007 First Light PS5 Review: This Is Exactly How You Build A James Bond Origin Story
The screen accelerates time, cutting through a high-octane montage of raw training routines that instantly grabs you by the throat and drags you headfirst into the sleek world of MI6. You step right into the customisable watch of a young, rogue maverick who is fighting for survival and building his legacy as the world’s most iconic secret agent. Every single restricted corner of this gorgeous 3D world feels thick with tension, daring you to execute the perfect infiltration or watch a simple bluff spiral into heavy, bone-crushing violence. It is an incredibly slick setup that completely captures the action-movie spark, keeping you pinned to the edge of your seat without ever slowing down.
QUICK NAV: [Specs] [Gameplay] [Performance] [Settings]
007 First Light PlayStation 5 Review
- Developer: IO Interactive A/S
- Publisher: IO Interactive A/S
- Official Website: IO Interactive Official Site
- UK Store Link: PlayStation Store UK
- Genre: Action-Adventure / Stealth
- Release Date: May 26, 2026
- Download Size: 50.90GB Download size.
- Trophies: Full Platinum trophy path with 38 trophies to hunt down.
- Tacsim Exercises: A dedicated simulation mode where you can freely set up custom training scenarios and practice your skills before hitting the field.
- Home Base Exploration: When you are not out on live missions, you walk around areas like your current home or the HQ to talk with other characters and have a proper nose about the place.
- Loadout Preparations: You choose exactly what gear and items to take with you before a mission starts. New items unlock over time, and you get to test them out directly on Arthur inside Q’s lab.
007 First Light PlayStation 5 Review
007 First Light has one of the best opening levels in a video game, period, and it absolutely does not stop there. The tutorial-heavy parts can be considered a masterclass in how to introduce the mechanics and gameplay to a player, dishing out the training over time in the opening mission with quick button prompts and a handy tutorial menu to brush up on later. Once you break through that and get into the actual game, wow. It is a game all about achieving a goal, however you feel fit, letting you play how you want and use the world how you want. If you have ever played a Hitman game, you know a lot of what to expect and know that this day is coming, because all Hitman games lead to Bond. The writing and banter between everyone, even the little throwaway conversations you hear on guard patrols, are completely brilliant. James Bond is well portrayed here; the actor does such a great job of making it his own and giving us a different version of Bond, and I am a huge fan of this direction. The cute menus, the cinematic transitions, and the entire setup are all of the highest quality. You get these fantastic film-style montages where it accelerates time and shows the character going through trading, but you actually play large chunks of it, and it is so well cut together it felt incredible. It is a small yet powerful immersion technique that keeps you hooked.
The core stealth action gameplay takes place across a gorgeous 3D game world to explore in third-person with full 360-degree camera control. Your watch, which you can choose the custom colour of, is able to hack basic equipment in the world and project outlines of interactive elements, enemies, and targets. It requires a charge to function, but you find plenty of items to pick up and recharge it on the go. Within missions, you will have the chance to tackle optional side objectives, and to help aid you in those and the main targets, you can pick up opportunities. These mostly vary based on eavesdropping for intel, providing powerful new ways to do things, and I love that we get clear icons to make finding them easier. You will also run into multiple-choice encounters that can help or hinder you, though they have little impact on the story and at best simply shape the specific path you take to get there. When you are moving through a restricted or hostile zone, the game clearly notifies you. If things kick off, you get a handy notification to say if your being spotted is finished, allowing you to slide right back into stealth Bond mode. When you do slip up, entering areas where you are not allowed means getting caught, where you can choose to bluff or comply to sort the situation out, or just resort to pure violence. Melee combat feels incredibly heavy and meaty; you can dodge incoming attacks, parry lighter ones, and use the environment to smash heads into walls or throw goons off balconies. It looks and feels exactly like an action movie. Ranged combat is snappy and good, though it doesn’t quite have the snap to target speed I would like when you are in the thick of it, but it is fine, and each gun handles differently. It is such a fun and engaging game that is very hard to put down; I didn’t miss a single cutscene, tracked down any bits of story or lore, found the hidden collectables dotted about the world, and just couldn’t get enough.
007 First Light PlayStation 5 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Visual Presentation: Gorgeous graphics bring the cinematic experience to life, and the stunning locations are just as beautiful as everything else in the game.
- Base PS5 Rendering: At times, the graphics can look a bit blurry and not well rendered when playing on my base PlayStation 5 console.
- Graphics Modes: The graphics mode can be toggled and set to either performance or quality, depending on your preference.
- Cinematics: Features an excellent mix of pre-rendered and in-game cutscenes that all look like a slick movie and look incredibly cool.
- Voice Cast & Audio Quality: Amazing voice work from all the characters, with a few famous faces dotted in there to elevate the script.
- Save System Limitations: The game saves regularly on its own, but you do not have a dedicated save button, and you can easily miss the small save icon on the screen.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Video Settings: Includes settings for a Gamma slider, motion blur, full-screen blur effects, radial blur effects, wobble distortion effects, film grain effects, chromatic aberration effects, reduce light effects, and a flashbang dark effect.
- Audio Sliders: Independent sliders to adjust dialogue, music, effects, and master volume.
- Audio Configuration: Options to select audio device type (TV speakers, home theatre, headphones, or mono), adjust output mode, tweak dynamic range, and utilise six custom profiles so you can jump between them easily.
- Accessibility Suite: Toggle options for reducing light effects, the flashbang dark effect, and full menu narration, where you can customise the speed, volume, repeat delay, voice type, and advanced settings.
- Subtitle Customisation: Subtitles can be toggled freely with added options for a text size slider, background opacity, and a background colour selection via a full colour wheel.
- Haptic Feedback Customisation: You can set up exactly how strong or weak the vibrations are and even set them individually for every type of scenario, such as in-game actions, cutscenes, and the UI, which is really impressive.
- Gameplay Toggles: Custom toggles to switch behaviour for sprint, weapon aim, the Q lens watch view, physical interactions, and skipping cinematics.
- Controller Configurations: Features invert axis inversion toggles, sensitivity sliders, automatic camera orientation options, and aim response curve adjustments.
- Control Mapping & Presets: Allows you to remap some controls, and the game features seven distinct presets, including a dedicated layout specifically for veteran Hitman players.
- Familiar Accessibility: Controls feel instantly familiar but are also highly accessible, ensuring you don’t have to be an absolute genre veteran to pick up and enjoy the game.
- Game Settings: Custom options to show or hide optional tutorials, an adjustable screen shake strength slider, automatic agility while running, aim glow toggles, and melee attack warning effects.
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007 First Light Review
Summary
GOOD STUFF
The opening level is easily one of the best in any video game period, serving up a masterclass tutorial that teaches you the ropes perfectly during live action. The freedom is phenomenal, giving you an experience where it is all about achieving a goal, however you see fit, so you can use the world exactly how you want. Melee combat looks and feels just like an action movie because hitting and parrying feels incredibly heavy and meaty, letting you smash heads into walls or throw enemies straight off balconies. The film-style training montages look cool and let you play through big chunks of them, which is a powerful immersion trick that completely hooks you. Plus, the writing is brilliant, the actor playing James Bond does a fantastic job making the character his own, and you get an impressive level of control over the settings, especially being able to map haptics to the UI, cutscenes, and gameplay individually.
BAD STUFF
It is a bit of a letdown that the graphics can look quite blurry and poorly rendered at times when you are running it on a base PlayStation 5 console, taking some of the shine off those beautiful locations. Ranged combat is perfectly fine, and every gun handles differently, but it misses the quick, sharp snap to target speed that I really wanted to see when you are caught in the absolute thick of a heavy firefight. The save system can also cause some unnecessary stress because you do not get a dedicated manual save button anywhere, and the auto-save icon is so small and faint that you can easily miss it altogether while playing.
FINAL VERDICT
007 First Light is an absolute triumph of a stealth-action game that is incredibly hard to put down once you start. IO Interactive has completely delivered on the promise that all Hitman games lead to Bond, creating a beautiful, player-led playground that values your creativity. Aside from some slight visual blurriness on the base console and a frustrating lack of a manual save button, the package is top-tier. This is a brilliant reimagining of a legendary spy, and I am a huge fan.
