007 First Light

 007 First Light struck me as a reasonably good game and a very solid James Bond experience.

I don't have the Hitman familiarity to compare it to, but the game mechanics worked well. The open investigative levels offered some flexibility, at least. I wouldn't describe them as offering full freedom, but you're generally given a handful of threads without needing to pull on them all to progress. 

I'm of two minds regarding the tutorial montage. On one hand, it really fits stylistically and feels kind of cool. On the other hand, jumping straight from melee to shooting to driving (which is barely used in the game under any pressure) can be a bit disorienting. In fact, the melee mechanics never quite clicked with me, leading me to switch to an easier difficulty mode after losing a few times to the first major "boss" fight. The shooting was fine, though I think you go through more enemies than any Bond movie by far, so don't think about that too much.

I like this Bond well enough. He doesn't have the presence of some of the movie Bonds, but the level of reckless charm built up over a solid moral foundation works well. I like Bond's pre-MI6 mission and how that leads to M picking him up and tossing him into the new 00 training crew. Aaaand, that's probably all I can say without getting spoilery.

Games are getting a bit pricey these days, but this one is a good release overall and solid entertainment.

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So, spoilers...

I have to say while James is the protagonist without a doubt, the core plot of First Light really feels more like Greenway's story. He's pulled out of retirement to train the next generation of 00 agents and he's vital at several points of the story. The chemistry between the pair as he goes from hyper-critical mentor to appreciating Bond's instincts feels genuine.

The story revolving around the use of an AI, Theia, to perform intelligence work is properly timely in today's world (a lot of Bond stories have done that in some way). So the "bad guy" and central threat there is not exactly surprising, even if it's a little less directly malicious than I might have predicted as he's covering up Theia's mistakes rather than shaping them (though there's threat of that in the endgame). M doesn't recruit Bond in spite of his recklessness, but rather because of it. Having beat the odds once in a major way, he sort of proves the point that there is still a place for human gut feelings and straight up luck.

Supporting characters work well. Isola might be a little too mysterious, being a "thief" with ridiculous resources and international pull. There are speculations she's part of SPECTRE (or this world's equivalent), which is possible and would create some tension going forward as she continues to work with/against Bond. I'd like to see Cressida in the future, even if she is sidelined from field duty. 

In fact, I think I'd like to see a sequel open up with Bond on a mission rescuing Harmony from some threat and turning her over to Bawma. There's some indication that she's actually dead, but I think that being a cover up or mistake would be easy enough. It would provide grounds for an 'in media res' intro mission, give a callback to this game, and establish Bond/MI6 as moral "good guys" by following through on a promise. Probably not that likely and who knows if there will even be a sequel with the wacky world of game studios these days anyway.

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