After more than a decade without a good 007 game, IO Interactive, the studio behind the beloved Hitman series, has delighted Bond fans with the reveal of 007 First Light.
Earlier this month, I visited IO Interactive’s Brighton Office to speak to the studio’s global marketing director, Jonathan Lacaille, about how this collaboration came to be and what budding secret agents can expect when embarking on this ambitious espionage-filled expedition.
“The studio had worked on the Hitman series for 20 to 25 years when we approached MGM Studios,” explains Lacaille. “It felt like a long shot because they had not done a game for 10 years at that time.” Citing James Bond as one of the reference points for Hitman’s lethal protagonist, Agent 47, Lacaille feels that the team at IO Interactive’s unique pedigree would get the pitch over the line.
“The whole spectrum of things that you can do in (Hitman) is felt very spy-like, and showing MGM that we could reuse a lot of that in building a whole experience would make it feel more on brand,” they add. “The rest is history.”
With the green light from MGM, IO began crafting its version of the spy, who is much younger than other Bonds in the series. “He’s in the Royal Navy at the very beginning of the game, and he’s not at all a spy or anything like that,” notes Lacaille.
“He’s still raw and being shaped by life, so he has a lot of charm but just doesn’t know how to weaponize it yet,” he adds. “He’s good at fighting, and he’s good at guns, but he still needs to train on those things; he has that famous British humor, but just doesn’t know when to use it.”
A fresh Bond story
007 First Light is a narrative-led game, and players are set to experience firsthand how Bond grows from a budding recruit to a suave killer as they progress.
“You’ll make a bunch of mistakes along the way, which will shape him until he becomes the character that we know today,” adds Lacaille. That’s not to say there won’t be room for players to experiment, though, with Lacaille adding that some levels will be free form and provide opportunities to deploy gadgets and social manipulation techniques. “(For example) if you need to find your way in… you can either find an invitation or go through the window,” he says. “The game follows that pace all the way through.”
In the snappy three-minute reveal trailer, we got a peek at some of the locations players will be graduating through across the game. Alongside blistering mountain peaks, we spied a grand, museum-like building, a neon-soaked nightclub, an alpine forest, and a tropical beach, to name a few.
While Lacaille was keen not to reveal any more of the maps to come, he did hint that there were plenty more surprises ahead, confirming that IO Interactive understood how integral globetrotting was to the brand. “The way we approach (designing locations) is, it’s a mix of ‘the vacation you can’t afford’ and because we’re a video game, there will be some areas that would be too dangerous to report for real, but we can build them anyway,” he continues. “My favourite has not been revealed yet,” he jokes.
Bond isn’t alone, though, and players will be joined by an MI6 entourage, with the cast been reimagined to fit with the youthful timeline. “We have Moneypenny, who’s going to have a friendly relationship with Bond,” he says. “He has very few supporters at MI6 at the start, but she’s one of them, and she might get into trouble for helping him,” he continues.
“In our game, Q is an older man, and more of a gentleman who’s well-mannered and well-dressed, and will teach all of those things to Bond.” As well as the expected cast, the trailer also gave players a brief look at a new character called Greenway, played by The Walking Dead’s Lennie James, who will act as a mentor to the younger, more reckless Bond. MI6’s head honcho M also makes an appearance in the trailer, with Lacaille explaining that in First Light, her character is restarting the ‘double 0 program’, which was previously defunct.
Bringing Bond back in the modern day
007 First Light is set in an undisclosed but contemporary time period. As such, the gadgets players use have had to evolve to match the modern setting.
“It’s super interesting when we talk about gadgets, because back in the day when they made the original gadgets, everything was crazy – the computer was a big thing,” Lacaille says. “Today, your phone has 12 gadgets, or maybe 1,000 gadgets, so it was a challenge thinking, how can we make them feel exciting and different, but still able to be hidden in a mundane manner.”
As players progress through missions, they’ll be able to revisit the Q-lab and unlock a variety of action-assisting tools. “You can expect the watch, among others,” Lacaille notes. This attention to detail has also been taken into consideration when dressing Bond and his cohort, with Lacaille explaining that the team brought on consultants to ensure each character was clearly represented through their costuming and growth.
Another staple of the Bond IP is the spy’s affinity for fast cars. “(Driving) is new for IO, and we’ve worked a lot on that,” Lacaille explains.
“There will be different modes where you have a driving section in the game: you’ll have some moments where it’s a car chase, and then other moments where it’s a bit more free, slow-paced driving, because it’s a story moment and you’re chatting with someone in the car”, he says.
Notably, though, players expecting a cross-country driving simulator a la Grand Theft Auto 5 will need to adjust their expectations, as Lacaille confirmed 007 First Light won’t be an open-world sandbox experience.
Lacaille’s enthusiasm is infectious, and while there are plenty of details still to come, it’s clear that IO Interactive are being careful to cover all bases of the Bond story. “It’s a great chance to be able to work on this franchise, but there are also high expectations,” they explain.
“Even with the announcement, we were hoping people would like it,” they continue. “Thankfully, they did.” Looking ahead, Lacaille was eager to shout out the teams working on the project.
“Whether it’s the character or tech arts, game design, level design, et cetera, all these people are doing amazing work, and I think that’s what I’m most proud of,” he says. “Having this pool of talent that has worked on the agent fantasy for so long, and that now has the privilege of working on Bond,” he concluded. “It sounds like a good recipe.”