007 First Light Reviews
The James Bond saga could hardly have ended up in better hands. IO Interactive has crafted an adventure that perfectly captures the spirit of the 007 movies with an engaging story, stunning settings, and gameplay that's polished in every detail.
Review in Italian | Read full review
007 First Light is a great start to what will hopefully be a new series of games. There are certainly some areas to improve upon but what's here is a lot of fun and it does a great job of delivering a game that feels worthy of the franchise while setting the stage for more. 🍸
That said, the game is not without flaws—such as shiny heads and repetitive mission structures—but these are easily forgiven thanks to its other strengths.
Review in Dutch | Read full review
The rewrite of James Bond for a modern audience works, and is supported by a screenplay that respects Ian Fleming's mythology, refreshing the franchise without betraying its soul.
Review in Italian | Read full review
007 First Light is everything a Bond game should be, taking inspiration from the biggest hits with sharp dialogue, inventive gadgets, classic cars, satisfying stealth, a great cast, and huge action set pieces.
IO Interactive’s long-awaited James Bond origin story isn’t just the best 007 game ever made. It's one of the finest action games of the generation.
Overall, 007: First Light unfortunately turned out to be a merely middling game, saved from a 6 only by its cinematic feel, the acting performances, and the strong level design. That said, I hear a sequel is in the works, and the foundation on display here is by no means something you couldn't build on. If the developers ironed out the NPC AI, and focused on some other gameplay mechanic instead of the platformer-style hopping around, this series could still go a very long way.
Review in Unknown | Read full review
007 First Light is a confident, cinematic, mechanically varied and genuinely exciting Bond game that respects the franchise without being trapped by it. Most importantly, it made me believe in this new Bond. By the time he earns the number, it feels deserved. IO Interactive has built a modern 007 origin story that captures the fantasy, updates the stakes, and gives the character room to grow. This is one of the best games of the year, one of the best Bond games ever made, and easily one of my favorite PS5 experiences in a long time.
007 First Light is the best James Bond game ever made and probably one of the best spy action games in the history of the medium. IO Interactive spent the franchise's fourteen-year drought building their credentials with Hitman, learning everything there was to learn about how to make stealth work with true freedom, and applied that knowledge to an IP that always promised more than its games delivered. The training is long.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
This is the James Bond game fans of the franchise have been waiting for. The most well-rounded, visually stunning and thematically engaging 007 game of the 21st century.
007 First Light tells an authentic and highly entertaining origin story of the well-known MI6 agent, taking the best ideas from the Hitman series and perfecting them with franchise-typical elements. This worked best for me in the more open missions, but the shootouts, car chases and explosion-filled action sequences are absolutely essential to James Bond and I thoroughly enjoyed them. In some places the game could have used a bit more technical polish but I hope we'll see much more of this version of James Bond in the future.
Review in German | Read full review
It’s a good thing that we hadn’t reviewed the game so quickly, too, because we just learned that new missions are on the way in the form of DLC, and I can’t wait to get back into Bond’s shoes. If you’re even remotely a fan of James Bond or secret agent flicks, you owe it to yourself to play 007 First Light. This game made me a fan, and now I’m considering exploring all of the 007 media to see if there’s anything I can predict, now that this game has set a new standard for future Bond experiences.
First Light instead shines by blending the influences it has together into a cohesive Bond experience. IO Interactive shows an incredible understanding of what 007 should be. From the way the story is written and structured to the way they seamlessly transition from gameplay into their Action setpieces, it is simply superb in every aspect of being 007.
007 First Light is one of the most pleasant surprises of recent years and, without a doubt, a successful return for James Bond to the gaming world. Fully aware of the weight of the name he carries, IO Interactive retains the key elements of the hero that made him famous, redefining him without undermining him, while offering compelling gameplay that will satisfy fans of action games with a strong cinematic flair.
That is precisely why, after years away from the world of video games, First Light feels like more than the return of a famous name. It is an attempt to rediscover the essence of James Bond: a man who chooses to pursue the impossible precisely because everyone else believes it cannot be done.
With 007 First Light, IO Interactive has pulled off a true tour de force. The studio doesn’t just deliver a decent adaptation of the James Bond universe. The game crafts an experience that perfectly captures what has made the character so popular for so many years. Between its excellent storyline, charismatic characters, stunning environments, solid stealth mechanics, and spectacular presentation, the game checks nearly every box. Granted, the driving sequences could have been more ambitious, and managing gadget resources can sometimes be frustrating, but these flaws are minor compared to the game’s overall quality.
Review in French | Read full review
007 First Light is not only the best Bond game ever made, but a frontrunner for the best game of 2026 so far.
007 First Light is the best James Bond game in years because it understands the full fantasy of the character: observing, bluffing, improvising, and turning every mistake into action.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
007 First Light is a potent cocktail of stealth, immersive sim, high-octane action, and brutal hand-to-hand combat, with a splash of high-speed driving thrown in a mix that's best served shaken, not stirred. The first Bond game in over a decade attempts to walk the line between multiple genres, and while the game is not without its issues, for the most part it does this successfully. A lack of consistent pacing, with fast-paced action segments stunted by extended walking sequences, does not do much to diminish the overall experience. Patrick Gibson's performance as the famous British spy perfectly captures the cocky, confident essence that fans would expect from the character in his early days, and fans of James Bond who have been starved of a new movie for several years will find themselves well satiated by IOI Interactive's ambitious offering.
007 First Light stands out as the best James Bond video game since GoldenEye, and succeeds in the far-from-certain feat of honoring the legend without merely imitating it. The origin story crafted by IO impresses with its narrative maturity and mechanical depth, leaving room for future developments. There are, however, aspects where the game could have been more daring. In fact, a certain underlying caution hangs over every aspect—a choice to play it safe that holds the game back just as it reaches the threshold of absolute excellence.
Review in Italian | Read full review