When IO Interactive first unveiled 007 First Light’s gameplay, its experience with the Hitman titles was immediately apparent. Observing your environment for opportunities, using tools to distract or take down guards, employing stealth, the list goes on.
However, it quickly became apparent that James Bond would venture into other areas, including action-filled set-pieces, fast-paced driving and extensive CQC. “Forward momentum” is a mantra from the development team. In a new cover story interview with Game Informer, gameplay director Andreas Krogh discusses how it combines with all the systems to make you feel like Bond.
“Forward momentum is one of these things where we just wanted to…Bond is really a character that thinks on his feet a lot, and we want to bring that into all our mechanics, both stealth and combat.
“In combat, you see this in the way of us having a range of features that kind of closes the gap to enemies. So part of our close combat system is rushing an enemy, but also the ranged combat is like, okay, you might not have a million ammo for your guns, and that means you run low on ammo.
“You have to pick up new ammo. How do you get new ammo? You get it from the enemies that are in front of you. So move forward to them. Use some of your closing the gap abilities. Disarm enemies. You get a new gun. Shoot that dry, throw your gun to the next one. Then he’s staggered. It’s easier to run up and take his gun again, or take his ammo and carry on from there and shoot more.”
That same “velocity” is something that the team is also trying to implement into the stealth – a significant departure from Hitman, where you would usually observe and then mull over your choices. It’s less about “letting you be in a cover to think for a long time” and more letting you “cover to observe your options once you have that, then use one of them, basically and probably one of them will create a situation that you can use for something else and carry on from there.”
Even the environment itself plays a role in all this, especially with the enhanced destruction. “Basically, it’s also in the environment interactions, where if you explode something, maybe something crumbles that creates a new path for you. Like showing you new options all the time because doing something will kind of drive you towards that option, which we then try to always make you go forward, basically in any given encounter.”
Thus far, we’ve seen Bond rush towards an enemy, knocking them over the edge and using their body to break his fall, and destroy a walkway which can be used to venture forth. However, you can leverage the environment in more subtle ways, like luring enemies into a room and then locking them in by lasering the doorknob.
With 007 First Light out on May 27th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, it feels like we’re only scratching the surface of what players can accomplish as Bond. Stay tuned for more updates and check out the latest story trailer here.