007: First Light seems, to my mind, to be the first true origin story for James Bond that we’re seeing beamed onto a TV. Sure, there’s the Young Bond novels from the early 2000s, but even Daniel Craig’s Casino Royale is less of an origin and more of a “this is when he got his 00 promotion” kind of a story. In First Light, Bond is still an up and coming agent, he’s having to work as part of a team, taking orders for more menials roles on a mission… but would you believe he’s also a bit of a loose cannon? The kind of character to go off mission and break a few rules to get the job done?
But as much as Bond’s reputation and character precedes him, so too does a sense of what he has to look like. Through the decades, each film actor has drawn varying degrees of controversy and appreciation, and the same is true for 007: First Light. Franchise Art Director Rasmus Poulsen told us, “You know, we looked at the IP from afar and we looked at the character from afar. That means we looked at everything from games, movies, all the way back to the books, and specifically the books, to get the real inspiration of who this guy is and what he looks like.
“So Fleming’s description – obviously, we have the scar here, which is amazing for us too, to get to play with – that was really the foundational inspiration for him as a character, including his looks and everything like that. One of the descriptions is about the coldness of his eyes. I’m not sure I recall [the quote] exactly, but that means to us that he shouldn’t be too pretty. There has to be some sort of dualism to his appearance. But as I said, we based it on the IP zoomed out, but the core values from books and seen through the movies.”
The gameplay reveal opens with an assembly of MI6 agents going up against, not an external threat, but one of their own. 009 has gone about as rogue as an upside down Sean Bean, and he knows every trick in the MI6 playbook. Still, now’s the time to try and intercept him, as they’ve got word that he’s holding a covert meeting at a glitzy chess tournament. Bond, then… well Bond gets to be the chauffeur and cover a potential escape route, while the rest of the team sneak inside and try to get the drop on 009. He’s still quite far from being a double-oh…
Speaking about this characterisation, Rasmus said, “It was always our intent to do a standalone origin story for a young Bond, because it really allows us to make a Bond that we feel better aligns with the audience. So of course, we’re doing games and it’s really important for us to enjoy the unique opportunities that we have both to dive into the character, but also to give you guys gameplay that fits.
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So the wonderful opportunity is that you learn on the job with Bond, right? So you two grow together throughout the story of the game. In that sense, it was it felt like the only option for us. It felt so obvious that we have to do this. ”
So, Bond’s maybe a bit of a dogsbody to start with, but that immediately puts him behind the wheel to provide something completely new for an IO Interactive caper: driving. Sure, it’s not the most thrilling job being directed to drop off Bond’s colleagues and then head round back to the parking lot, but once the mission goes completely off the rails, the driving gets to be much faster and more action-packed. This is a major change of pace for IO on pretty much every level.
“We’re not known for driving games,” Rasmus said, “So with that in mind, we had to bring on board specialist skill sets to the team to really help us do that, people with experience in that arena, and that was simply necessary for us to be able to believe that we could pull it off.
And with that said, the good thing about it is when the car dynamics have been set up correctly, the car becomes a toy in itself. Once you nail the handling of the vehicle, it keeps on giving. I think, once you can say that about many of the game mechanics, but in particular, the car is a physics object, if you will, that you can manipulate on the fly. That is one of those technical setups that just gives an experience instantly, even without gameplay. Even without rules, it’s a toy.
So with that in mind, I think the integration of the car gameplay in the game has been massively challenging, massively daunting, but something we’ve approached with with great care and I’m happy to say that I think it’s in some amazing parts of the game. I’m really excited, and I love driving games, so it’s been very good.
It certainly looks and feels like a narrative-led car chase, with 009 always kept out of reach up until the car crash that’s conveniently close to an air strip where he can make his second escape attempt.
But let’s come back to the chess tournament a moment, and an evolution of the stealth action gameplay when compared to Hitman: World of Assassination. Bond’s trying to tail a suspicious bellhop, but has to skirt past security  Bond is following a suspicious looking bellhop, ditching his station and defying orders in the process, but can’t get into the main building without accreditation. Looking around the area presents a few clear opportunities: a drainpipe to clamber up to reach an open window, plenty of other staff, press and more who you could maybe steal accreditation from, a bunch of dry leaves that could cause a distraction, if only you could find a lighter…
Rasmus admitted, “Obviously, there is a lot of common ground, and we enjoyed reading the internet’s opinions on that, a while back as well, and so obviously a lot of common ground in the sense that a lot of the gameplay interaction is similar to what we’ve done in the past, right? The creative approach element that we’re focussing on here, which is the primary gameplay pillar, is certainly present, which means everything from manipulation, charm, combat, all the way through driving.”
And then there’s the gadgets. As Bond wanders through some familiar feeling crowd, evading both colleagues and security, the Q watch helps to provide an overlay to the environment, analysing the environment and presenting opportunities that you could take advantage of to get through the mission. Here’s we see some of the partnerships and iconic branding of the films filtering through.
“We knew we had to do something fun with gadgets. But the cool thing about that is when designing the game, it’s not so much about the gadget as it is about the environment of the world and situation, telling you what it needs now. What would a superpower be here in this situation? And then from there, rework locations and get this together to build a fabric of opportunities and gardgets that allow those opportunities. […]
“It’s funny to discuss both internally and with Omega clarity and readability, because if you’re doing an instrument, readability is key. Of course, our instrument is the game, and not time-telling. So that has been a really fun collaboration there, basing it on Omega design cues, but of course, customised to what the game needs, what clarity do you need as a player to understand how to manipulate the world and how to do that effectively and quickly.”
These brands are going to be wrapped up, in a way, by Q and all the gadgetry he builds at his lab. I’m hoping Q’s been working on some rocket-loaded plaster casts and booby-trapped phone boxes.
It was at this point that the presentation skips ahead to the car chase, things having gone a bit awry, and with Bond partnering with a foreign agency’s operative on-the-fly. Leading to the airfield, what follows is a big and explosive action set piece. Bond, per agency rules, can only shoot to kill if actively threatened, but once combat kicks off, there’s no stopping him. A plane is about to take off, and there’s plenty of big barrels and fuel containers to shoot at to battle past the gun-toting goons.
Haring after the plane, we get something that’s various parts The Living Daylights, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Uncharted 3 – arguably the latter two would have been inspired by the former. The fight on the plane goes wrong, Bond ends up freefalling and, funnily enough, the most pressing objective changes to trying to find a parachute…
Through it all, you can see IO Interactive’s experience with Hitman coming through. Just as I had expected when this licensing partnership was announced, there’s so much common ground with things like the crowd system, having open and secure areas, blending this familiar ground with more fluid movement, suave interactions and new gameplay. A bit like getting a new kitchen installed, the underlying cabinets are still built using the same materials, but there’s a fancy kitchen island for the cooker and the fridge is hiding behind a cabinet door. That’s far from a bad thing, as it plays to IO’s strengths while letting them broaden their horizons.
