007 First Light is now out in players’ hands, and IO’s spy-action game has already struck a chord with players. While many are still playing through the game’s cinematic campaign, there are plans for additional content in the coming months.
For those who haven’t played the James Bond game, 007: First Light has more to offer than just its story. Alongside the campaign, players can access the Tactical Simulator challenge mode with reformed combat challenges that retool existing areas.
In an interview with Eurogamer, senior combat designer Tom Marcham explained that this is “basically a space in which we can remix our levels”. However, chief development officer Véronique Lallier confirmed Bond’s post-launch plans will focus on TacSim content.
“It’s something we’ve done very successfully with Hitman,” Lallier added. “We have TacSim content that will be made available after launch, and there will be a roadmap of content”. While the game is feature complete on launch, they explained that “launching the game is just the beginning” for players.
While additional content will be coming, they tease potential gameplay improvements and changes as well. “It’s important for us to learn and listen to the feedback of the players,” they said, “and see, okay, how can we do it better? What should we do more? What should we do less? And that’s something we’ve been doing with Hitman [for] over a decade with World of Assassination, and we’re doing to definitely try to bring more content [to players].”
Lallier adds that Hitman is “more open to repetition” by nature which leads to more experimentation. While Bond is more narrative-driven, the team is hoping to use TacSim as an opportunity to “continue to make things evolve” . This could involve new challenges as well as rebuilt environments, similar to Hitman’s elusive targets.
While post-launch content is coming for the James Bond game, IO is also keen to create sequels to 007 First Light. In a prior interview, missions and audio director Dominic Vega explained that the first game is just “the beginning” of their plans for Bond. “It’s up to the audience to decide how that goes, but yeah, more to be discovered,” he said.
Additionally, IO is working on a brand-new online fantasy RPG in the form of “Project Fantasy”. The project currently has no release date. Alongside Bond and the studio’s fantasy project, IO has also expressed a desire to return to Hitman in the future with Hitman 4.
“Now we are getting towards the end, Bond is being launched in mere weeks from now, and we are very far with the Fantasy project,” CEO Hakan Abrak said. “Being on this side, we are looking forward to get into the weeds with Hitman again.” As far as we know, the current World of Assassination will also receive new content.
007 First Light is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC. A Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game will release this Summer following a significant delay. Currently, the game has meet met with rave reviews sitting at a 87/100 on Metacritic.
