Let’s be honest here: Activision's take on James Bond games didn’t reach the heights of Electronic Arts’ era, nor the iconic solo outing of Nintendo and Rare. It’s been well over a decade since the god-awful 007 Legends, and nearly six years since Hitman developer IO Interactive announced the project eventually titled 007 First Light.

Last September, we walked away from our first hands-on with the stealth action-adventure impressed. Its stealth, shooting and driving sequences easily made it one of our most anticipated games of 2026; however, the overwhelmingly linear demo lacked the creative sandbox many hoped for from the Hitman maker.

Following a three-hour demo at a special hands-on event in Downtown Los Angeles recently, I can now confirm that 007 First Light takes the promise of a digital Bond and infuses some clever creativity in tackling objectives in ways that’ll remind many of Hitman’s Agent 47. Spread across three distinct sections of the game, they not only showcased various gameplay mechanics but also showed how they’ll be layered as the single player progresses.

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The beginning of a legend

The introductory mission at the start of 007 First Light does something no other game in the franchise has done before: it establishes who the iconic British hero was before joining MI6. When we’re introduced to actor Patrick Gibson’s take on Bond, a naval officer riding overseas in a helicopter en route to a base somewhere in Iceland. The squad of choppers is attacked by missiles, destroying many of them and sending them into the ocean depths. As Bond tries to regain consciousness and avoid his watery grave, players are hit with a quick-time sequence to reach the ocean’s surface.

After making his way to the shore, we see our first glimpse of terrain traversal, with Bond climbing, shimmying among ledges, dashing between cover, hiding among tall grass, squeezing between cracks and jumping across ledges. He eventually finds himself guided by an MI6 agent who instructs him to recover a hard drive, a mission that sees him tackle everything from finding a nerve agent antidote, battling color blindness and a daring escape from the terrorist organization he infiltrates, culminating in his defying the MI6 agent to help rescue two groups of researchers held captive by the terrorist group.

This portion grants players the opportunity to decide the order in which the set of captives gets rescued, covertly using distractions and stealth takedowns to complete the job at hand. The high stakes are established immediately; if Bond is caught, he can try to escape, but it only takes a couple of bullets to take him down if he stands his ground and fights. It’s wonderfully reminiscent of some of Hitman’s finest stealth sequences, but 007 First Light has plenty of its own strengths.

The second segment I played featured a slice of a later mission in Malta, where Bond undergoes some of his early MI6 training. It’s here where players are introduced to a central mechanic in 007 First Light: Bond’s iconic gadget-laden watch, but also a great demonstration of the creative license players have in approaching each obstacle.

For this segment, Bond is tasked by MI6 agent Greenway (portrayed by The Walking Dead alum Lennie James) with reaching the flag by any means necessary. The watch is controlled through two separate meters: electronic and chemical. The electronic meter controls capabilities such as a laser and hacking tool, and can be recharged with power tool batteries, car battery cells and the like. Meanwhile, chemicals fuel tools like poison darts and can be refilled by picking up things like cleaning supplies or hand sanitizer.

During this sequence, there are plenty of ways to reach the flag. For me, that included some silent takedowns, throwing bricks or wrenches to disable an enemy (reminiscent of The Last of Us), pure combat, and even using the watch to burst open a bag of sand to cause a distraction.

Getting spotted by the guards even led to some great combat moments, where players can perform simple combos with a singular attack button, parry highlighted by yellow flashes, dodge strong red flashing attacks and grappling. Grabbing an enemy can lead to context-sensitive actions ranging from repositioning and punching them to throwing them in any particular direction. Take too long, and the guards will call for reinforcements, so Bond has to act quickly.

The final demo chapter was an incredibly long and eventful mid-game mission that takes place in Kensington, London, pairing these mixed stealth mechanics with some exciting shootouts. Following an ambush on Bond in his own apartment, players are thrown into a thrilling foot chase sequence as he hunts down the assassin, which ultimately ends in Bond being ungraciously booted from a rooftop by the assailant.

A tip from Moneypenny sees Bond sneak into a museum gala hosted by a tech mogul in pursuit of his would-be killer, with the main mission split into key tasks as well as smaller objectives. For instance, in my case, gaining entrance to the gala involved refilling the chemical meter on Bond’s watch with some hand sanitizer I found, poisoning an unsuspecting guest with a dart, and then swiping her ticket to smoothly pass security. It was a cool moment reminiscent of Hitman, and doubly so for the richness and interactivity — watching my poison victim head to a nearby trash can to throw up was especially funny.

Once inside, I was impressed by how densely populated the gala was. It definitely reminded me of some of Hitman World of Assassination trilogy’s greatest visual moments, such as the Paris fashion show and Sapienza town. Plus, the character model quality of these NPCs nearly matched Bond, animations were fluid, the lighting was great thanks to path tracing support and everything was rendered in beautiful detail thanks to DLSS 4.5 support on the Nvidia GPU-powered Alienware Area-51 desktop we played on.

We didn’t notice any slowdown during our playthrough outside of this section either, and 007 First Light is a great showcase of IO’s Glacier engine. Audio is equally spot-on, from the murmur of the gala’s busy crowds to the tense ambient music and touches of the dynamic soundtrack.

Play your way

Once again, this level demonstrates the varied ways in which Bond can complete his mission, this time in an effort to hack into the security system so Moneypenny can trace the assassin’s whereabouts. By eavesdropping on conversations between attendees, you can collect clues and formulate a cover for Bond, sneaking him into the second-floor security room through whatever means necessary.

Sometimes, you’ll have to convince NPCs of your identity, and it’s here that you can use the Instinct system to pick the best outcome and even flirt to distract or persuade them. That, or you can just pickpocket them, though I learned the hard way that this can result in combat if you fail.

Ultimately, you’ll reach the Basement Archives at the museum’s lower levels, where an unarmed Bond is met with a climactic boss fight against the very-much-armed mysterious assassin. Again, IO Interactive’s creative approach shines here — tackling the assassin head-on will lead to death if you take too many hits, so you’ll use Bond’s watch to manipulate the environment against the foe.

Whether that’s by triggering hazards like an electric floor, bringing a chandelier crashing down or turning on an exhaust pipe at the right time, the choice is yours, and it’s great fun to find your own way.

While the Hitman influence is clear throughout 007 First Light, it’s unmistakably a Bond game, and it’s all the better for it. Its punchy, white-knuckle cinematic shootout sequences are a blast, transitioning seamlessly to close melee combat — though camera positioning for these can sometimes be a little awkward.

Instinct mode makes another appearance in combat, too, allowing you to slow down time for some well-placed shots, but if things get too hot and heavy you can always turn tail to regenerate some health. Add interactable items and Bond’s watch to the mix, and you’ll be exploding conveniently placed barrels to your heart’s content.

Still, it’s just as fun to simply make your escape with the least possible casualties. Plus, outside of stealth and combat, Bond’s social skills in manipulation and negotiation are at the fore; one segment sees Bond tied to a chair, baiting his captors by alternating between insults and stall tactics to lure them closer so he can remotely hack their phones and escape.

Less than a month before release, 007 First Light is looking to be the definitive Bond experience, and for anyone worrying about Gibson being up to the task as 007, he provides a fun and charming Bond who is more care-free like Pierce Brosnan than the ultra seriousness of Daniel Craig.

The developers have done a fine job in blending the spectacle spy-action the films are known for with the sandbox freedom of its legendary Hitman franchise. That’s achieved with clever investigative moments, some fine melee combat, punchy shooting, clever usage of quick-time events and mini games and at least one absolutely awesome car chase. IO Interactive may have a Bond game that may reach the heights of Goldeneye 007 and Everything or Nothing.

007 First Light drops May 27, 2026, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, and PC, with Nintendo Switch 2 coming in the summer.

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Ural Garrett is an Inglewood, CA-based journalist and content curator. His byline has been featured in outlets including CNN, MTVNews, Complex, TechRadar, BET, The Hollywood Reporter and more.