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007 First Light could have been a reskinned Hitman. Developer IO Interactive certainly could have pulled it off – there are few stand-ins for Agent 47 as tailor-fit as James Bond – but as our 007 First Light preview found, there's a lot more than meets the eye here. Sure, the studio's open stealth-sandbox formula carries forward, with a disguised Bond infiltrating a swanky hotel during the level shown to us, but there are also careening car chases and explosive airfield shootouts to contend with.
For IO, bringing the Bond experience to life meant pairing the studio's existing strengths with a willingness to venture into less proven grounds. Speaking to IO Interactive CEO Hakan Abrak at Gamescom, where a swanky red carpet-style booth has been set up for previews, Abrak acknowledges that Hitman alone couldn't lay all the foundations for First Light.
"One thing Hitman hasn't been wildly known for are smooth animations or combat," suggests Abrak. "Without saying it's the 'wrong way' to play, if you just go in shooting, it's probably not the way to play Hitman for a lot of fans. It's not necessarily top-class shooting mechanics."
Yet for Abrak, a large part of Bond is about globetrotting – "coming to exotic places where mere mortals like you and me maybe don't get access to every day" – and there, the parallels to Hitman are clearer. "We've been doing that for 20-plus years, so check," he says. But other elements of that fantasy have demanded far more from IO.
You know my name
At multiple points during our chat, Abrak refers to wanting to create a "360" James Bond experience. He promises it's not intended as a "buzzword" – rather, it's shorthand for wanting to deliver the full scope of a Bond film rather than one slice of it, such as infiltration or shooting alone. In trying to identify that fantasy in its entirety, IO found that there were areas that lay beyond its comfort zone.
"The combat [in Bond] is seamless, it free flows from fisticuffs to shooting," says Abrak. "It's dynamic – the seamlessness of that is definitely something we knew we needed to up our game and do new technology, new features. Driving, as well [as] action set pieces, explosions, things that you would expect from a full Bond experience. There were other pillars where we knew we needed to up our game, and it's been hard. But at the same time, getting there and feeling like we have a fantastic dynamic combat system, actually making these setpieces, it fills you with confidence."
But Abrak believes those challenges are all of a technical nature. A separate beast is identifying the "nucleus" of Bond and bringing it to life, which has involved working with the studio's partners to "understand the finer details about this franchise" – all while telling an original story. Rather than adapting a film or Ian Fleming novel, First Light will explore an "alternative origin story" that follows Bond's journey to becoming a 00 agent.
"That was daunting," admits Abrak. "You want to treat [Bond] with respect, but you also want to push and surprise the audience at the same time. Getting that balance right has been daunting, but also extremely exciting to work on."
The suit makes the man
Bond is a capable person – he can use his physicality, his gadgetry, his charm… That holistic experience – if [fans] say we did that, then I'll be a happy man
Hakan Abrak
As for nailing that all-important feeling of playing James Bond, Abrak describes 007 First Light as "breathing" – in the sense that sometimes the game constricts to become more linear, while other moments 'exhale' to give players that Hitman-esque freedom in what they're doing.
"At times when you breathe in, it gets more curated by us, because this is an experience where we're telling a story," explains Abrak. "So there's certain emotions and things that our young Bond is going through, and we really want to be intimate with that, and to be able to take you through those action pieces or more emotional moments. But then again, because we are also IO Interactive, being able to breathe, open up, and say 'Well, there's an obstacle here and there's different ways of doing that' - all the time, there's pretty much a creative approach."
In those areas, Hitman's foundations shine brightest. Though it's ultimately a "very different" game to Agent 47's series, First Light bears a similar emphasis on letting players make their own way through a sandbox. Abrak points to being able to lean on stealth, creative gadget usage, or outright violence to get around guards, as an example, along with that feeling of solving problems as Bond.
"It's [all about] creating a game space for you to use your charm, your wits, not only in cutscenes but in gameplay," says Abrak. "Traversing a social space and figuring it out, listening in, getting cues on what to do [...] Like, outwitting people. Bond is a capable person – he can use his physicality, his gadgetry, his charm… That holistic experience – if [fans] say we did that, then I'll be a happy man."
That, Abrak says, will be his personal measure of First Light's success. "I also hope there's a little bit of IO's fingerprints in there," he adds, pointing to his broader ambitions as a studio leader. "There have been really, really good Bond games before. Everyone knows GoldenEye, it's a legendary game. What we want to do is carve out a bit of space there for us to have contributed to that legacy as well."
We've rounded up the new games still to come in 2026 and beyond, including 007 First Light
