My obsession with 007 started the day I saw Timothy Dalton in The Living Daylights.

Up until then, James Bond was just a name I overheard in my parents’ conversations back in the day. Seeing Dalton in action was my true gateway into the spy and espionage genre.

The gadgets, the cool cars, the impossible missions, and his smooth confidence completely hooked me. Dalton’s darker, grounded portrayal solidified my lifelong love for the series.

Naturally, I looked for that same feeling in video games. One of the first titles to get its hooks in me was Tomorrow Never Dies on the original PlayStation. Critics might have hated it, but it was the first game that actually made me feel like 007.

That mountain skiing mission blew my young mind back then. I played N64’s GoldenEye like everyone else, but I mostly enjoyed that with friends as a party game. It was fun, but it never really felt like a proper James Bond game to me.

Then came Everything or Nothing on PS2, which blew past my expectations and featured an absolute killer soundtrack. Later on, I tried Nightfire, another Pierce Brosnan title, but first-person shooter Bond just was not my cup of tea.

For me, first-person gameplay misses the entire point of being 007, and that disappointment caused me to skip Bond games for years, including titles like Blood Stone.

Fast forward to IO Interactive, the development team behind the modern Hitman franchise, announcing they were taking their own shot at the license. I giggled like a crazed fan when the first trailer dropped. I could not have been more hyped for a 2026 game.

Before I knew it, May 27, 2026 had arrived.

Life got in the way at work during release week, so I could not jump in on day one, but I picked it up a week later. And my oh my, what a blast. Patrick Gibson is the absolute perfect choice to play a young James Bond. He brings the grittiness of Timothy Dalton, the charm of Pierce Brosnan, the dangerous smirk of Sean Connery, and the raw brawling energy of Daniel Craig.

Loading up 007 First Light for the first time felt incredibly nostalgic, almost like sitting down to watch The Living Daylights all over again.

The prologue in Iceland grabs you right out of the gate. After your SAS unit’s transport gets shot down in the tundra, you are left as the sole survivor. Instead of handing you an assault rifle to shoot your way out, the game forces you to learn low-profile movement and spatial stealth. You can feel the tension as you infiltrate the enemy perimeter as an untested rookie.

The highlight of this opening mission is a hostage rescue inside the enemy complex. After taking down a guard, you rendezvous with the captive scientist. Right here, Bond takes his very first official kill. You can see the weight of it in his eyes. Patrick Gibson’s acting in this moment is subtle but emotional, capturing a split-second flicker of regret that shows Bond’s human compassion right alongside his lethal nature.

From there, the action kicks into high gear. The terrorists give chase with heavy military armor while rookie Bond commandeers an ATV to survive, leading to a standoff on a cliff edge. Cornered by hostiles, Bond holds a detonator linked to the target device.

When the mercenary leader claims MI6 would never blow up the objective, Gibson delivers the coolest line in the game:

“I’m not MI6.”

He hits the switch, the mountain erupts, and the classic intro sequence kicks in to a haunting Lana Del Rey track. Sitting there in the dark, I felt like an eight-year-old kid again.

What makes the campaign special is how naturally it weaves story into gameplay. It feels like a playable, highly cinematic spy thriller, taking heavy inspiration from Metal Gear Solid while keeping player control front and center.

Even the MI6 training camp, where Bond earns his 00 status, feels vital to the narrative rather than an annoying tutorial. It really makes you feel like an operational recruit working your way up to earn that double-zero number.

Once you finish training, the tradecraft opens up completely. Missions focus heavily on actual espionage. You infiltrate galas, probe base perimeters, gather intel, and figure out how to bypass security setups.

Your main tools are the Q-Watch and Q-Lens. Functionally, it works like Detective Vision in the Batman: Arkham games, but with much smarter limits. You need energy and gas to run your kit, so you can’t leave augmented vision on all the time. On top of that, loadouts are restricted to just four Q-gadgets per mission, forcing you to plan your entry vector carefully.

When stealth breaks down, the hand-to-hand combat hits hard. Bond fights dirty and aggressively. You can slam guards into concrete walls, throw empty handguns at their heads, or grab nearby objects to create an opening. The brawling system borrows the counter and dodge rhythm from the Arkham series, but the execution animations are far more brutal. Once you get used to the controls, it has a slight arcade feel, which was a massive win for me.

Gunplay is where First Light truly sets itself apart from standard action games. Mindlessly dumping ammo will get you killed in seconds. You have to pause, scan targets with your Q-Lens, and make quick tactical decisions. Do you go for a headshot, or disarm them first because they are wearing heavy head armor?

The best feature in the entire game is the License to Kill system. Under standard rules of engagement, your firearm is locked until hostiles actively open fire on you or the mission parameters turn lethal. Walking through tense security checkpoints with a sidearm on your hip that you physically cannot draw creates a wild layer of panic and tension. It forces you to respect the rules of spycraft, and it feels completely unique in modern gaming.

It is not a flawless game, though. The driving mechanics are definitely the weakest link. Vehicle sections feel less like actual driving and more like interactive cutscenes with simple inputs, which is a letdown given how iconic cars are to the franchise. IO Interactive announced the upcoming Valhalla Protocol update for TacSim will feature dedicated driving missions, so hopefully that fixes the issue.

Speaking of TacSim, Tactical Simulation mode is a solid arena for extra replayability. It gives you a space to run combat challenges, test out loadouts, and unlock alternate suits for Bond. I mostly use it to warm up my combat muscle memory, but the core campaign remains the main attraction.

Between Q’s dry banter, M’s authoritative leadership, Moneypenny’s sharp dynamic with Bond, and IO Interactive’s commitment to building a true action-spy simulator, 007 First Light is easily my Game of the Year for 2026.

I know GTA 6 is on the horizon, but nothing beats finally getting the James Bond game I have been waiting for since childhood.