Developing the primary James Bond online game in over a decade has felt like returning “back home” for IO Interactive, the Danish studio recognized for its personal globe-trotting agent fantasy collection “Hitman.”
Scheduled for launch subsequent yr, “007 First Light” takes the long-honed stealth infiltration system IO developed for “Hitman” and throws in a wholesome dose of Bond’s over-the-top automotive chases, gunplay and intercourse attraction.
“While doing (Hitman) earlier, I was bathing in 007 cool,” the brand new sport’s artwork director Rasmus Poulsen informed AFP on the Gamescom commerce truthful in Cologne. “Now we’re back home (in) this elevated world with a sense of wonder and a sense of ominous ‘what now’.”
The most up-to-date films starring Daniel Craig are favorites at IO, making it no shock that the sport depicts a youthful Bond incomes his license to kill.
And chasing a “timeless” look, Poulsen plunged deep into “Kodak, emulsion and the film stock and color for 60s films all the way to the 80s, how blues and reds looked, how the colors pop” — forming “the foundation for a lot of the palette choices” within the sport.
But the studio has not slavishly adopted the movies, with their authentic tackle the budding tremendous spy’s appears to be like impressed by Ian Fleming’s authentic novels — all the way down to a particular facial scar.
“First Light” gamers can count on an expertise with “everything from social manipulation… all the way to very refined gunplay, and indeed driving and action set-pieces,” Poulsen mentioned.
Bond supplied the setting for trailblazing 1997 first-person shooter “Goldeneye 007” — nonetheless a nostalgic touchstone for players.
Although some subsequent releases offered properly, they did not make the identical affect and the gaming franchise petered out within the early 2010s.
Rightsholder Eon Productions was additionally reportedly sad with the content material of Bond video games — which regularly emphasised slinging bullets fairly than type or one-liners.
That made a gap for IO, which had pulled itself again from the monetary brink since 2017 by going non-public, slashing prices and focusing onerous on “Hitman”.
Having grown from simply 100 workers again then to round 500 now — largely due to “First Light” — “our creative juices, diversity has never been this rich before,” chief govt Hakan Abrak informed AFP at Gamescom.
The firm has offered greater than 25 million copies of “Hitman” video games since 2016, usually attractive new and returning gamers with content material drops together with assassination targets modelled on stars like Sean Bean and Mads Mikkelsen.
Abrak contrasts the Bond sport with the world of “Hitman”, the place every sprawling degree is a stand-alone puzzle for gamers to unpick, usually favoring disguise, sabotage or poison over a guns-blazing strategy.
While the gameplay proven off in Cologne bears the “Hitman” heritage, the main target in “First Light” on the over-arching story means “Bond is a bit more cinematic… it’s a game that breathes more” than ‘Hitman’, Abrak mentioned.
The title will alternate between comparatively linear storytelling moments or set-pieces and open areas with “more freedom to figure out (Bond’s) next move,” he added.
Any Bond launch is inevitably tied into the roster of luxurious manufacturers behind the objects that dot the franchise, from his Omega watches to Aston Martin automobiles of assorted vintages.
Many such “coveted objects” have been lovingly recreated in digital kind as “it lends credibility to what we’re doing,” artwork director Poulsen mentioned.
Players will get particularly acquainted with Bond’s timepiece, utilizing its onboard pc to hack objects within the setting and later upgrading it with a laser.
Control of the Bond franchise itself shifted throughout improvement as Amazon purchased MGM in 2022.
007’s new co-owners had positioned “big trust” in IO to get the sport proper, boss Abrak mentioned, including that the developer had been free of the constraints of adapting a film.
Looking forward, the IO chief sees no danger of the studio getting pigeonholed into an agent sport area of interest.
An as-yet unnamed fantasy sport the corporate is engaged on is “coming from the heart… with Bond and with this project next to Hitman, hopefully the outside will see that we are more diverse,” Abrak mentioned.
© 2025 AFP