007 First Light is a 2026 action-adventure video game developed and published by IO Interactive. Based on the James Bond franchise, it tells an original narrative inspired by the novels and short stories by Ian Fleming, and the film series starring the character. The game depicts James Bond’s origin story, as he embarks on the mission he must complete to earn his licence to kill.
Following the release of 007 Legends (2012), publisher Activision had its non-exclusive licence to produce James Bond video games revoked, resulting in an extended hiatus for video games adapting the franchise. IO Interactive announced the development of a new James Bond game in November 2020. The game entered full production at IO Interactive following the completion of Hitman 3 (2021), and was fully revealed in June 2025.
007 First Light was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on 27 May 2026. The game received positive reviews from critics, with praise given to the gameplay, combat, writing, and Patrick Gibson’s performance as Bond. A Nintendo Switch 2 version is scheduled to release later in the year.
Story
Setting and characters
007 First Light depicts an original narrative that draws inspiration from the novels and short stories by Ian Fleming and the long-running film franchise featuring the character. Described as an origin story for the character, the game follows a young James Bond (Patrick Gibson), who is portrayed as a 26-year-old, inexperienced MI6 agent, who is tasked with a mission that, when completed successfully, will grant him his 00 status.
The story also features new iterations of well-known Bond characters such as M (Priyanga Burford), Q (Alastair Mackenzie), and Miss Moneypenny (Kiera Lester), re-imagined to reflect their roles in shaping Bond’s early career. The game also features original characters, such as Bond’s reluctant MI6 mentor John Greenway (Lennie James), Bond girl and thief Isola Vale (Noémie Nakai), psychology and game theory expert Selina Tan (Gemma Chan), flamboyant arms dealer Bawma (Lenny Kravitz), Bond’s training colleagues Cressida Bright (Jessica Rhodes) and Lennox Monroe (Chris O’Reilly), and Bond villains Sir Nicholas Webb (Anthony Howell) and his son, Damien (Bart Edwards).
Plot
During a Special Air Service retrieval operation in Iceland, both helicopters are shot down with their teams. Navy Aircrewman James Bond is the sole survivor. Contacted by MI6, Bond heads to the target – a research camp studying a crashed satellite – only to find it occupied by terrorist mercenaries known as the Arrowhead. Defying direct orders, Bond rescues the captive scientists and destroys the camp, preventing any evidence from being taken away.
The next month, “M” recruits Bond to join the revitalized “00” program, which he starts training in six months behind the other candidates. He overcomes the exams under the strict regimen of his handler, John Greenway, and befriends his team, especially Monroe and Cressida. As they celebrate their graduation, their training is suspended by M, who reassigns them to track down former 009 and rogue agent Rhys Beckett in a hotel in Slovakia. Bond follows a suspicious staff member revealed to be one of Beckett’s supposed assassins, the Murto twins, who have killed Monroe and planted a bomb which leaves Cressida paralyzed. Bond chases Beckett to his plane and attaches his watch to it, allowing MI6 to track Beckett to Mauritania.
MI6 send Bond and Greenway to capture Beckett, but Bond discovers Beckett has been killed. Despite the newfound evidence, M declares Beckett as the culprit and closes the case. Returning home to rest, Bond is suddenly attacked by one of the Murto twins. Bond tracks him down and kills him at a gala hosted by AI pioneer Sir Nicholas Webb, where he finds incriminating evidence linking Webb to the terrorist act in Slovakia and learns Greenway is also a target.
Captured by Webb’s son Damien, Bond is rescued by the same woman he first met in Slovakia, learning she is a professional thief named Isola Vale. Greenway fights off the assassins sent after him, and he and Bond infiltrate the Webb Industries building in search of evidence. They discover Webb’s terrorist actions are actually cover-ups for mistakes being committed by his quantum supercomputer named THEIA – currently employed by MI6. THEIA’s first mistake was declaring Beckett and two other agents as moles within the agency, so Greenway was sent to eliminate them. Webb murdered Beckett so he couldn’t expose THEIA’s flaws. Shocked by the revelation, Greenway parts ways with Bond.
Despite orders to bring both agents in for terrorism charges, M sends Bond to a luxury resort in Vietnam to gather evidence on Webb’s duplicity. Tracking down biologist Theresa Lorca, Bond intercepts the other Murto twin who attempts to kill Lorca via arson. Bond kills Murto instead, but Damien captures Bond again. Rescued by Greenway, Bond tracks down Damien and supposedly kills him despite being overpowered, but Greenway is fatally wounded in the pursuit. In his final moments, Greenway admits Bond is what MI6 needs and that his heroic nature is what defines him.
Webb leaks vital MI6 information, coercing M into giving him full immunity. Unwilling to accept this, Bond goes renegade and teams with Isola to infiltrate Webb’s observatory in Antarctica, where he uncovers Webb’s scheme to supplant the entire British government with THEIA’s sibling AI, HYPERION. Bond fights through security, prototype robots and Webb himself to reach the HYPERION core, but Isola fatally shoots Webb and steals the core for herself. Bond gives chase and manages to stop Isola and destroy the core. In London, both Bond and Isola are jailed, but are released when the building is attacked by mercenaries led by Damien. Isola takes the opportunity to flee while Bond chooses to stay, heading to THEIA’s chamber where Damien stabs Moneypenny and takes THEIA’s core. Bond overpowers and disables Damien’s exo-suit, allowing him to finally kill Damien by drowning. Bond almost drowns as well, before his rescue by Isola, who takes THEIA’s core and escapes.
While visiting Greenway’s grave, Bond is inducted into the “00” program and cleared of all charges, designating himself as 007. Bond vows to track Isola down to recover the THEIA core and find out whom she works for.
Development
007 First Light is the first major game featuring James Bond following a long hiatus resulting from the critical and commercial failure of 007 Legends (2012), which saw publisher Activision having its non-exclusive licence to produce video games using the James Bond IP revoked by Eon Productions and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in January 2013.
Hitman series developer IO Interactive met with Eon Productions to pitch their own vision for a James Bond video game as they were developing Hitman 3 (2021). According to company president Hakan Abrak, the studio was under the impression that “[Eon] were not looking for a game”, having grown dissatisfied with the action-oriented style and gameplay of the latest console Bond games under Activision. Chief creative officer Christian Elverdam stated that a move away from relying on weapons to complete missions was an integral part of the studio’s pitch to Eon, citing their work on Hitman as a game where violent solutions were actively discouraged, as an example of how Eon were convinced by IO Interactive that there was a “sophistication” in how the developers approached espionage gameplay.
IO Interactive also emphasised its interest in pursuing an original interpretation of James Bond, divorced from any of the prior literary and cinematic incarnations of the character, as they wished to apply a similar effort to creating their own narrative for an existing IP as they did for any of their original projects and characters. This includes the likeness of James Bond himself, which is not derived from any of the actors to portray him on film, a first for the character in a playable capacity since James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire (2001).
Elverdam was also excited at the prospect of having a version of James Bond produced from the ground up for gaming, remarking on how it removed expectations that their version of the character would have to adhere to characteristics of pre-existing iterations while also being a take on the property “gamers can call their own”. He additionally recalled a trip the development team made to Pinewood Studios during production of the film No Time to Die (2021), which instilled the “gravity” of taking on the Bond licence. According to Abrak, the idea of depicting James Bond’s origin and efforts to claim his licence to kill, an event only definitively and briefly portrayed in the opening of the Daniel Craig film Casino Royale (2006), was enthusiastically received between IO Interactive and Eon, who were both receptive to the idea of a narrative that is “completely beginning and becoming a story” as opposed to directly adapting the plot of an existing Bond film. The game’s art director, Rasmus Poulsen, stated that the team sought to avoid portraying certain aspects of the character that were deemed outdated, and in particular, attitudes towards women seen expressed by Bond in previous series entries that the developers believed would be considered sexist by current audiences.
IO Interactive added a new proprietary volumetric smoke system to its Glacier engine for 007 First Light, which it claims “has not been done anywhere before”. The game also incorporates ray tracing and “fully dynamic” global illumination in its lighting model.
Gameplay development
IO Interactive took inspiration from the freeflow combat system in the Batman: Arkham series and the large action setpieces and destructible environments seen in the Uncharted series. Combat in the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy was a last resort rather than a truly viable option. IO Interactive sought to design a combat system with 007 First Light that flows seamlessly into cinematic setpieces. IO Interactive still wanted to maintain the Hitman series’ freedom of choice in gameplay but wanted to avoid creating a reskin of Hitman. 007 First Light emphasises greater forward momentum for the player’s gameplay style whether that be in stealth or open combat compared to the slower, more deliberative, puzzle-like approach of Hitman where assassinations required setup. Unlike Hitman, “you’re playing as a spy, not an assassin” according to IO Interactive which puts greater emphasis on infiltration, investigation and eavesdropping on clues.
007 First Light is the first IO Interactive title to include drivable vehicles. Art director Rasmus Poulsen described the inclusion of controllable vehicles as a “huge challenge” that the studio had to take on. The studio had to “bring onto the team specific driving expertise” in order to better incorporate such mechanics.
Character development
As no actor had been cast to replace Daniel Craig in the Bond role for the 26th film, IO Interactive felt a sense of freedom in crafting their own version of James Bond that did not have be based on an existing Bond actor or to be a video game adaptation of the films. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak said, “I don’t think we would have necessarily had the same energy and the same vision and the same results if we were to do a gamification of a movie.” The last Bond video game, 007 Legends (2012), included an adaptation of one film from every Bond actor and heavily incorporated elements to coincide with the release of Skyfall (2012) while using Craig’s likeness for Bond.
In creating their version of Bond, IO Interactive sought to create something new and unique while still honouring the character’s iconic legacy. 007 First Light follows a 26-year-old James Bond as a recruit in the MI6 training program. Irish actor Patrick Gibson was cast as Bond. Gibson said he was “pretty stunned” after learning he had been cast. Narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg said that Gibson had a level of “built-in impatience” that was “perfect” for a young James Bond. Emborg wanted the young Bond to exhibit “an unearned confidence” that he hoped players would read as a glaring naivety from “a reckless young man”. Senior combat designer Tom Marcham wanted the game’s combat to exhibit the character’s “inner rage” from his childhood experiences as an orphan.
When developing the characters surrounding Bond, IO Interactive paid mind to how they influence Bond’s personality and mannerisms as he grows into a skilled MI6 agent. Emborg said that they imbued surrounding characters like M and Moneypenny with “some of those qualities that you know from Bond, and so that they can inform the character”. Moneypenny plays a more active role in 007 First Light as a field analyst who assists Bond in the field rather than simply being M’s secretary as in the original stories. The character played a similar role in the field during Skyfall‘s prologue sequence. Moneypenny is voiced by Kiera Lester. With the exception of Judi Dench, M is typically portrayed by an older male actor, inspired by Fleming’s own superior officer at the Naval Intelligence Division. Priyanga Burford’s version of M in 007 First Light is younger than previous iterations of the character and actively supports and encourages Bond’s growth as an agent rather than clashing with him as in previous depictions. John Greenway, portrayed by Lennie James, is an original character created for the game and a senior MI6 field agent who mentors Bond. Q is portrayed as older than the previous iteration of the character by Ben Whishaw in the Craig films, though not as old as Desmond Llewelyn or John Cleese. Actor Alastair Mackenzie played Q as more befitting the “cool uncle figure” he viewed the character as when growing up.
Brand integration
007 First Light features a new Omega Seamaster chronograph watch specially designed for the game, alongside the upcoming Aston Martin Valhalla. Both brands featured heavily in the film series, and the gameplay trailer indicates they have been modified for use as Q ‘gadgets’.
Music
The musical score for 007 First Light was composed by The Flight. IO Interactive felt that they were the right choice to score a younger Bond as they could blend cinematic orchestral music with more modern electronic textures that had not been heard in the Bond franchise before. While classic John Barry themes feature, audio director Dominic Vega said that the young Bond has to “earn his themes” as he grows throughout the game’s story.
In October 2025, reports emerged that a song called “First Light” by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey was registered with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). On 16 April 2026, “First Light” was revealed as the game’s theme song and was produced by James Bond film composer David Arnold, marking his first contribution to the franchise since the Daniel Craig installment Quantum of Solace (2008). Del Rey had previously submitted the song “24” for Craig’s film Spectre (2015), which was rejected: Del Rey instead included the song on her fourth album, Honeymoon (2015). Polygon wrote that Del Rey’s “First Light” is “fully committed to the storied legacy of Bond themes, even to a fault” with its jangling guitar and orchestral swells.
Release
IO Interactive held a livestream on 19 November 2020 to announce their next game following the then-upcoming Hitman 3 (2021), which concluded with the reveal of Project 007, a new James Bond video game with an original story developed and published by IOI, in collaboration with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Eon Productions. The announcement coincided with the official start of development at IOI’s Denmark and Sweden studios. The game is being developed on the Glacier Engine for “modern systems and platforms”. In February 2025, Amazon MGM Studios took over supervisory duties on the title after acquiring full creative and production rights to the James Bond IP from Eon and former film franchise producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, making it the first Bond game to be released since Eon’s departure from the series. The game was confirmed to be launching on Nintendo Switch 2 during the April 2025 instalment of Nintendo Direct.
The game was formally unveiled as 007 First Light on 2 June 2025, with the game’s first trailer premiering at Sony Interactive Entertainment’s State of Play presentation on 4 June, and the title later appearing during the publisher’s IOI Showcase digital presentation on 6 June. SIE hosted a dedicated State of Play presentation on 3 September 2025 that unveiled gameplay and narrative details, as well as the cast. On 24 September, it was announced at Tokyo Game Show that Gemma Chan will play as Dr. Selina Tan, an original character created by IOI. On 11 December, it was announced at The Game Awards 2025 that Lenny Kravitz will portray the antagonist Bawma.
The game was originally announced to be released for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on 27 March 2026. In December 2025, the release date was delayed to 27 May 2026. In April 2026, the Nintendo Switch 2 version was delayed to Q3 2026. IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak stated that the developers pushed it to later in the summer season to allow more work on optimization, but that they were working to get it ready due to the legacy of Bond games on Nintendo platforms.
Promotion
IO Interactive partnered with Coca-Cola for promotion of 007 First Light with themed cans of Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine offering competition prizes, including in-game outfits for Bond and a one-of-a-kind 007 First Light-themed Xbox Series X. From 14 May to 10 June 2026, a free copy of 007 First Light is bundled with the purchase of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 series graphics card.
Reception
007 First Light received “generally favorable” reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.
Writing for Eurogamer, Rick Lane felt that 007 First Light “isn’t the Bond game that I wanted from IO Interactive… [b]ut I had a great time with it regardless”. He especially praised the game’s writing, noting that “almost every line lands with wit, soul, or both”, and describing it as the most well-written AAA game since Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Lane lavished Bond’s characterization, noting how the “younger and more unrefined” Bond present in the game was also “perhaps the most empathetic Bond yet”, but felt that “the real surprise in First Light is how strong the secondary cast is”, praising the variety of the game’s original characters. Regarding the gameplay, Lane noted that 007 First Light is largely a linear action-adventure game, but “frequently pretends that it isn’t”. He felt that the game occasionally pretended to open up and provide the player with a number of possible solutions, but ultimately funnelled them towards a specific intended path. However, he praised the game’s close-quarters combat, as well as its “bluffing” mechanic, which he saw as a novel addition. Lane noted that despite what he felt were immensely enjoyable levels, many of them existed not as distinct locations, but as “spaces that Bond is just passing through on the way to his next objective”, hurting their memorability.
Mark Delaney of GameSpot very directly compared 007 First Light to the Hitman franchise, also developed by IO Interactive. He specifically called out the frequency of needing to distract or otherwise sneak past guards, hanging from ledges or pipes, eavesdropping on conversations, and lying to enemies, all of which he noted were staples of Hitman. Delaney lavished the game’s hand-to-hand combat systems, especially praising the interactivity of the environment in combat. He also praised the gunplay, noting how guns “never have much ammo with them”, which requires the player to “frequently change what [they’re] armed with by taking them off defeated enemies”. Delaney additionally praised how well he felt the franchise’s tropes fit into the structure of a video game, noting the versatility of gadgets that helped “ensure the spirit of the Bond character is alive”. However, he criticized the pacing, feeling that 007 First Light‘s 20-hour runtime resulted in some sections that were significantly slower than others.
Future
IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak expressed in an interview with IGN that he wished for 007 First Light to lead into a potential trilogy of James Bond video games for the publisher, citing the decision to create a new, younger version of the character for gaming audiences to “call their own and grow with”. Abrak previously stated his desire to progress the James Bond narrative through “multiple” games in a similar fashion to IO’s Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy (2016–2021), stating that such an ambition motivated them to pursue a licencing deal after previously rejecting offers for other video games using external properties.
Notes
References
External links
- Official website
⭐ Review Scores
Gamer24h Editor's Take
Having closely reviewed 007 First Light, the Gamer24h editorial team considers it one of the most noteworthy titles of recent times. The visionary approach of developer IO Interactive, combined with the expertise of publisher IO Interactive, has resulted in an exceptionally refined product. Its innovative take on the Action-adventure genre offers a breath of fresh air for fans of the category. With a solid review average of 87, the game has proven its worth and deserves a place in any gamer's library. In short, an outstanding and immersive gaming experience awaits genre fans — we highly recommend giving it a shot!