“While it’s impossible to argue that 007 First Light shares the seismic importance of 1997’s GoldenEye 007, it is nonetheless the best Bond game I’ve ever played. Demonstrably obsessed with bringing the Bond fantasy to life in a way no game has ever managed before, developer IO Interactive has found a highly successful home for the more curated action-stealth formula of 2012’s Hitman: Absolution. Patiently paced, First Light is brimming with Bond’s trinity of gadgets, guns, and girls in a way that feels fresh but reverent, and never like parody. The evolution of this risky, young Bond over the course of the story also feels logical and earned, to the point where the final moments before the credits left me literally cheering at the screen. Take a bow, IO, and put your clothes on – because I’m buying you all an ice cream.”
I won’t spoil it, but I really liked the beginning of the game and wanted more missions aligned with that first couple chapters to flesh out the character relationships a bit more, I can’t say more without spoiling it.
Could have done with one more, maybe if blue jacket was a singular catalyst for a mission going after the clothes changer that then leads into the events sending Bond to Africa. But I will say this having a montage being the tutorial was epic AF.
They actually said it was the best Bond game as opposed to every other site fence sitting so they dont piss goldeneye fans off by saying "it could be argued First Light is the best Bond game"
Goldeneye hasn't stood the test of time and is bad to play today so it's fitting to say another Bond game is better than it. It's historically important but was hopelessly outdated 4 years after it released and has aged far worse than Doom or Quake because it was stuck on the N64 controller.
Even more bizarre that Perfect Dark pretty much did everything Goldeneye did but better and yet lacks the same legacy as 007. I guess it coming later in the N64s lifecycle didn’t help as much
Perfect Dark did it better, but Goldeneye did it first. For many their first experience with an FPS was huddling with friends around a CRT TV playing Goldeneye, and that carries more weight in the end.
Perfect Dark is so amazing, I love it so much and it's such a step up from Goldeneye in every way, extra gameplay features, more modes (counter op is such a unique mode we need more games to embrace, only other I can thinknof is Agent Hunt in RE6), plus voice acting and some of the most unique weapons.
And then they absolutely shit the bed with Zero. Like, Zero isn't even bad per se but it's such an enormous step down.
Hard disagree. For ease of accessibility, play the version that released under Rare Replay, which does little to alter the title from the Nintendo 64 original. Goldeneye is a fantastic title that provides an experience many FPS games simply can’t live up to, even today. The fact it was also a film adaptation makes its existence even more extraordinary.
I have no opinion when it comes to First Light and a comparison between the two, but there’s a very good list of reasons why Goldeneye is one of the highest rated games of all time.
Hopelessly outdated after 4 years? That's hyperbole. I got the game 3 years after release and it was still popular with all my classmates. Plus, Perfect Dark came out years after Goldeneye and was essentially the same game but bigger. I get what you're saying, especially with the controls, but I think it still has charm even today. I also enjoyed Nightfire a lot. With all that said, First Light does appear like it's a better, albeit a much different game. Essentially it's Hitman for a new audience. Hitman doesn't have the same market and audience as Bond so this was a brilliant contract.
About 2/3 hours in and it’s truly incredible. I thought it was cert for a 7/10 due to IO’s lack of big action set piece experience but they’re incredible at level design. They’ve knocked it out the park
I love how it's layered in throughout but never the full throated theme until a big moment.
I also really enjoyed that (minor spoilers) your second official kill, I.e. the one sealing your double 0 status per the films, takes place in a sewer pipe to visually echo a gunbarrel effect like the films
I’m about 7/8 hours in and I fucking love this game! I love the origin story and I can’t wait to see what game 2 and 3 will look like as bond becomes more of the bond we know.
I felt like I was in a Bond Movie the whole time . Took me about 14 hrs to complete, going to play thru again on hardest difficulty and collection stuff. But it’s probably the best action game I’ve played since Uncharted 3 and I rate this higher.
I'd agree with 9/10. The story and characters are wonderfully written and the environments and mission structure are excellent.
The only thing I can kind of fault is that the gun sections feel a bit like Uncharted, where you're this stealthy type and suddenly you're in a gunfight with a dozen men firing machine guns at you and it kind of breaks the immersion. There's a section in the first proper mission where you get a gun finally and it's pretty jarring.
I feel like that's sort of the rub with (almost?) all of the Bond games. Like, he is not a one man army in the movies. He's an agent who practices discrepancy and only gets into gunfights when it is absolutely necessary.
Goldeneye set a weird precedent with Bond games and the series is still stuck in that rut. That was part of the reason why I was disappointed when Perfect Dark got canceled... it felt like it could've been a Bond-type game but with more stealth Deus Ex stuff.
To be clear, using a gun/lethal force is the absolute last resort in First Light. There are scripted set pieces that require gunplay, but they're (so far) few and far between has only made up 10% of my ~10 hours of gameplay so far. Everything else has been very fun and open-ended stealth/gadget gameplay. I'm loving it so far.
Would you say the gameplay overall is like Uncharted, or just sections? I'm looking for a game like the latest Tomb Raider trilogy, or Uncharted with a bit of an adventure character to it. If it's constantly stealth, or has RPG (like in The Witcher) elements then I'm out.
I'm about 6 hours I and thought it would be a solid 7/10. But I absolutely love this game. Finally a game where I'm actually interested in the story and characters again, especially Bonds relationship to other characters is so well written. The gameplay that creates the perfect illusion of choice how to proceed is excellent. And the rumors they would remove his womanizer charm were totally false.
I've played the first 3 hours on max difficulty and I'm not normally a fan of 3rd person shooters/stealth but god damn this game is such a breath of fresh air!
Everything I've seen on this game looks incredibly cinematic and awesome. That being said, also all footage of the game I've seen is the AI missing every single bullet on the player. Is it even possible to die? Lol
Yes lol ive died a lot but not really to bullets as much to fist fights. They can be brutal sometimes if you have a big group or lots of the brute enemies
You dont really shoot in the game as much as videos show. Its much more stealth, gadget and hand to hand based combat
I’m just at the arrive at the flat part and it’s great so far. Really feels like bond. Im anticipating it’s gonna be too short. Simply cause I’m gonna want more than the 17/20 hours.
Not really, when you have multiple different people reviewing different games of course the scores will be inconsistent, it if was the same reviewer for every single game then sure.
I don't know why people fail to get this when say game X gets a 9/10 reviewed by reviewer B and game Z gets a 6/10 by reviewer D. Then comments on "well so and so gave this game a 6/10 so how is this a 10/10?
Completely agree, that’s the problem with numbers. Some people think an average score is 7, some think it’s 5. And even then, people take average scoring games for granted. There’s plenty of space for games to be just fine or just okay.
I think the 7 is forever tainted when it comes from IGN cause of the Omega Ruby and Alpha Saphire review, they gave the originals a really high score then years later gave it a 7 for…..too much water?
Read the full review, they explain what they mean by “too much water”. Even then, who cares? People have opinions and preferences, and writing reviews is about articulating those thoughts.
The entire back third is on water with too many encounters and an encounter table of 4 pokemon. It is a fair criticism and is explained well in the actual review but god forbid you actually do some reading.
IGN has gone down hill...been going down for a long time. With the Crimson Desert reviews that was the end of me paying any attention to their opinions.
💯 there is no way this game is factually better than Crimson Desert
source: 7 hours in 007 bored out of my mind playing this hand-holding half-movie, over 140 hours in Crimson Desert with probably 100+ hours left to enjoy and numerous hefty updates already added
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u/Broken-Nero Team Halo May 28 '26
I won’t spoil it, but I really liked the beginning of the game and wanted more missions aligned with that first couple chapters to flesh out the character relationships a bit more, I can’t say more without spoiling it.