007: First Light [Review]

It is hard not to feel like a superhero while playing single player videogames, as if nothing could stop me -- because it is often the case, and while that's true for 007: First Light's gameplay, its story and characters were impressively human, with fun and well crafted dialogue that made this younger and inexperienced James Bond instantly endearing.

I think that what impressed me the most is the first act of the game. IO Interactive did a great job in introducing all these characters, including James, and making it movie-like: easy to feel attached to them even in a short amount of time. With a breathtaking montage that pushes the boundaries of how action games tell a story, 007: First Light mixes gameplay with narrative in a way that I've barely seen before in this first act.

James is a new guy at MI6, the secret intelligence service of the United Kingdom. The "double-oh" (00) program has restarted and the company is trying to find and train the next generation of super spies. Unlike his peers, James doesn't exactly follow protocol, nor comes from a rich or relevant background. That gives an opportunity for the agency to have a wildcard and for me to be introduced to the quirky world of 007.

Although story heavy, IO Interactive could very well balance gameplay and narrative in fun and unexpected ways. The first "big mission" is where the game actually shows its teeth and inspirations: the chapters often contain a small sandbox area where James can go around gathering information and then leave to the player how to continue the mission. It is a formula similar to IO's modern Hitman series, and while not as sprawling, it very well adds some agency on how the story unfolds, and made James that more believable as a spy.

In these sandbox moments, violence is actually not an option, and what remains is social engineering and clever escapes. James also has a series of quirks accessible through his watch that he can use to make people sick, briefly blind them, hack the environment and other things. It is fun, but I wish it had more options or even upgrade paths to them, to make these said tools more specific to my playstyle. The sandboxes are undeniably bigger in first two thirds of the games as well, and some solutions can be repeated without much thought, too, but they were always fun and special.

The peaceful investigative moments are strikingly opposed to the fast paced combat of First Light. Both the armed and unarmed combat are fast, and there are many interesting ways to even mix them. The game feels very fluid, with options to disarm opponents and interact with the environment to attack them. The combat is very punchy, and James's life is not that big, so it was common for me to die in many combat encounters, which was fun and made me think of different approaches. James can throw empty guns at enemies, tackle them, and the hand-to-hand combat even has some timed input commands and grabs. It is good stuff.

The sections of the game that I wasn't that keen were the ones with vehicles. It is often nothing much, a product placement for a car company and that's that. There are exceptions on more explosive chapters, but it is often just a pretty, linear moment that doesn't add much. The game also suggest to have a constant internet connection that would "enhance gameplay", but honestly, it only brought problems like the disconnects that can happen from time to time and absolutely tanks some sections when it happens.

007 often has iconic music behind it, and while I wasn't a fan of the music in the opening, most of the soundtrack is good, but definitely the most derivative part of a game that otherwise is so fresh. At the same time that the most iconic tracks weren't that present, the new ones weren't that memorable.

Apart from the main story, there are some side modes to be played with more "structured" challenges with leaderbords and interesting twists, these are the Tactical Simulations and Operations. Some are better than others, there are 5 TacSim and 3 Operations as of writing, but they often repeat stages and are more of a time killer than a reason to actually play the game, with no real rewards other than scores.

While the first two acts of the game are poignant and subversive, with interesting questions and developments that defies the status quo of this universe, I do think that the game drops the ball a bit in the end and couldn't really be that revolutionary. Also, there are character who were severely underused, like Bawma and Theresa. Still, the core relationship of the game is very touching and believable, and I was really impressed by this game's dialogue and pacing.

First Light cleverly uses all sorts of mini-games throughout its campaign to make the world more believable, and it works almost every damn time, even if they rely too much on QTEs. It really does feel that the developers were trying to make each and every chapter unique, even if that sacrifices some of the more freeing sections on the latter part of the game. Still, it is impossible not to have fun here, the cast is great and the story, enthralling, with great armed and unarmed combat and investigation sections.

007: First Light successfully blends narrative and action, with memorable characters, believable environments and great action. Some issues rarely breaks its brilliance, but overall, it is great.

9/10