James Bond needs to earn the number, but 007 First Light doesn’t miss. Over 1.5 million copies sold in 24 hours and an 87% score on Metacritic signify that this Bond game is a bona fide crowd-pleaser. There shouldn’t have been any doubts here, though, especially since IO Interactive delivered the sensational Hitman trilogy before tackling 007.
Of course, Bond has been in the news cycle for a while now, especially since Daniel Craig retired from the role and Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve was confirmed to be tackling the reboot for Amazon MGM. Since then, the rumor mill has been in overdrive with seemingly everybody being confirmed for the part by bookies every couple of weeks. Seriously, one day it’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson, then it’s Callum Turner or Jacob Elordi. It’s surprising that Zendaya’s name hasn’t come up as a contender yet.
What remains clear, however, is that 007 First Light demonstrates the right template for the franchise’s next chapter. In fact, how many fans would be upset if Villeneuve didn’t just take the cast and story assembled for the game and translate it to the big screen? If you’re a Bond fan, this should be what you want to see next.
Let’s be real here for a second: Does anybody need another rebooted rehash of what’s been done before? Do we need to see an already established Bond facing off against threats already defeated over the film franchise’s 60-plus-year history? If you’re going to do a new Bond, do something different; don’t just remake the same thing over and over again with a new actor.
007 First Light provides a fresh, modern insight into the 26-year-old Bond (as portrayed by Dexter: Original Sin‘s Patrick Gibson) as a character. It showcases how he comes to be an MI6 agent, as well as how it isn’t an easy road for him. He meets other cadets, who start off as rivals, then turn into best friends. Even Bond himself isn’t so sure that this is the career for him, but he perseveres with his trademark charm and confidence to convince even his most ardent doubters, such as John Greenway (Lennie James).
What stands out most about Bond in 007 First Light is the character development. Yes, he’s still a ladies’ man and all-round rebel, but the narrative digs deeper into his personality and what drives him to do what he does. This is someone who wants to do the right thing even when the bureaucrats tell him to stand down and the odds are firmly against him. There are elements of that in all the films, but there are pivotal events in the video game that deeply affect him and give rhyme and reason to his behavior.
Speaking to Deadline, IO’s narrative director Martin Emborg confirmed this was the intent from the get-go, since the previous games hadn’t really focused on Bond as a person. “I find that most of the games before, they tended to synthesize the character of James Bond and stay on some of those surface-level qualities like, well, he drinks a martini, and he wears a tuxedo and has a woman on his arm,” Emborg said.
“To some extent that misses the point a little bit because there’s more to him than that. And so, we’ve tried to really make this [game] a character study of what are the makings of a young man that can become 007 and what will that journey look like? So, we start by putting him through hell to reveal his core qualities.”
007 First Light succeeds here, knowing how to create a compelling protagonist you can get behind. It’s about him cementing the values that mean something to him as he enters the dangerous world of espionage, where the lines of morality are often blurred.
The Bond film franchise doesn’t need to reset the clock and go back to the same point. Instead, it’s time to go back right to the start – the beginning of the story. Let’s discover who Bond is before he becomes 007. Let’s see him earn the number, because that’s a fascinating journey in its own right. Show us the man before he becomes the most famous spy in the world.
