What is 007 First Light?
007 First Light is IO Interactive’s origin story for James Bond: a story-driven espionage action-adventure where you play a young, resourceful, and occasionally reckless MI6 recruit rather than the finished superspy. It blends third-person shooting with stealth, investigation, and cinematic set-pieces across Iceland, Slovakia, and even an Antarctic base. This is the studio’s take on how the world’s most famous spy earned the 007 designation.
Getting started
Bond’s journey opens in Iceland, where a retrieval operation goes catastrophically wrong — both helicopters are shot down, and only trainee aircrewman Bond survives. His defiant rescue of captive scientists gets him noticed, and MI6 pulls him into the revitalized 00 program. Treat this opening as your tutorial: it teaches movement, cover shooting, and basic interaction prompts without punishing mistakes.
After training, an ambush by a rogue agent’s assassins in Slovakia raises the stakes and the game opens up. You investigate a conspiracy around Sir Nicholas Webb, an AI pioneer whose quantum supercomputer THEIA keeps making fatal errors — errors Webb covers up through terrorism. When Webb uses stolen MI6 data to buy immunity, Bond goes rogue with thief Isola Vale to infiltrate Webb’s Antarctic base and destroy his replacement AI, HYPERION.
Your first priority is to learn the game’s two rhythms: quiet infiltration and loud gunplay. Most encounters reward patience. Scan the environment, use cover, and only shoot when a fight is truly unavoidable.
Tips for beginners
- Take the Iceland prologue seriously. It’s your only low-stakes space to learn controls, cover, and interaction prompts before Slovakia punishes sloppy play.
- Make stealth the default. Approach objectives quietly first; combat should be your fallback, not your opener.
- Read the mission briefings. The Webb and THEIA conspiracy unfolds through dialogue and documents — skip them and later objectives feel random.
- Use cover constantly. Third-person shooters punish standing in the open. Peek, fire, reposition.
- Learn enemy patrols. Watch patterns before acting; one alerted guard can cascade into a full firefight.
- Mix gadgets and gunplay. A shooter-adventure gives you tools beyond the trigger — use them to avoid fights you can’t win head-on.
- Don’t rush the story. The origin beats — earning your 00 status, designating yourself 007 — land harder if you let the missions breathe.
Is it worth playing?
If you want a grounded, character-driven Bond who is still learning the job, yes. IO Interactive’s espionage pedigree shows in the stealth-shooter mix, and the Webb/THEIA conspiracy gives the campaign real momentum. It’s a solid, well-reviewed action-adventure (around 80 on aggregate) rather than a flawless one — combat and stealth won’t surprise genre veterans. But as an origin story for 007, it’s an easy recommendation for fans of spy fiction and stealth-action alike.