Shaken, not stirred - and unfortunately, not particularly impressed either. IO Interactive has officially released the first 13 minutes of 007 First Light online, apparently rushing out the official footage after earlier leaks beat them to the punch, according to Kotaku. The result? A lot of raised eyebrows and nervous coughing from the gaming community.
The opening cutscene has entered the chat
The footage shows a young James Bond in what is essentially a very polished, very... safe intro sequence. Think less "License to Kill" and more "License to Be Completely Inoffensive" - the kind of opening that ticks every AAA checkbox without making anyone's jaw drop to the floor.
IO Interactive, the studio behind the excellent Hitman World of Assassination trilogy, clearly knows their way around a third-person action game. But where Agent 47 oozed personality from every bespoke suit fiber, this baby Bond is giving off serious "protagonist from a 2019 open-world game" vibes.
Generic is the final boss here
Kotaku describes the opening as "weirdly generic," which is perhaps the most devastating thing you can say about a James Bond game. This is a franchise built on gadgets, glamour, and over-the-top villainy - not the kind of IP that should be inspiring comparisons to a mid-tier Game Pass title.
The visuals look clean and competent, because of course they do - IO Interactive aren't rookies. But "clean and competent" isn't exactly the rallying cry you want for the first proper Bond game in years. Players were hoping for a tactical espionage banger, not a tutorial zone that could belong to literally any action-adventure game released in the last decade.
The jury is still deliberating
To be fair, 13 minutes is barely a loading screen in the grand scheme of a full game. IO Interactive built one of the most replayable stealth sandboxes in gaming history with Hitman, so writing them off completely would be a rookie mistake - the kind Bond himself would never make.
Still, first impressions are the meta here, and right now 007 First Light is sitting at a "needs improvement" score on the vibe check leaderboard. The full game will have to do some serious speed-running through the charm tree to win back the skeptics. The mission, should IO choose to accept it, is to prove those 13 minutes were just a slow-burn tutorial - and not the whole game's final form.
