007: First Light is starting to look less like a Hitman reskin and more like IO Interactive's attempt to turn James Bond into a flexible action game, with stealth, fistfights, gadgets and messy improvisation all feeding into the same missions.
A new hands-on preview covers three missions from the upcoming PS5 game, showing a younger Bond before he has earned 00 status. The preview describes an origin story that opens with Bond serving in the Royal Navy, then being pulled into MI6 work after a mission in Iceland goes wrong.
IO Interactive is best known for Hitman: World of Assassination, so the big question around 007: First Light has always been how much of that stealth sandbox DNA would survive inside a Bond game. The answer, based on this preview, is plenty, but the studio is pushing Bond toward faster swaps between sneaking, talking, gadgets, melee combat and gunplay.
The opening Iceland mission introduces Bond as resourceful but reckless. After missiles take down helicopters on the coast, he has to sneak past mercenaries, use a disguise and gather information while following radio instructions from an MI6 operative. He also ignores orders to rescue captured operatives, setting up the game's version of Bond as capable, principled and not always obedient.
Gadgets are part of the fight
The Malta training mission sounds closest to IO's existing strengths. Bond has to get through soldiers patrolling ruins, with the option to stay hidden, fight his way through or use Q gadgets to tilt the situation in his favor.
The preview says holding L1 activates the Q Lens, which lets Bond see enemies through walls and highlights hackable devices. His watch can also fire a laser, cutting ropes or detonating objects to hurt nearby enemies. Those tools are not limited to stealth. Bond can bring them into fistfights and gunfights, using the watch laser to blind enemies or hacking objects to stagger them before landing a takedown.
Melee combat has its own timing demands. Punches are mapped to Square, while Circle blocks and parries and X handles sidesteps. Enemies are described as dangerous even on easier difficulty settings, especially in groups, which suggests the game is trying to make brawls feel risky instead of treating hand-to-hand combat as a fallback button mash.
That mix fits the studio. IO has already said 007: First Light was made without generative AI, but the more important question for players is how much authorship sits in the mission design itself. This preview points to a Bond game where gadgets, stealth routes and sudden violence can all be chained together on the fly.
Kensington leans into the spy fantasy
The third mission, set around Kensington, appears to be where 007: First Light most openly borrows from Hitman's social stealth. After Bond is attacked at his apartment and tracks an assassin across London, the mission moves to a museum gala with a wider level structure.
There, Bond can eavesdrop on conversations, impersonate people, pick pockets, distract targets with a poison dart and talk his way past security. The preview gives one example where choosing the right name in conversation matters, then Bond has to smooth over a mistake with flirting before stealing what he needs.
The same mission later turns into a boss fight, an escape through mercenaries and a chase in a garbage truck, with the 007 theme building as Bond smashes through buildings and a mall. That range is probably the selling point for IO's take on the license: missions can start with observation and social manipulation, then end in full Bond chaos.
007: First Light is scheduled to launch for PlayStation 5 on May 27. If the final game can keep those systems readable under pressure, IO Interactive may have found a strong middle ground between its Hitman heritage and the more explosive side of James Bond.