For games like this, I wish Steam had a "Mixed" option.

As a product, 007 First Light is perfectly fine. I can't honestly call it a bad game. It's gorgeous, technically impressive, and the budget is visible in every aspect of the presentation.

At the same time, this game is the embodiment of everything that makes me roll my eyes at modern AAA game design.

- The combat looks great, but it gets repetitive very quickly. What you see after the first few hours is pretty much what you'll be doing until the credits roll
- Enemy AI is shockingly dumb. During larger fights, it's not uncommon to see enemies simply stand around doing nothing while their friends are actively shooting at you or shouting "HE'S RELOADING, LET'S GET HIM" and remaining to stand still
- The "open" levels have almost no depth. Nearly all of them follow the same formula: overhear a conversation, follow the marker, press the interaction button, move on
- The "linear" levels are basically "hold forward and follow the yellow paint."
- Bond constantly talks to himself to explain what he needs to do next, apparently because the player can't be trusted to figure it out
- Your sidekick in the earpiece feels the need to tell Bond to "focus" ten times per mission, just in case you forgot you're playing a video game
- There are far too many boring, lazy quick-time events
- The puzzles feel like pure time-wasting filler. "The gate is closed. Climb the ladder marked with a giant icon, pull the lever, climb another ladder, pull another lever, go back to the car." Riveting stuff
- The game tricks you into choosing dialogue options under pressure but they don't matter at all, they lead to the same outcome no matter what you choose

The story is fine. Not good, not bad. I'll probably forget most of it within a few months, but I had some fun.

If you're the type of person who enjoys action movies like John Wick, you'll probably have a good time. If you're looking for any meaningful gameplay depth, you're likely going to bounce off it hard.

I pushed through to the end, but if I have to choose between Recommended and Not Recommended, I'm going with Not Recommended.

What I genuinely don't understand is all the 9/10 scores. This game would work incredibly well as a movie. As a video game, though, I don't think it works nearly as well.

to be honest i was never interested in the 007 franchise and i haven’t even watched the movies, but i really enjoyed this game and thought it was great from beginning to end. the story is interesting, although it’s nothing particularly surprising or unforgettable, but the game itself is very good, especially the graphics, the beautiful locations and the combat. basically if you enjoy melee combat you’ll probably enjoy the game a lot, but if you’re expecting something heavily focused on firearms and shootouts or a stealth experience similar to hitman, you might end up disappointed. luckily for me i loved the combat and barely used guns even when i had the chance, because i thought it was really fun how you can deal with enemies, disarm them and use parts of the environment to stun them and cause chaos. it reminded me a little of the recent indiana jones game in that sense, but instead of carrying objects around to attack enemies, here the focus is more on thinking tactically about where to push and throw enemies in order to deal more damage, like smashing them through a glass wall, slamming their head into a fire extinguisher or throwing them into electrical equipment to shock them. the combat is more about observing your surroundings and finding ways to neutralize enemies through the environment rather than relying on weapons or items to kill them.

i say that mainly because guns have very little ammunition. if you choose to rely on firearms, you constantly need to switch weapons, taking one from an enemy to kill the next and then repeating the process over and over, because ammo runs out so quickly that it often doesn’t even feel worth using guns most of the time. especially because melee combat feels much more effective and faster, you can simply run at enemies, attack them and push them around instead of searching for a weapon, firing a few shots, running out of ammo and then scrambling for another gun while hiding behind cover so you don’t get killed by enemy fire. this isn’t the kind of game where you can just mow down everyone in sight, because you barely start shooting before you’re already out of bullets. stealth isn’t really the main focus either, so don’t expect to always have a silencer or be able to constantly swap outfits and use disguises like in hitman. instead the stealth options are fairly limited, mostly revolving around a few gadgets and a bluff system where, depending on the situation, if someone catches you, you can try to talk your way out of suspicion for a few seconds before slipping away again. the gadgets are cool, but they tend to be more useful for puzzles than combat, usually helping you reach certain areas, open doors, hack devices or briefly stun enemies. there are a few more offensive gadgets, but nothing that really replaces the melee combat, which is clearly the core of the game.

as for the campaign itself, it’s really enjoyable and fairly linear. there isn’t a lot of freedom when it comes to exploration, but the game takes you through many different locations with a nice variety of environments and atmosphere. the length feels just right, around 10-15 hours, and each chapter is generally built around three main elements: there’s always a narrative section with cutscenes and character interactions, an exploration section with simple puzzles where you need to figure out how to reach a certain location using gadgets, studying the environment, talking to people or eavesdropping on conversations to gather clues, and finally a combat section where you enter medium sized areas filled with patrolling enemies that can be approached either through direct action or stealth depending on your preference and the opportunities you find. the game follows this structure from beginning to end, but it still includes some creative and memorable moments, such as boss fights that require different strategies and encourage you to pay attention to the environment, gadgets and hackable devices that can be used against stronger enemies like robots or heavily armored opponents. overall i enjoyed the game quite a lot, although i can’t really say whether longtime fans of the franchise will feel the same way. i just think it’s important to point out that this is a game far more focused on storytelling and melee combat than anything else, even if it gives you the option to approach situations with stealth or firearms. in the end it all depends on your patience and which style of gameplay you enjoy the most.

IOInteractive is known for creating huge living and breathing sandbox maps, that have so many interactions and opportunities that it's a borderline simulation.

You'd think they would play into their strengths but with enhanced action on top.

Everyone who heard that IOI is making James Bond game thought they're a perfect fit because latest Hitman is pretty much a James Bond game.

But it turns out they just wanted to make a carbon copy of Uncharted.
(Didn't even realise at first how similar Bond looks compared to Nathan Drake too. Both in design and character.)

We were told there will be huge sandbox sequences in-between action and I didn't really buy that, well, simply because they never showed those. It's all small, linear, non-interactive, "follow the green adventure marker".
You choose to follow green marker A or green marker B.

You didn't come up with the solution to the level, it was spelled out to you and shown on screen, in case you didn't hear. You didn't do anything to be honest except press buttons when you're allowed until the next cutscene plays out. You can't be creative like you could be in their previous games.

All your tools never attract unwanted attention, you can use them only on specific NPCs, there is no way to fail social stealth, you can't interact with anything if you're being watched, there is no way for things to get out of hand unless the story requires it. You're NOT allowed to fail in this game. You're only allowed to do what the script says.

Even the whole idea that you can finish sequences going guns blazing or stealthily is false because you can shoot your gun ONLY when you get the "license to kill".

The game doesn't adapt dynamically to your actions like IOI usually presents their gameplay. You're not free to play, the camera constantly gets snatched from you to show what you're supposed to look at, you can't interact with the door unless you cleared the level, James randomly stops to tell something, to look at something, to enter another cutscene.

It's funny because Hitman Season 3 already perfected how to weave story bits into gameplay without constantly relying on cutscenes.

I often felt like First Light should just show a cutscene of what happened if it's going to play itself every 2 minutes. There are so many walk&talk interruptions it's baffling.

"But it's a story focused game!"

Uncharted, that they copied from head to toe, had insanely enjoyable movement, you could spend time just walking and climbing stuff, character interactions were interesting too and scripts knew how to surprise you.
Here the constant interruptions just rip the fun part out of the game. Which is combat, the bluff system, destruction.

The game has very destructible environment but you never really think about how to use it to your advatage because your advatage is just spamming buttons or headshot everyone from the cover.

AI is also no trouble at all, even on highest difficulty, enemies don't have eyes when you stealth, they don't hear noise of you beating everyone in the next room, they are very prone to button mashing in melee combat and it's a shame because combat has so many mechanics that neither you nor enemies don't use.

My friend, who doesn't play games at all, just spammed the sh*t out of the boss without getting hit once. On highest difficulty, mind you.

I was hoping we'd at least be able to replay the action parts in TacSim, this game's special mode, but no. It only has 6 "escalations" and 2 "operations" that all can be completed in under 1 hour.

This game honestly just makes me want to play either Hitman or Uncharted. Because what this game tries to do is miles better in those games. So I just don't get why 007: First Light exists in this form.

Behind all this exciting charade of constantly changing beautiful locations and explosions is just, honestly, a lame, linear game that doesn't try to do anything but has some nice ideas.

And you can't even play it because every time you get slapped on the wrist and told: no, it's time to slowly walk and watch cutscene.

As someone said:
"I'm convinced that the average gamer just wants to watch TV"