It has been about 14 years since the last James Bond video game. IO Interactive's 007 First Light is set to change that, putting players inside the story of a 20-something Bond before he ever became a 00 agent.
According to Deadline, the game stars Patrick Gibson as a young James Bond who gets pulled into the world of espionage after a dangerous hostage situation in Iceland. From there, Bond encounters M, played by Priyanga Burford, who recognizes his instinctive talent for handling chaotic situations. He also crosses paths with John Greenway, a former 00 agent played by Lennie James, who oversees a new training program and clashes with Bond over what makes a perfect agent. The pursuit of a rogue British operative takes Bond from Slovakia to a black market called Aleph, where he faces a character named Bawma, played by Lenny Kravitz.
IO Interactive cinematics and narrative director Martin Emborg spoke with Deadline during a two-hour gameplay preview event. He said the team deliberately avoided reducing Bond to surface-level symbols. "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. To some extent that misses the point a little bit because there's more to him than that," Emborg said.
Instead, the team wanted to make the game a character study. "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," Emborg said. One of those core qualities, he explained, is that Bond never gives up, even when his own life is at risk.
When asked where the team looked for inspiration, Emborg said they started broad but landed on Ian Fleming's original novels. "We immersed ourselves in everything Bond available anywhere. But we did quickly end on Ian Fleming because the novels are where he comes from," he said.
Emborg also reflected on how gaming has changed in the 14 years since the last Bond game. "It's definitely matured. It's coming into its own a little more in terms of it being where it sits in the pantheon of entertainment, as it were. I do think that film and games are both circling each other. And to some extent, that's what we're also leveraging here in 007 First Light. We're very much working on this title in a very movie-like setup with writing, actors and cinematography. We don't think of this much as a game in that sense," he said.
