IO Interactive’s ”007: First Light” is arriving with unusually little doubt around it: early reviews are strong, the score is sitting in the high 80s, and the conversation has quickly shifted from ”can a modern Bond game work?” to ”how soon can we play it?” The studio behind Hitman has built a young James Bond story that blends cinematic set pieces with stealth-heavy play, and critics are already treating it like the most promising 007 game since ”GoldenEye”.
The game goes on sale on 27 May 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. ”007: First Light” follows a 26-year-old Agent 007, sending him around the world from snowy Slovakia to Southeast Asia. That global sweep is straight out of the Bond playbook, but it also gives IO Interactive room to vary the pacing instead of leaning on the same one-note espionage loop.
007: First Light release date and platforms
For a franchise that has spent years being more famous for its films than its games, that matters. A modern Bond title has to compete not just with the movies, but with the stealth-and-action polish of games like ”Hitman”, ”Uncharted”, and the broader crop of big-budget story adventures that set expectations very high.
007: First Light review scores and praise
The reaction has been emphatic. The game currently holds an average score of 88 on Metacritic and 89 on OpenCritic, which is the sort of reception publishers dream about and rival studios quietly resent. Reviewers keep coming back to the same strengths: sharp style, confident humor, strong staging, and a balance between stealth and spectacle that feels built for Bond rather than borrowed from another series.
- Cinematic action scenes that lean into Bond fantasy
- Open levels with multiple ways to approach a mission
- Gadgets, disguise play, and social engineering
- Action that can flip from silent infiltration to loud chaos
The comparison to ”Uncharted” is easy to understand, because both games chase that blockbuster rhythm of chase, gunfire, and perfectly timed disasters. The difference is that IO Interactive is adding more room for player agency than Naughty Dog’s more scripted style, which should give ”007: First Light” a clearer identity than a simple copycat adventure.
Why 007: First Light is getting compared with Hitman and Uncharted
That hybrid approach may be the reason critics are so enthusiastic. ”Hitman” veterans know how to build levels that reward patience, disguise, and messy creativity, while the Bond license demands the swagger, glamour, and action that ”Uncharted” popularized. Put those ingredients together and you get something that sounds obvious in hindsight, which is usually a good sign for a licensed game.
The only real warning sign is familiar too: the danger of slipping too far into Hollywood cliché. Some reviewers have already pointed out that the game occasionally leans hard on the usual spy-movie beats, but that criticism has not stopped the broader verdict from landing in the positive column. For Bond fans, the more interesting question is whether this is finally the start of a new run of modern 007 games, or just a very good one-off hit.