Review and Accessibility impressions: 007 First Light PS5 Pro
After delighting millions of gamers around the world with the adventures of Agent 47 in the renowned Hitman series for more than 25 years, the Danes at IO Interactive have finally gotten their hands on the James Bond franchise and are now on the brink of releasing the highly anticipated 007 First Light on May 27. Alina and I received early access to the game last week, and since then, we have played through the story, explored the accessibility options, and had an incredible time with what is, without question, the best James Bond game ever made. But before we dive into all of that, let me tell you a few things about my history with both the Hitman and 007 franchises.
Although I am totally blind now, I played all the Hitman games released up until 2012 and have remained a huge fan of the series ever since. I am also someone who has enjoyed all the James Bond movies over the years and has played most of the 007 games released on both PlayStation and PC. So, as you can see, I am someone who is very familiar not only with the incredible work IO Interactive has done with Hitman, but also with the entire James Bond franchise itself. And if I think about it even more deeply, hell, I did not just watch the movies and play the games, I have also listened to many of the audiobooks written by the legendary Ian Fleming.
With all this said, I can safely tell you that 007 First Light is not only the best James Bond game ever made, but also one of the best games releasing this year. Almost everything about it feels close to perfect, with the exception of it not being as accessible as we would have hoped. We have also encountered fewer than a handful of bugs here and there. Please keep in mind that we played a version of the game before its official release, so I am fairly certain that many of the issues mentioned above will be addressed in future updates.
What follows is a spoiler-free review of 007 First Light in which I will tell you everything you need to know about the game without revealing any major story details beyond what the developers have already shared publicly, alongside a few impressions regarding the accessibility features currently available. And to answer the question many of you who are reading this article are probably eager to ask: no, 007 First Light is not fully accessible for blind players, but more on that later.
Story
As some of you may already know, in 007 First Light we get to experience an entirely new origin story for the iconic James Bond, portrayed flawlessly by Patrick Gibson. He steps into the world of espionage after being noticed and recruited by MI6 following an almost impossible situation in Iceland where he somehow manages to beat the odds. Throughout his journey, Bond is surrounded by a large cast of both familiar and original characters. M, portrayed by Priyanga Burford, values Bond’s ability to remain calm under pressure and trusts his judgment. To help Bond in the field we have Q and his gadgets and as a direct handler there is the charming Moneypenny.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have John Greenway, brought to life with absolute intensity by Lennie James. He plays a former 00 agent and the program’s strict training instructor, whose disciplined, by-the-book philosophy constantly clashes with Bond’s instinctive and improvisational style, creating some genuinely well-timed comedic moments throughout the story.
When a rogue agent suddenly appears back on MI6’s radar, Bond is sent on a globe-trotting journey that takes him from London to the quiet Carpathian Mountains and all the way to the dangerous black market of Aleph which eventually lands him into the lair of the certifiably insane Bawma, played by the legendary Lenny Kravitz. There are of course many other exotic locations on 007’s mission log, but I will not spoil them for you.
I love good stories, and although I was not able to play 007 First Light myself, Alina made her way through the entire campaign, and I can confidently tell you that this is something truly special. The characters feel alive, the plot is timely, thrilling, gripping, and truly entertaining. Every line feels carefully written, and the entire campaign sounds, looks, feels, and plays flawlessly.
Gameplay
For 007 First Light, IO Interactive takes a highly creative approach to gameplay, giving us a collection of well-thought-out mechanics that will help us to follow Bond across exotic and dangerous locations around the world. Objectives can be approached through stealth, direct action, or a mixture of both, all powered by four refined gameplay systems.
First of them is Spycraft, which rewards observation through eavesdropping on key conversations, pickpocketing vital items, and uncovering environmental clues that open entirely new pathways forward.
Another one is Bond’s Instinct which gives us a versatile edge, allowing us to lure enemies, bluff our way out of suspicious situations, or sharpen our focus for increased precision during combat.
Another important part of the gameplay are the Q Branch gadgets which expand our tactical possibilities through hacking, lock cutting, distractions, eliminations, and quiet takedowns.
When stealth inevitably breaks down, and all crap goes to hell, combat becomes fast, fluid, and incredibly satisfying, blending beautifully impactful close-quarters takedowns with visceral gunplay. These intense action-heavy moments, where we get our Licence to Kill and blow everything up, balance themselves surprisingly well against the quieter and more methodical infiltration missions.
The story moves fast from one location to another and with such awesome gameplay the time will fly by faster than driving at 150mph in a vintage Aston Martin.
Presentation
As I mentioned earlier, 007 First Light looks, sounds, plays, and feels absolutely phenomenal, and I know that because Alina could not stop telling me just how unbelievably sharp and clean everything looked on our PS5 Pro. I’m glad that she gets to experience a picture perfect presentation on our LG G5 65” TV because it seems that it really helps to have a console capable of running a game with PSSR 2.0.
Everything about the presentation feels premium and polished to perfection. The sound design is fantastic, the music carries that iconic Bond atmosphere perfectly, and the performances are award-worthy.
Hell, we even have Lana Del Rey and David Arnold absolutely nailing the classic Bond atmosphere with 007 First Light original theme song. Their work blends perfectly with the stunning cinematography, delivering an opening that feels like a full-scale James Bond film intro sequence.
Add to that the incredible DualSense implementation, with haptics that can be customized to reflect almost everything happening on screen, from subtle conversations to musical cues and explosive action sequences, and you end up with one of the most immersive, cinematic, and atmospheric gaming experiences released in recent years.
Accessibility
Now we have arrived at a part of our review that many of you were waiting for and sadly here things are not as good. The good news is that 007 First Light has a number of great accessibility features, between which we can take advantage of menu narration, larger subtitles, speaker direction, button toggles instead of holds, customizable controls and many other, but there is no navigation assist to help us find the objective and no target lock.
The menu narration uses the PS5 Screen Reader engine, which is great, but not great is the fact that although we can customize the elements that will be read out to us, not all of them work as intended. We should hear button prompts, dialogue choices, tutorials and objectives, but at this point in time the menu narration system seems to be incomplete.
The menu narration is not on by default, but it is quite easy to enable it at the first boot of the game. you can find a video with that on my YouTube channel. Also there you can find the customary accessibility deep dive video and some gameplay with me dying again and again.
Vibration customization is also quite deep and should reflect button prompts, but just like with menu narration, seems to be not working or incomplete. I really hope that IO will fix these issues as soon as possible.
We also have auto Quick Time Events completion and auto camera centering behind 007.
I’m glad to see IO implementing accessibility features and I really hope they are taking feedback from players into consideration to fix and add extra options.
Verdict
The talented people at IO Interactive have done a tremendous job with 007 First Light! This is a masterpiece that will delight and entertain Bond fans around the world and will introduce millions other to the agent who likes his martini shaken, not stirred. There are so many things to say about First Light, but I really don’t want to take away from the beautiful surprises that await you along the way.
If you love James Bond, you’ll be in heaven playing 007 First Light and if you’ve never considered a movie from the series before, you will be binging them after you play this!
All I hope is that IO Interactive will continue to invest in accessibility for this game and future projects because such awesome experiences really should be for everyone.
If anyone from IO reads this, please reach out to me, I’m in Oslo, probably just one hour away from your studio and am always happy to chat accessibility.
007 First Light is releasing on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version will follow later this Summer.
Review copy provided by IO Interactive and MGM Studios via MI5 Communication
Victor Dima
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