007 First Light

I pre-ordered this game as soon as I finished watching the teaser; not even a teaser, but a full-fledged title sequence - with silhouettes of guns and girls, flashes of kisses and gunshots, reflections, smoke, and Lana Del Rey. That golden-on-black imagery, the anxious cinematic strings, and classic Bond orchestral blasts made me want to immediately put on a tuxedo and go charm someone. This kind of arrangement and editing isn't done by those who've read manuals on "the atmosphere of classic spy cinema," but by those who've breathed that atmosphere since childhood, who've rewatched Bond title sequences frame by frame not for work, but out of love. Three minutes not of gameplay and textures, but pure vibe, so that no one has any doubts. And indeed, there were none.

IO Interactive really understood what they were getting into, and if you think about it, it was clear even without Lana. Because Agent 47 has always been a kind of Bond in reverse. The same basic concept: a man in an expensive suit prowls the world's most beautiful locations with extremely dubious intentions. IO spent twenty years honing this exact formula - social stealth, space exploration, elegant elimination of targets - so the transition to 007 for them is not a leap into the unknown, but a ceremonial exit through the front door. And they also have "Kane & Lynch" in their history with frantic, dirty shootouts - and now we have both spy silence and gunpowder chaos. All that's left is to grease the meat with oil, add a pinch of Splinter Cell, pour a finger of Uncharted - and here's a confident contender for Game of the Year.

How does it work? It all starts with that very social stealth: you study the location, look for approaches, figure out who to eavesdrop on, who to pickpocket, who to walk past with the confident face of someone who belongs there (the "bluff" button is a brilliant solution). Then comes regular stealth "from the shadows" with sneaky dashes and silent takedowns. And if something goes wrong (and it always does) - fistfights turning into shootouts. Hand-to-hand combat is done in the spirit of Batman's "Arkham" games: a bit heavy, reactions sometimes lag. But shooting is a spectacle. Empty a magazine, throw the pistol at an enemy's face, stun them, finish them off in three steps in melee, grab their weapon and keep shooting without breaking rhythm. When I first pulled off this combo - on pure instinct, as if I'd always known how - I screamed like a beast.

Hell, I screamed through the whole game. Chase a plane on a mobile staircase? Sign me up. Continue the brawl in that same plane, first flying and then falling? Give me two. Blast techno in a meditation cave at a Vietnamese resort? That's just the kind of person I am. Oh-oh-oh, what's this? They're letting me drive a dump truck? OH MY GOD, THEY'RE ACTUALLY LETTING ME DRIVE A DUMP TRUCK! Gadgets - spy-like. Story - Bond to the bone. Villains - cunning and charismatic. Girls - sarcastic and dangerous.

Special mention must be made of Bond himself. This is not a tired Craig or an icy Connery - this is a young, cheeky dandy who hasn't yet earned his license but acts as if he has. He snaps at his superiors, banters with Q and Moneypenny, insults enemies, and looks equally devastating in a classic tuxedo as in a wetsuit. Patrick Gibson plays exactly the version of Bond you want to see at the beginning of his journey: brash, charming, and just a little naive.

And from this, everything else comes together: a brash hero demands a brash pace, insolence in dialogue rhymes with insolence in action, and the character's charisma flows into the charisma of the game itself. This is the first truly great Bond game since GoldenEye. More importantly, it's a Bond made by people who love and understand what this whole story is about. The code name is justified. The number is earned. The sequel too. James Bond will return.

#played_ps5