007 First Light - Before You Buy

And we're back with another episode of Before You Buy, that show where we give you some straight -up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing.It's me, Jake Baldino, and today we're talking about 007 First Light.This is an all -new James Bond adventure from IO Interactive.This is the people behind the Hitman franchise, Kanan Lynch, and one of my personal favorites, Freedom Fighters.Now, First Light introduces you to a younger Bond as he gets recruited by MI6 and then he becomes the spy we know.this with confidence in a really fun package.

First Light is a blast, just to not waste time.It is a straight up solid, big bombastic triple A third person action adventure game that actually delivers.It's a great game.It has a few things that I think for me personally keep it from being a complete masterclass, but I still think, flaws and all, this was an incredibly fun adventure.It's video gamey in all the right ways.And as a Bond fan and an IO Interactive fan, I know I'm an easy mark for this one, but I can confidently recommend it to Bond fans.

It is a great blend of new and old Bondisms that doesn't compromise on what makes James Bond James Bond.Some housekeeping, I've been playing a review copy and this footage is captured running on PC and is spoiler free.I've seen a lot of other reviews and accounts already show some stuff that I think is better as a surprise, so just be careful and know that we got you with this footage.To get into it, just to be reductive off the bat, it's like a Hitman game mixed with uncharted cinematic action shooting and punching, with some slick zippy self Splinter Cell Conviction style.And a lot of missions, the way the game generally flows, it's linear.And a lot of missions start you entering a public space, freely walking around, talking to people, looking around, trying to find ways to get into restricted or guarded off areas.

Sometimes you need to light a garbage can on fire to distract someone and steal their party invite from their back pocket.Or maybe...to someone and impersonate a journalist to get backstage access.This is where the game shows its Hitman roots, right, from the very cadence of Bond's walk to just how these rooms and sequences are structured.I'd say think Hitman Lite.Diet Hitman.

You don't have endless amount of options, but you do have a good handful and some are cleaner and more satisfying than others.What these areas do is help build out Bond as a character through some clever dialogue writing and just kind of help build momentum for a sequence.It also just succeeds in making you feel slick.It's just like a clever guy simulator, whether it's ducking behind a desk to steal a key or distracting folks by hacking a laptop to make it go on the fritz.It's got a good social spy feel to it.Think Hitman without as many disguises or or hiding bodies with a dash of watchdogs hacking everything in sight.

Yes, the NPCs here are pretty dumb and they are very easily duped, but I still had fun with it.Stealth is pretty standard fare for modern triple -a third -person action game with a couple of twists.You can hide in grass, you can hide behind corners, you can lure guys in and stealth takedown dudes.You're gonna be doing this a lot in between hacking security cameras or like bursting pipes to temporarily blind enemies and stuff like that.If certain types of enemies spot you in some sequences, you can actually bluff your way out of a tight spot.Spending a resource lets Bond kind of do a fun, quippy lie about who he is.

And this works as kind of a temporary cooldown on an enemy spotting you.When things inevitably go south, that's where the punching and the shooting begins.Combat itself, hand -to -hand combat, is very punchy and very simple.with the ability to parry attacks or dodge out of the way.Simple and sometimes feels a little repetitive on its own, but where the sauce lies here is in the environment, right?You can grab enemies and throw them.

You can also grab enemies and kind of shove them, bring them with you.You can also grab items in the environment.and throw them like a glass bottle or whatever is around.So aside from punching, you're also always being slick.You're always being smart.An action encounter often goes like this.

You quickly use a smoke bomb gadget to blind enemies and take two out with your bare hands.Then maybe you shoot an explosive barrel with slow motion to get another enemy.Then, you can grab a guy and shove him over a crate and punch him in the back.Then, shoot a guy's gun out of his hands, catch his gun, and shoot him in the face.Then, maybe, like, throw a brick at another guy to stun him, run up, grab him, and throw him off a cliff.This is all just really, really fun improvisational combat.

Ammo is very limited in this game, so you're constantly moving from gun to gun, and you'll often find yourself with no bullets at all, so you're always using the environment, you're always using all your other tricks in a good way.Now, it might look a little janky, or a little sloppy sometimes, I don't know the word, just kind of video gamey, but when you're actually playing it, it feels great.And this is where the fun factor is for me.High level play, like when you're locked in and you are using all the game's rules and tools, it just makes you feel badass.This is especially noticeable on the higher difficulty level where you really got to try and use everything.Also note, there are three difficulty modes.

There's like essentially an easy mode, normal mode and hard mode.Using the environment and your tools to your advantage is great because like the writing the dialogue, the way the enemies react, the way they freak out, the way they scream when they get blown up, or how they respond to getting like a laser watch to the eyes.All of that just works really well in combination with the environment itself.How guys will get slammed up against walls or thrown over tables, to how stuff breaks, to how you can throw a guy down a vent shaft or throw a guy into a server rack and then see him get zapped to death.It's the right amount of over the top.And I'm really just excited to watch videos and clips of people doing perfect stealth Batman style or doing a crazy no -hit action combat run.

When the game flows, it flows really, really well.And I just found myselfexcited for every combat encounter because it's fun.Not every gun feels amazing.I'd say the snipers are a real disappointment here, but I think even the simplicity of hand -to -hand and the simple nature of shooting here is just really enhanced by all the other factors I mentioned above.You know, using all that stuff.

You're shooting a lot of explosive barrels and hacking pipes or whatever to burst them, but it didn't get old for me in my playthrough.

It just adds to the stress of it all.

What?I'll have a quick look.

See that coming?

But there are some negatives.One thing that did get old is like one -ish of the levels felt a little padded out just to increase the run time.and it didn't feel like it added much to the experience.It didn't completely bore me, but it also just felt noticeably less thrilling or clever compared to other sections.I think the game does do a really good job of introducing a lot of exotic and interesting locations, and it does some stuff with some really creative and satisfying scene transitions that we don't see in a lot of games.But unfortunately, not every single area is a banger.

And when one isn't quite as up to snuff as the others, it does stand out.One area really just kind of missed the mark for me and it didn't really feel like it added much.Same goes for the boss battles.They start strong, but this game unfortunately continues the trend of some like triple -A third -person action games just whiffing the final boss.Lame.I still like the ending overall, but the boss just did not do it for me. I don't know why this happens in so many games.

Also again, because it is very much a triple -A third -person action game,game, there is a lot of the obvious yellow paint stuff telling you where to go.Just a heads up.But the other negative aspect, I'd say, is the driving sequences.Unfortunately, they are pretty few and far between.They work as fun little sequences, you know, they're fine enough, but the driving isn't as tight or even as thrilling as I'd really hoped it would be.

And I'm talking specifically about, like, the sports car sequences.There are other vehicle sequences with, like, trucks and stuff that are good destructive sequences, but the dream of, like, whipping around a badass Aston Martin doesn't quite hit as hard as it could have, and I was left a little disappointed.This is something that if they got a sequel, I would love to see really improved upon.The game is also relatively simple in terms of progression.I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, but I would say if you were looking to like level up your James Bond or have complex different loadouts for your playstyle, the game doesn't have that.The game is very restrained and very simple when it comes to equipping gadgets and improving across the game.

Before certain missions, you are free to choose which gadgets like you personally prefer, but it doesn't really affect the playthrough too much because the game is built around the freedom of you using whatever you want in whatever situation.That stuff is simple.I don't think that's a negative for this game.But on the flip side, I still, in a sequel, would like to see maybe some sort of more complex loadout concepts.Now, the actor Patrick Gibson as Bond is great.Choosing a James Bond has to be such a tricky thing, but I think they nailed it here.

Not only his acting performance, but just how he's portrayed, you know, how he's written.He's smart.He's cunning.He's a little mischievous.He flirts with women.He taunts enemies.

And he is quippy, but miraculously, not in an annoying way, not in an insufferable way.He's got the Bond movie quips that feel right at home with some dumb stuff that will come out of Roger Moore or Pierce Brosnan's mouth.

For the supporting cast, I think there are hits and misses, because not all of them get enough time.

Some characters are portrayed similar to how we've seen them in other movies or whatever, others with some fresh spins, like Q being really cool now.M, I'm not too hot on, but Lenny James as Greenway, as a mentor, is a real standout here.One of the best characters.As someone who has been a Bond movie fan for a really long time, and as someone who has played every inch of the Bond games from GoldenEye to Bloodstone, I think the fan service was done right here.Not ham -fisted, not nostalgia bait, some good little hidden references, and just good living out the Bond dream, like walking around the Q Branch or Q Lab.and looking at weird prototypes and messing with them.

That's where Bond thrives in ways I think people don't often realize, and the game embraces a lot of stuff like this.In the visual department, the game does look great.This footage is captured running on a high -end PC, and I had no major crashes or major issues.I did have one clothing glitch that just kind of went away in the next cutscene, you know, like when a character's jacket gets stuck.I've also seen it running on Steam Deck, and it was running better than I expected.On the flip side, please note we haven't seen console version yet personally, so please always seek out more than one review, but what we have seen at least released looks decent so far.

The game has a lot going on, and it's impressive, from visual effects to just sheer amount of detail and NPCs on screen at once.the game is a looker.Not to mention... constant explosions and environments breaking apart as you interact with them, it doesn't just feel like window dressing.The visuals really added to the experience here.IO Interactive, from these newer Hitman games, clearly knows how to build out big, beautiful, compelling environments, but also this time around, they really play with cinematic lighting in a way that really worked.And the music is killer.

Like from the ambient stuff in QLab to big orchestral cinematic action music, all of it stands well on its own and does a good job of blending in and out of classic Bond motifs, as well as the title sequence Lana Del Rey song, which did end up growing on me.All in all, the soundscape of this game is great.And playing through the game, it took me 15 and a half hours.And I was playing pretty aggressively.It might take some people a bit longer.I was surprised it was this long.

And again, only one section really feeling like it was kind of fluffing the runtime.I was hooked for the whole ride.And I know I can definitely squeeze out a little bit more time with this replaying again on the harder difficulty, which I started this morning.The choices in social sequences are pretty good, but nowhere near as replayable.playable as Hitman, but what is interesting is the separate TacSim mode, which is like a challenge sequence mode that lets you play certain combat or stealth scenarios with modifiers and alterations.You can earn scores and ranks and get points to unlock more stuff.

This mode actually has like a whole QLab area where you can pick your gear, talk to NPCs, unlock new weapons, gadget upgrades, different outfits, And it's actually pretty solid, especially considering that combat flow is really replayable.So this is a good excuse to embrace it.I was pleasantly surprised with the tax and mode, and I think I can definitely squeeze a few extra hours out of it.But I really, really hope they add to it over time and support it, even if they do it at a fraction of how they supported Hitman.It could be really good.I think there's.

real potential here with Tac Sim mode.They do already tease it on the in -game menu that they're adding driving challenges, so that's a good start at least.But yeah, man, in conclusion, Bond First Light, I really enjoyed.It was longer than I expected.It's cinematic.It's mostly really well -paced.

It's got a couple of things here and there, some sticking points I mentioned, but it was a really good adventure.I personally didn't feel like I was shortchanged, and as someone, again, who's been playing Bond games forever, I'm really happy to see one like this come together.Just a full -throated, full -on Bond adventure that tackles all the aspects of the character and what makes the movie special.They tried it with everything or nothing.They kind of tried it with Bloodstone.But here, with First Light, I think they actually nailed a unique new Bond experience.

And at the very least, like, God knows what's going on with the next movie.At least we have this.

Good night!Down there!

Get your eyes on him!So I definitely recommend it to Bond fans, first and foremost, absolutely.If you're just a AAA action game enjoyer, I think you'll definitely also really enjoy this.But again, James Bond 007 mileage varies with people, but either way, I had a good time.And that's a before you buy.You know how this goes by now.

I give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinion.And now I wanna hear yours down in the comments.I'd love to know your experience with 007 games, anything at all.Also, if you're in the comments, try to avoid spoilers.They're definitely worth talking about.I think I'm gonna try and do a spoiler discussion video on my other channel, YouTube .

com slash Jake Baldino at some point, but let us know what you think about this game, the story, the history of James Bond in video games in general.We could yap about a lot of stuff, so hit us up down in the comments.Hopefully we'll be talking about this game more in a couple of other videos if you guys are interested.You can always find me on social media, Instagram, YouTube, at Jake Baldino.Thank you guys for watching.Clicking the like button helps us.

We've been doing this for over 10 years.We're not going anywhere.Thank you very much for watching, and we'll see you guys next time.