What is 007 First Light?
007 First Light is an espionage action-adventure shooter from IO Interactive that rewinds the clock to show James Bond before he becomes a legend. Instead of a polished, seasoned agent, you play a young, resourceful, and occasionally reckless recruit trying to survive MI6’s demanding 00 training program. It’s a spy origin story wrapped around a conspiracy that pulls Bond from a shattered mission in Iceland to a showdown beneath MI6 itself.
Getting started
At its core, 007 First Light is a shooter with adventure pacing: you move through story-driven missions, fight through enemies, and piece together a larger conspiracy. Because you begin as a trainee, the early hours double as a tutorial. Work through the training period and the Iceland operation carefully — they teach you the rhythm of combat and investigation before the danger escalates in Slovakia.
Keep a few habits from the start. Follow your objectives closely, since the plot hinges on details like the THEIA supercomputer’s failures and Webb’s cover-up. Explore the environments you pass through, because the story rewards attention. And remember that Bond is often outnumbered, so treat each firefight as a problem to solve rather than a chance to spray bullets.
Tips for beginners
- Stealth beats heroics. Bond is one agent against many. When you can, thin out enemies quietly or slip past them before a fight starts.
- Use cover and keep moving. Standing still in the open is a quick way to get pinned down. Move between cover and reposition to control the fight.
- Pay attention to the story. The conspiracy — Webb, THEIA, the stolen MI6 data — drives everything. Knowing what you’re chasing makes every mission clearer.
- Treat the early game as training. The recruitment and training sections teach the basics. Skipping through them costs you later.
- Adapt to each location. Iceland, the Antarctic base, and the tunnels beneath MI6 demand different approaches: open engagement, quiet infiltration, and close-quarters combat.
- Complete objectives methodically. Rushing through an espionage game usually means missing context or getting cornered.
- Expect to go rogue. The story pushes Bond outside MI6’s rules, so be ready for missions that ask you to improvise rather than follow a clean plan.
Is it worth playing?
Yes, if you want a Bond story you haven’t seen before. The trainee-to-00 arc is a genuinely fresh angle on the character, and IO Interactive’s pedigree shows in how the action and espionage flow together. It’s not a flawless spy sandbox — at a review score of 80.7 it’s solid rather than revolutionary — but for shooter fans who enjoy story, and for Bond fans curious about the origin, 007 First Light delivers a sharp, entertaining ride.