Full disclosure: I wasn't sold on 007 First Light when it was first revealed. "This looks like a reskinned Hitman," was my first thought. I wasn't planning on buying it. That's not because I'm not a James Bond fan. I grew up watching Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan on my dad's VHS tapes, and, as a teenager and an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed Daniel Craig's portrayal.
But the last few instalments have felt boring and stale, to me. I loved Skyfall, but Spectre and No Time To Die weren't my cup of tea. That's where my head was at when IO Interactive announced 007 First Light... and then the game opened to rave reviews from critics. At the time of writing, the game has a 88 on Metacritic, and is one of the frontrunners for 2026's Game of the Year.
Our Senior Entertainment Editor, Rory, gave the game a whopping 5/5 rating in his 007 First Light review, so I gave in and got the game to see what the hype was about. As someone who fell out of love with Bond's cinematic world, 007 First Light sucked me right back in. After completing it over a just few evenings, it feels like the perfect origin story, and one that's making me want to binge the movies.
Easter eggs done right
007 First Light, as the name suggests, is a prequel, and serves as James Bond's origin story. There's a lot of source material for the game to be inspired by and play with: 25 movies and 14 books written by Ian Fleming (and many other authorized continuation novels). It is then not surprising that 007 First Light packs plenty of easter eggs and callbacks for fans to enjoy.
I found myself pointing at the screen like Leo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood quite often. I played on my PS5 Slim, and anytime I unlocked an achievement, I clocked that the trophy names were inspired by the films or Bond's famous catchphrases: Shaken Not Stirred, From Malta with Love, and Casino Royale, off the top of my head.
In addition to those, collectables in the form of tarot (a reference to Live and Let Die) and playing cards (a reference to Bond playing them with his mother) were not just fun to stumble upon, but I actively looked for them to catch all the callbacks.
But what I love most about the game's Bond references is that they show up in chapter names and dialogues, too. Patrick Gibson's Bond is fresh out of training and isn't as seasoned as the movies' agent — and it shows. During a mission in Aleph, senior field agent John Greenway tells Bond to stop touching his ear because naturally, that gives away that he's wearing an earpiece. It's the same words Daniel Craig uses in Casino Royale, and hearing it made me chuckle.
There are many others to keep an ear out for and I don't want to spoil them for you. Where's the fun in that? All I'll say is that given how many easter eggs there are in 007 First Light, you'll be itching to watch the movies — either for the first or the ninth time. Seeing the opening sequence transitioning from a cutscene to Lana Del Rey's beautiful 'First Light' had me hooked on to the game, and it took 007 First Light from merely a game to a cinematic experience.
Not just a reskinned Hitman after all
As I alluded to earlier, knowing that IO Interactive had made the Hitman games felt like an instant turn off to me. Don't come at me just for saying I never liked the Hitman games — as someone who loves open-world RPGs, they just aren't my thing. But 007 First Light proved me wrong, and I'm so happy it did. It's a linear cinematic action-adventure with snappy on-the-fly combat and excellent mechanics.
And gadgets! If there's one thing the Bond franchise is known for, it's state-of-the-art, next-gen gadgets that help 007 succeed. 007 First Light implements gadgets extremely well. I loved visiting Q-Branch between missions — not just for the impeccable callbacks and to listen to the technicians talk about gadgets in cold storage.
Many things make 007 First Light different from Hitman, and my favorite of those is the Q-Watch (which you can actually buy, by the way). You can customize loadouts with gadgets like Shockwave Camera, Laser Strap and Smoke Pod. Through the Q-Watch and the Q-Lens which enables you to use said gadgets, I felt like a true spy on Bond's espionage missions.
A movie, but a game
I'm a sucker for a story-driven game — it's why I love games like Baldur's Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Of course, 007 First Light is nowhere near as long as either of those titles, and thing is, it doesn't have to be. I've heard people complaining about the 20-hour (tops) campaign, and I won't lie, I was a bit skeptical about it too.
But now that I've finished the game, I've realized that the game didn't need any more hours. It's an origin story, and it's a pretty darn good one. To me, 007 First Light embodies the spirit of a great two-hour Bond movie and spreads it over a 15- or 20-hour video game.
The combat is heaps of fun; the parkour feels smooth; the stealth mechanics feel polished; and jumping between the three during any mission makes for a versatile, quintessentially Bond experience. The love that I once felt for Bond movies has been reignited, and I'm looking forward to my second playthrough of 007 First Light already.
More from Tom's Guide
- 007 First Light is the best Bond game ever made — sorry, GoldenEye
- Exclusive: 007 First Light will be a 'completely new experience from the ground up' for Bond, says IO Interactive
- Detroit Become Human was way ahead of its time — I replayed it in 2026 to unlock every ending and it broke my AI skeptic mind
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