Hitman developer IO Interactive has always seemed like an ideal studio for a 007 adaptation, for reasons that probably don’t need specifying here. That said, IO has long been transparent about not wanting 007: First Light to simply be a Hitman game starring James Bond. The studio has also made clear its next game won’t be an Uncharted-style action game, either – even if it really looks like one – making it something of an open question exactly what style of gameplay is to be expected.
Talking to Game Informer, Gameplay director Andreas Krogh compared 007: First Light’s approach to stealth with how stealth is handled in the Hitman series.
“Hitman was a game where we thought about [stealth] as puzzle design. We’re taking that same type of stealth into Bond,” said Krogh. “But I will say an important difference is that in Bond, we are striving to do forward momentum gameplay all the time, both in combat and in stealth.
“Where in Hitman, we had some setups where we wanted you to use some time to stake out the situation and maybe poke a little bit at it to see what happens. In Bond, you can use time to observe a situation, but it’s very evident there are options you can use right away, and you can just use them and see what happens and come forward. We want to reduce that decision-making time to always keep moving forward and be a little bit faster.”
That checks out. While it’s easy to draw parallels between Agent 47 and James Bond, the 007 IP in general is known for fast-paced chase sequences and explosive action whereas Hitman games are generally much slower paced. It sounds like IO is just trying to do justice to the respective IP.
007 First Light will do something no Bond game has done before – slow down: “Players might be surprised at how much they enjoy those quieter experiences”
