007: First Light Review – PS5 Pro

It has been an agonising fourteen years since James Bond has graced our screens in a digital format, and it has certainly been worth the wait.

While we have reviewed plenty of fast-paced, licensed titles recently, none have carried the sheer weight of expectation as IO Interactive’s latest project. 007: First Light is the highly anticipated, AAA standalone return of the world’s most famous secret agent.

Rather than merely letting you control a fully formed super-spy, IO Interactive has crafted an immersive, meticulous action-adventure that makes you truly earn the mantle. The game leverages the strengths of the developer’s supercharged Glacier engine (specifically its vast open playgrounds and reams of people milling about) to deliver a breathtaking cinematic experience.

Demonstrably obsessed with bringing the Bond fantasy to life in a way no game has ever managed before, the studio behind the Hitman franchise has delivered the James Bond origin story we have all been longing for. Read our review to find out what makes this incarnation so special!

Story

007: First Light is so compelling because of its bold, original narrative.

Drawing deep inspiration from Ian Fleming’s original novels and short stories, the game avoids rehashing cinematic plotlines. Instead, rising star Patrick Gibson takes on the role of a 26-year-old, slightly frayed, and inexperienced James Bond. He is a promising, if reckless, military naval officer freshly recruited into MI6’s rigorous training for the resurrected ‘double-0’ Programme.

The pacing is exquisitely handled, kicking off with an explosive opening in Iceland. Acting as a Navy aircrewman, Bond finds himself the sole survivor after a Special Air Service team is ambushed during a retrieval operation. Defying direct orders from his MI6 handler, he infiltrates a mercenary-occupied research camp studying a crashed satellite. By rescuing captive scientists and remotely detonating the facility, Bond secures the mission’s objective and sets his globe-trotting ascent in motion.

Gibson’s performance deserves praise, striking a blinding balance that makes this younger Bond vulnerable, resourceful, and fiercely intense. He is backed by a phenomenal supporting cast that elevates the writing at every turn. From Lennie James playing his strict, reluctant mentor and former 00 agent, John Greenway, to Priyanga Burford stepping into the commanding role of M, and Alastair Mackenzie taking on the mantle of Q, everyone feels perfectly up for the role of taking a well-trodden tale in an exciting and fresh direction.

The plot of First Light quickly turns into a high-stakes espionage thriller. When Bond tracks a rogue agent to Mauritania, the trail leads him and Greenway straight into the clutches of Bawma, a flamboyant pirate king and arms dealer, portrayed brilliantly by Lenny Kravitz. The narrative takes a dark, compelling turn when MI6 is forced to compromise its integrity due to high-profile outside forces, and the stakes naturally become global by its pulse-pounding climax.

As a massive fan of the playful Pierce Brosnan era and the overblown theatrics of 2004’s Everything or Nothing, this more grounded, raw and engaging storyline quickly became a new personal favourite, with a compelling tale over its healthy 15-plus hour playtime.

I am eager to steer clear of spoilers, as some of First Light’s twists and turns are best experienced cold, but the highest praise is that one comes away from playing this great entry in the Bond universe feeling as though you’ve seen a great instalment of the decades-long series.

It is a really well-told tale that stands up well against the best of Fleming’s efforts.

Gameplay

There was a worry that IO Interactive would simply give us Hitman in a tuxedo. However, 007: First Light is a completely different, much more dynamic beast. Played from a third-person perspective, it blends patient stealth with cinematic momentum and fluid melee combat.

The combat loop is governed by a fascinating, nuanced mechanic: the “Licence to Kill” system. Bond is initially restricted to non-lethal means of combat, such as sneaking about, choking out guards, and using the environment to his advantage. However, when an enemy shows deadly intent and the situation escalates, Bond is dynamically granted his licence to kill, permitting the use of lethal firearms.

This ensures that shooting unarmed guards is off the table, making every encounter feel crunchy, dangerous, and morally grounded in the character’s lore. It also provides a dynamism that ensures you cannot just bundle away an entire chateau’s worth of security with indiscriminate blasting, which is certainly not the British way.

Where the game truly shines is in its spycraft elements, giving flexibility to playstyle whilst keeping things entirely 007. Rather than just relying on fisticuffs, Bond can use the brilliantly designed bluff ability.

Powered by a meter that fills as you complete objectives and take action, this allows Bond to walk straight out in front of enemies and talk his way past them, provided they are susceptible. You can even feign surrender to draw enemies in close before turning the tables. It is a fantastic roleplaying device that perfectly encapsulates Bond’s legendary charisma, even if it is another Hitman hallmark repurposed to great effect in this context.

On the tech side, Q-Branch has equipped you well. Your central tool is the Watch, which is a heavily modified Omega Seamaster Diver 300M Chronograph.

Not content with making the whole selection experience feel like browsing a Mappin and Webb (an awesome tribute to the wristwear of Bonds past), it can also hack a whole host of electronics.

You can overload printers or TVs to electrocute targets, turn on air conditioners to blanket rooms in obscuring smoke, or use radios to lure guards into traps. Field operations are further elevated with Leica camera optics and thrilling vehicle sequences, including getting behind the wheel of a gadget-loaded Aston Martin Valhalla.

The insane levels of product placement the movies are known for are just as present and correct in this incarnation, only heightening the feel of playing a true Bond adventure.

The game makes no bones about truly immersing the player in every aspect, however mundane on its face, of Bond’s transition into MI6, but special praise has to go to the tutorial section where James catches up with the recruits in sunny Malta.

Being late to the party, both Bond and the player are thrown into the deep end, where cinematic smash cuts teach everything from fighting to driving and shooting mechanics in quick succession and seamless fashion. The experience of learning on the fly and quickly gaining your bearings, just like James, is nothing short of incredible.

You are sprinting towards your sparring partners for another round one second, and pulling handbrake turns to shave sections off your stunt driving the next. It is an impressive marriage of gameplay styles and story, and the cinematic framing of the sequence is carried throughout the entire game.

Controls are slightly convoluted due to the sheer variety of ways you can approach a situation, and NPCs in these kinds of clockwork games can glitch out as is often the way. Still, the wide-linear nature of the maps, the sheer variety of gameplay from driving to shooting and even some RPG-lite dialogue options, and the way that First Light caters to an array of playstyles (with merits for replaying levels in different ways to highlight this) make for an entirely impressive flow.

The DualSense controller further heightens this immersion, using brilliant haptic feedback to simulate the crunch of gravel under the Valhalla’s tyres and the distinct trigger resistance of the Walther PPK.

Audio

The audio landscape in First Light is nothing short of sensational, doing incredible work to sell the cinematic illusion. The main score is composed by musical duo The Flight, perfectly capturing the sweeping, orchestral swells synonymous with the franchise while weaving in modern, synth-heavy tension for the stealth sections.

IO Interactive also made the brilliant decision to bring in contemporary electronic acts for key moments. Superstar DJ Dimitri Vegas and drum and bass duo Chase & Status inject incredible energy into the game, most notably during a high-voltage club sequence that features original music and absolutely goes off.

It also wouldn’t be a Bond game without a suitably warbly title track (complete with psychedelic visuals), and none other than Lana Del Rey does the honours for the eponymous song, accompanied by David Arnold.

If there was any doubt about the legitimacy that IO was aiming for on this game being a true addition to the canon, those dulcet tones wash it away.

The sound design during combat is equally impressive; the crack of a silenced Walther, the heavy thud of a successful melee counter, and the environmental destruction all punch through the mix clearly, acting as the perfect audio accompaniment to some amazing visuals.

Performance

Running on the PS5 Pro, 007: First Light is a sheer technical marvel. IO Interactive’s proprietary Glacier engine has been supercharged to take full advantage of the console’s advanced hardware. The integration of Sony’s latest PSSR upscaling techniques ensures exceptional visual clarity, reducing shimmering and bringing out intricate environmental details.

The PS5 Pro delivers a stunning, uncompromised experience from the comfort of the sofa. Lighting, reflections, and architectural geometry are incredibly realistic, whilst characters are cut from the Uncharted cloth of being highly stylised, yet able to capture subtle nuances in facial expressions and behaviour. You do not feel pulled out of the story when watching a cutscene or working the room of a fancy gala; proper Bond stuff is elegantly rendered here.

The bustling markets feel genuinely crowded and alive, pushing the PS5 Pro to render dense, complex crowds without dropping a single frame. Nighttime sequences, particularly the snowy, storm-swept infiltration of the Antarctic observatory, are filled with dense volumetric fog and cinematic atmosphere that never compromise the game’s fluidity at a locked 60FPS, which is another great perk of the Pro hardware.

Aside from the occasional wonky physics glitch when a grenade sends a ragdoll flying awkwardly, the technical execution is pristine.

Verdict

IO Interactive faced the monumental task of reviving James Bond in gaming, establishing a fresh version of the character, and satisfying fans who demanded a perfect secret agent experience. 007: First Light succeeds on every single front. It seamlessly blends high-stakes action with sophisticated stealth, giving players the feeling of truly becoming Bond.

Furthermore, IO Interactive has confirmed a robust content roadmap, which includes new tactical simulation missions (enabling you to go through dedicated sections to grab high scores à la Hitman), a dedicated Photomode, new gadgets, and the return of some key characters from the main story, all adding much-needed replayability to the already-impressive package.

The PS5 Pro version is an incredible way to experience this masterpiece, offering flawless performance, gorgeous environmental detail, and incredibly smooth combat.

007: First Light will leave you both shaken and stirred in the best possible way.