007 First Light is undoubtedly the most ambitious video game in IO Interactive's history. It's far wider in cinematic scale than the Hitman series, and more foundationaly solid than other studio side-quests like Kane & Lynch and Mini Ninjas. If you're willing to disconnect GoldenEye 007 from 30 years of nostalgia, there's a compelling argument to be made for First Light being the best of the James Bond games – not to mention a step above other spy thrillers operating without the licence, Alpha Protocol and The Operative: No One Lives Forever.
It's an occasionally excellent, albeit somewhat uneven, adventure. A slickly produced thriller that brings the best elements of a bygone era of action games together with one of the most challenging IPs in the world. You get a lot of the linear, blockbuster spectacle of the Uncharted series as Bond scrambles through firefights and wheels around lush locales in exotic supercars. There's a bit of the Sleeping Dogs lineage in the improvisational melee combat, as fists and feet connect with metronomic precision. A smattering of Hitman in a handful of showpiece missions, where you've free rein to wield gadgets, stealth, and social influence to burrow behind enemy lines.
