After a nearly 15-year absence, James Bond video games have returned with the release of 007 First Light, the first official Bond game since 2012’s lacklustre 007 Legends. Best known for the Hitman series, IO Interactive seemed like a surprising choice when it was handed the James Bond game licence. However, they were the perfect choice for this assignment. 007 First Light captures the essence of being Bond better than any game before it, fusing stealth, shooting and driving. Licence to thrill Helping plug the long gap between the James Bond films, 007 First Light tells an origin story featuring a younger Bond training to become a 00 agent at MI6. The story is well-executed. There’s an obligatory title sequence with an original song by Lana Del Rey, some surprise twists and turns and a superb voice cast. Patrick Gibson does a commendable job portraying a younger version of Bond who is charismatic and never short of a witty one-liner, yet has a vulnerable side. Lennie James is another highlight as Bond’s wise mentor, John Greenway. Most missions emphasise stealth. Taking cues from Uncharted, there are the usual tropes of hiding from enemies in tall grass, climbing on cliff edges with conveniently coloured rocks and squeezing through narrow passageways disguising the loading screens. But when you’re blending with impressively large crowds of NPCs or bluffing your way past guards into no-access areas, you feel like Bond. Fortunately, if everything goes wrong and the enemies spot you, you can usually punch or shoot your way out of a situation. Combat is satisfying, with the ability to parry and throw enemies into destructible objects. Shootouts, meanwhile, are suitably scrappy. Ammo is scarce, forcing you to keep moving and swap weapons. In a nice touch, you can even throw your gun at enemies