007 First Light

I’m still really early in the game, so no spoilers in the comments! I just completed the training, and Bond is moving in with the two other agents. I stopped there because the game is dragging a little here and I was already sleepy. Nothing on the game at all. That was just me.

So I haven’t played a 007 game since Nightfire on the GameCube. I really don’t know if there have been any 007 games since then, as I haven’t been checking for them. Golden Eye is forever goated. I will not be argued with. I also have zero information about James Bond’s beginnings, so this was actually really interesting to me. I’m loving the graphics! Absolutely beautiful game. I love a good night scene, especially near the water. (game dev rant) The way a game can handle lighting at night or around water has always been my benchmark for lighting for the rest of the game. Lighting is difficult enough, so how well a game handles it sets a standard in my opinion.

I was a little disappointed by the cliché plane crash behind enemy territory and stealth your way out, but it’s Bond, so stealth was expected. Might as well start with it and learn the ropes early. Another thing I look for in games is the tutorial. (game dev rant) I appreciate a well-incorporated tutorial. Not too much handholding but still tell me how to do things. The same with the training montage. It was really cool to be able to quickly jump through how to drive, shooting, and close combat. I will complain a little here, though. While it was a great way to speed the player through the tutorial, none of it registered with me. It was very much a panicky quick-time event style tutorial, and when the player is in that QTE mindset, you’re not learning anything. You’re just quickly hitting buttons. So I know later in the game, someone is going to absolutely handle me in close combat.

Speaking of combat, I kinda hate it. I don’t see a way to lock on to an enemy. Maybe I missed it, but I don’t like being unable to lock on to a target, and my character is just running around. I’ll stick to shooting and stealth attacks, but I’m sure I’ll hit a section where I’m going to have Bond looking foolish as I run around waiting to counter.

Another annoyance I had with the game was the “R-Stick to look around”. Look at what?! Every time that option appeared, the camera could only rotate like half an inch in any direction. Why prompt me to look around if you’re going to lock the camera on the focal point? And it’s frustrating because, as I said, the game is beautiful and there are moments I do just want to look around and explore, but either the camera is locked on the focal point, or the game is rushing me to get moving.

If a player is lagging around in an area too long, it’s normal to prompt them to get back on task, but give me 5 seconds, Bond. I felt like I’d pause for 3 seconds and Bond would start nagging about getting a move on and needing to hurry. Let me take in the sights a little or look around for the collectibles. Bond should be cool and relaxed. Not rushing to get the job over.

One more nag and I’ll stop. Collectibles. I hate collectibles in most games. Mainly because they have nothing to do with the game and make no sense. We’re collecting playing cards and postcards. Why? The intel makes sense. Why does the enemy have a random playing card just sitting out and why does Bond want it? Why do you have a postcard out here on your secret mission? And again, why would Bond want it? The henchman is writing a postcard to a loved one and Bond is like “They’ll never get this lovely postcard. Hehehe.” Does he write the family pretending to be the henchman? Stick with the intel. It makes sense. It fits the theme.

Despite my grumblings so far, I am having fun with the game. I have no issue with it being a linear game like some people had issues with. They are telling a story here. This is not a choose-your-own-path type of deal. We’re dealing with a developed character’s origin story and we gotta respect what BOND would do and not what the PLAYER wants to do.

I’ll absolutely be continuing my playthrough as I’m enjoying the game so far and I’m excited to see more of young Bond. Tell me if you’re playing or played the game and how you feel about it. Remember, no spoilers!

Look, life be lifing sometimes and I was away from this game for a while. Also, I set myself up because I stopped mid-mission and was gone so long that I forgot the controls. So that was fun. You’re probably also realizing I skipped the early game impressions. Well, I finally had some free time and wanted to play a little…then I started binging the game. BUT IT WAS SO GOOD. Yet, I ended up rage-quitting the game after hitting a really bad bug.

So I left you all pretty early on. Since then, Bond moved into a super nice apartment where we realized Bond is the broke one. Which is crazy for someone like me who has always seen Bond with the nice cars, cool gadgets, expensive suits, etc., to show up with a single duffle bag. And a big shoutout to the environment team here. I know this isn’t a mission, but this apartment was one of my favorite areas. YES. I love seeing attention to detail, especially when it’s not required. The place actually looks and feels like everyone is moving in. And I LOVE the way the player can interact with this space! I appreciate the animation when walking close to things and Bond puts his hand up to kind of brace himself. I love how interactions with objects change when a specific NPC is in the area.

I was excited to finally see characters like Moneypenny, M, and Q. We hear their voices in the old game, but I don’t think they ever introduce us to the characters. It’s so nice to see them and put a face and personality to these people. Ponsonby is my favorite, of course. Oh, and I’m so sorry, Arthur. Q likes experimenting on his workers, which is hilarious but scary because we’re testing weapons. Why all the mannequins if you’re going to use human test subjects?

So I begin playing through the training missions and I’m really enjoying myself. The game tends to lean very stealth-heavy. Now, I know you have the option of going loud, but generally, stealth is the easiest way to progress in a lot of these areas. Going loud, shoot-em-up style can become troublesome really quickly due to low ammo. You also get chastised by the NPCs at times for going loud. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good stealth game and spies aren’t supposed to be blowing things up all the time, but it’s kind of Bond’s thing.

I like the puzzles and investigating, but the puzzles are kind of simple. I would like more of a challenge when trying to access a super secret bunker, but the clues are always in the same room, or you can guess your way in by mistake. Hey, NPCs. Shut up! Let me try to solve it on my own and maybe don’t tell me the answer 5 seconds into looking around the room. Don’t go stand next to the secret button. Don’t say “I’m sure these pictures have something to do with it” or “Maybe I should talk to that person over there”. Shut. Up.

There’s an awful lot of walking around and listening to conversations. The game can get a bit yappy at times. We do finally get moments to blow everything up, which feels rewarding at times but can become daunting unless you lean into the focus mode and have the more explosive gadgets equipped instead of the silent ones. It feels nice to carelessly blow stuff up after hours of walking and talking. It’s such a relief.

I was having a lot of fun and then things kind of…stopped being fun. It’s like the game started to drag and I found myself picking up on issues. It started as a question about the story. After the explosion and the agents are killed/hurt, if 009 is this super scary guy and there was a whole team pursuing him, why was Bond sent to pursue him alone? You know, the least competent agent, according to Greenway. Greenway must really want Bond to die. I feel like if they really thought Bond was as incompetent as they think he is, they would simply yell at him to stay out of the way and retreat for now.

Missions became agonizing. I appreciate being able to explore and investigate, but it gets a little boring and tiresome at times. I like having options to complete the main objective, but some of them feel, I don’t know, empty? For example, the mission to raise the money to enter the auction felt a little grindy. I could be wrong, but are you required to do ALL the different ways to make up the money? If so, that was a waste of an opportunity to place some control into the player’s hands. Give me a variety of ways to make up the money and let me decide which ones to do. Even if it’s a fun gambling moment where I have a real win/lose situation and Greenway bails me out if I lose it all. I said early on that I completely understand linear stories and I’m never against them. But when you have a chance to let the player have control, jump on it!

The layout of maps like the ship is too familiar. Each scene we move to looks really nice and unique, but once I start moving through the world, it feels the same as the training course. The club was a little better at avoiding this, but the boat is too close to the other obstacles. Same when escaping the museum/gala/whatever. It starts to get a little boring after a while.

I praised the game earlier for having attention to detail, but then it just loses that at some point. We leave the shootout in the desert and we’re sitting at a light in what appears to be a car accident because it’s not traffic. There’s no one driving these cars and the cars are just stopped in the middle of the street. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to look that close, but detail slips a bit here. Then there are small things like finding a phone on the floor, but again, I’m nitpicking.

There was a little disappointment during the assassination attempt. So, I saw a few scenes of Bond fighting the guy in the kitchen and got the impression that this was a difficult fight. As soon as the fight started, I beat this man with every cup in the kitchen and that was it. The big fight was over already. I was left a little sad at how easy it was.

So, I didn’t just keep failing and quit. I broke the game (cursed QA powers). I spent over an hour trying to solve the sensor puzzle during the Reach the Perch mission. I set off the alarm and went around to check the open room. I couldn’t find a pathway through. I could see items behind the clutter but no way to reach them. I ran around the area trying to figure out if I needed to lure the robot somehow or zap something. Nothing. For the first time, even the NPCs said nothing. There was no hint, no path; I was stuck. I’m not one to search for answers on the internet because I want to solve them myself. I spent FOREVER trying to find a way through before finally giving up in a fit of anger and having to look up a guide.

I think when I bumped into Greenway as we came through the door, it threw off his path and blocked the trigger. It appears, for everyone else, once you trip the sensor, Greenway is supposed to flip the light switch, then there’s a box to move, blah blah blah. You get the picture. None of that happened to me, obviously. Greenway didn’t say or do anything after tripping the alarm and I never got the prompt to push the box. Because it’s a puzzle, I didn’t realize something wasn’t triggering and wasted almost 2 hours running around this area. This was insanely frustrating as it’s a progression-blocking bug. There is literally no workaround other than exiting to the main menu. The good news is, the game starts just outside the door, so you won’t lose progress. The only difference is that Greenway thinks you cleared the room silently if you previously went loud, so you get a different conversation.

I’m feeling the lag and the game is starting to show its flaws, but I’m holding out for it. There seem to be a lot of highs and lows, and I believe the game will pick back up as I keep going. Even after playing all of this, I’m only at the midway point. Fingers crossed the game can speed things up and pull me back in, but if it keeps going with the monotonous style it’s slipping into, this could be a failed attempt at reviving this series.