body to break the fall.

For obvious reasons, this is impossible to complete on Arctic Skies. You’ll probably have most luck completing it on Level 2 of the Malta escalation. When you first enter the map, the guard who spawns right in front of you is a prime target for this. Then you just need one more after that, which is doable with a few different guards on the upper levels.

[magicdave94]

Hm okay so it has to be where you go over the ledge with them, I’ll try that thanks. It’s a bit confusing since the image certainly looks like Bond is throwing them into an abyss.

[Happy_Squirrel]

I agree, I find the language used by the game in relation to grabbing/throwing people for objectives & challenges is very unclear & confusing!

[Frost]

Yeah I struggled with this for a while, but on PlayStation if you hold R2 and move an enemy towards a gap, bond will push them and dive with them.

[Guillermo_Murillo]

Finished my second playthrough where I was getting all challenges and collectibles, thank god I ignored them on my first because this was exausting. Challenges boil down to “do this thing this way” and it gets old really fast. The checkpoint system makes it even more annoying because, if you fail, you’ll either have to die or restart the checkpoint altogether, which might set you back a good chunk of the level, the market in Mauritania was infuriating because of this. Also, you don’t get to choose gadgets when selecting a mission; there is a challenge in Antarctica where you have to use the proximity mine, to do it you have to do the entire mission from the begining, including the Q lab sequence that comes before, just because you need to equip the damn mine.

Another thing that bothered me was that the wording of some challenges was inconsistent, in the spanish localization at least, I don’t know if it’s the same in english. An example is in Vietnam, where there are two challenges that have the same description: “do this without getting detected”, however, one of them doesn’t allow you to KO or kill anyone, while the other does, but that information is never conveyed. This is strange comming from IO because Hitman challenges are very clear on what the requierements are, I don’t know what happened here?

Collectibles where fun, specially the legacy ones, but I also liked the intel, it’s a good way get to know the characters better without dumping a bunch of disruptive exposition in the story. Cards where annoying, they could be hard to spot sometimes.

Only thing missing is TacSim, I liked the escalations on WOA so hopefully this ones are good too.

[silvereaper]

Found the 007 game in fg series,certainly the classical golden eye not new first light.

[LandirtHome]

An untold success of the game is the completion rate.
The last story achievement For King and Country - Protect MI6 has a completion rate of

• 31% on XBOX
• 36% on PlayStation
• 42% on Steam

Which are excellent.

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Unrelated.
With the announced Bawma night Aleph bonus mission.

Do we think Bawma cargo hold, and more importantly the Jaguar Type 00 in his personal collection will get some use?
Also Neenee.

Something else.
As much as I expect the market, maybe even the intro market, to return, perhaps under another gameplay archetype than social.

Contrary to Hitman, 007 FL level design allows more for whole new segments, new bricks, new expansions of the location into new physical directions.

So I’m excited to see what IOI will do.
In addition to my curiosity on the pacing, tempo, escalations, the acts, the climax they will give to an individual story.

[silvereaper]

I think first light less replaybale than WOA.I didnt open it after going through 1st light 1st time.
P.S. I think it’s ridiculous that 007 has less freedom in gun using than 47.

[chuckmcgillgaming]

https://youtu.be/dGwPgLCDPpo?is=7RiEIhv7je4gRyct Kotti went on the EFAP podcast to talk about the game idk why and dont intend to watch it

[thrison]

I wonder if IO should’ve started releasing new Tac Sim content sooner to keep people engaged with the game… rn on Steam, it only has just more than double the number of people playing WoA.

iirc H2016 started up the live content straight away to hook people in from the very start. We’re now three weeks in and a lot of people have probably come in, finished the game and gone, since thats usually how things go with narrative driven single player games like this. I really can’t see this game having new content added for a long time - I really expect them to wrap it up sooner than they perhaps planned.