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When Hitman developer IO Interactive announced it was making a James Bond game, it seemed like a perfect fit – after all, both Hitman and Bond share a focus on exotic locations, high-stakes stealth missions, and a dry sense of camp tying it all together. As it turns out, the studio felt pretty much the same way about moving onto 007 First Light.
"I'm excited to finally be at this point, being able to deliver all these amazing pieces of news with you," franchise art director Rasmus Poulsen tells GamesRadar+ in advance of today's 007 First Light State of Play.
"For me, Bond has been an inspiration throughout my career at IO, doing the previous projects," Poulsen continues. "So it feels like coming home in so many, many respects. Beyond that, I'm really proud of the fact that I feel like we're delivering a wonderful stealth action-adventure game that really encompasses everything you would expect from the Bond experience. That's saying a lot, and I think we're delivering on that."
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Poulsen was previously credited as franchise art director on Hitman 2 – as in the middle chapter of the World of Assassination trilogy – but his history with IO goes all the way back to the Blood Money days. In that time, Hitman has often felt very much in line with the tone of Bond's adventures, though admittedly 007's sense of humor has evolved over the years.
"The humor was important as well," Poulsen says while describing the challenges of creating a new Bond that synthesizes aspects of different versions of the character over the years. "We wanted you to join Bond on this adventure. You are, on the one hand, playing him, and on the other hand, you're experiencing his reaction to the world. So you have this fun dualism between you and him. Then secondly, there's this thing about the dry, dry British wit."
Does dressing up in a flamingo suit and throwing a homing briefcase at a guard's head count as dry British wit? I guess we'll find out when 007 First Light launches next year.
Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.
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