For such a simple idea, James Bond is an oddly complex character, ranging from suave playboy to ruthless killer to cunning brute and everything in between. The tone of the character has been all over the place, so it can be difficult to identify what makes Bond who he is. That can be extra tough in the video game medium. Outside of the brilliant Goldeneye, the franchise has struggled with what separates Bond from a generic video game protagonist. Thankfully IO Interactive, creators of the Hitman franchise, prove that it's certainly possible.

First Light follows a new version of Bond. An airman on a doomed mission, he narrowly survives the crashing of his plane and, even more miraculously, manages to almost single-handedly complete a seemingly impossible mission on his own. This skill and fortitude get him drafted by MI6 as part of a program to find the most elite agents. The program quickly proves necessary, as MI6 is embroiled in a plot involving traitors in the organization, evil businessmen, and a potential threat to the fate of the free world. Bond has to prove that he has what it takes in his first mission.

First Light is an origin story for Bond but, mercifully, it's one that avoids having too much build-up. Bond's pre-MI6 days mostly comprise the game's tutorial, and it isn't long before he's doing everything you'd expect an agent to do if he had a license to kill. I can't say the plot is anything mind-blowing, but it is very Bond: big, bombastic, energetic, and true to its big-budget motion picture feel. It feels like playing a Bond movie in the best ways.

When it comes to pacing, First Light suffers from being a game instead of a movie. Bond films are quick and punchy, and while First Light frequently does feel that way, it occasionally meanders and slows down and takes a touch too long to get where it needs to go. It's a shame because the game's opening is brilliant, giving players a fairly easy mission to do followed by probably one of the best tutorials I've seen in a game. The tutorial uses the framing of a training montage to quickly but effectively throw basic mechanics at you, and it's such a cool idea that I'm surprised I haven't seen it more. After that, the story goes in starts and stops.

A very important thing to understand going into First Light is that it isn't a reskinned Hitman game. Despite the credentials of the developers, this is absolutely a James Bond game first and foremost. That means you can expect a good amount of time dedicated to big, bombastic set pieces full of explosions, action, and unavoidable combat, and plenty of time spent on relatively linear plot-heavy segments. This isn't a criticism of the game, but it's something important to keep in mind.

A good portion of the game is dedicated to what you might expect if someone said, "Bond by way of Hitman." James is asked to sneak into a dangerous environment and find his targets. While the areas are not quite as free-roam as a Hitman game would be, they are filled to the brim with various options to sneak past guards and reach his target. If you were hoping for Hitman but with Bond as the protagonist, this isn't it, but the options feel far more appropriate for Bond than they do Agent 47.

Some of these are very straightforward, such as sneaking and stealth. Other times, James can use his legendary personality to his advantage by bluffing his way past guards. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't, but it's nice to have the option to try to talk your way past danger instead of resorting to fisticuffs right away. It prevents you from feeling like you've failed the moment a guard notices you, and it adds a nice tension to the proceedings.

There's a variety of gadgets that you can use, including a borderline magical watch that can hack nearly anything in the environment, a hidden dart gun that can make enemies ill, and a watch-mounted laser that can cut through locks. You can only bring a limited number of these objects into missions, so you need to decide what you're prioritizing. The game's also quite good about assuring almost everything feels useful. I never regretted bringing a gadget, but there are times when I wished I had another, different gadget.

A major difference between 007 and Hitman is that 007 is designed around the idea of failure. You are likely going to screw up at some point. Something will go wrong, you'll fail a bluff, you make a mistake when sneaking, or something else entirely. No matter what, James will eventually need to rely on combat instead of just espionage. In a Hitman game, this would be a borderline failure state. You've messed up, now you have to kill your way out, and even if you succeed at the mission, you've made it obvious and brought down heat on you. James Bond, though? He had a license to kill and no qualms about using it.

Thankfully, this means that combat in the game is fun. Melee combat is the star of the show. It isn't complex and usually revolves around a few basic combos, but the environments make it shine. You can kick guns out of people's hands, throw them over railings, toss them into objects in the environment, and more. Each environment is full of things to use in combat, and it makes it feel incredibly weighty and real. It doesn't matter if you're punching and kicking your way through groups of enemies with ease or if you're barely scraping by, but it feels like a Bond fight.

Gunplay is similarly quite fun. Bond is a crack shot and marksman, but rarely can you thoughtlessly shoot your way through encounters. Ammo is just limited enough that you'll need to adapt on the fly. You may shoot explosive objects in the environment or toss your now-empty gun at an enemy's head so you can rush over and steal their fully loaded weapon. It feels rather Uncharted in that you really shouldn't just be shooting enemies but remaining constantly on the move to flank, ambush and get up close.

The resulting gameplay is consistently engaging and fun. You're not getting into a specific rhythm and swapping between various tools and options until you reach the end. More so than any previous game before, it feels like a James Bond game. I love Goldeneye as much as anyone, but it was very much a shooter with a James Bond flavor, while First Light feels like a game crafted around playing as the legendary spy.

Unfortunately, the game's driving levels feel like a dud. Driving is as synonymous with James Bond as tuxedos and shaken drinks, but it feels very perfunctory and lackluster. The driving levels are barely interactive, and they sometimes feel more like a cut scene than gameplay. They look cool, but whenever James got behind the wheel of a vehicle, I quickly lost interest. Thankfully, they're relatively few and far between, but it's the one rough patch on an otherwise fantastic game.

The game also offers challenge modes where you can complete certain objectives in exchange for rewards, which … well, this is the most Hitman the game gets. It's a neat option to let you hop into the gameplay and experiment and explore, but it never quite reaches the height of Hitman. Instead of an endlessly experimental sandbox, it's a way to hop into and enjoy certain elements of the game without chugging through the story.

As for the visuals, First Light is a gorgeous game from start to finish. Each environment is stylish and memorable, the characters look fantastic, and it's generally just a delight to see in motion. It looks like a Bond movie, and there was no real point in the game where I was taken out of the illusion. I was a bit unsure of Patrick Gibson, who plays Bond, but the game makes him shine. About an hour into the game, he felt as Bond to me as Connery or Craig. He's a younger and absolutely less brutish Bond than Craig's recent version, but it works perfectly. The game's presentation is great, but I did find a couple of the voice actors to be a little weak, particularly among the villains.

007: First Light is absolutely the best James Bond simulator I've ever played, and it's probably the overall best game in the franchise once I let go of my nostalgia for Goldeneye. A clever and creative mix of genres and styles, it takes the best of Hitman, meshes it with the best of Bond, and creates a game that absolutely nails what it is trying to do. The game has some lackluster driving segments and a slightly bloated plot, but fans of Bond should be mostly delighted by the spy's latest outing.

Score: 9.0/10