IO Interactive spilled a while ago that 007: First Light will put us in the shoes of a young Bond when it arrives in May. However, they’ve now shared some more in-depth details about what this tale of youthful Bondage in the face of Lenny Kravitz will touch on thematically.
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The story-focused First Light dev diary that’s just come out sees the game’s main writer Michael Vogt kick off by emphasising that Bond’s youthfulness in First Light means he’s not even earned enough cool guy experience points to walk away from explosions without looking at them yet. He’s not got the full Bond arsenal of battle-tested moves and worldly knowledge either, but he does have some intrinsic Bondly traits like coolness under pressure and improvisation to lean on.
“Because he’s a young guy, there are also some traits that we haven’t really seen before,” Vogt said. “There’s an innocence to him here. He’s quite trusting and earnest and idealistic even, traits that you sort of sense will probably not survive this job for long, even if he does. Belonging is definitely a theme in this story. He’s a young man who hasn’t found his place in the world or his purpose yet. What does it mean to be a double O in this age? And does the world even still need them? Will heart and intuition even matter or can technology just do everything better? So, in that sense the story reflects the times that we live in which is also something that Bond stories have always done.”
Later on the video, the writer alludes to the same sort of questions fuelling Bond’s relationship with his handlers. “The story is as much about how he changes MI6 and how he changes the characters around him,” Vogt explained. “Bond has heart, he’s very tenacious and he’s willing to take risks and that actually changes the way MI6 operates in an era that is otherwise kind of risk-averse and data-driven.”
As someone who’s around the age of this youthful Bond – IO have confirmed he’s 26 – that certainly sounds like a tale I’ll be able to relate to in plenty of ways, assuming the studio pull it off with believable depth. There was always potential for the Bond game’s story to just a be a one-dimensional regurgitation of reskinned classic moments and plot points in the name of nostalgia or blind reverence of the source material, so digging into the sort of alienation that comes with giving your all in a ruthless profession which is often indifferent to your suffering or wants to replace you with a drone feels a far better path. To be clear, I’m not expecting a stunningly brutal dissection of the nature of work in today’s world or the morality of espionage, but even a little bit of that’d be cool.
Come on lads, just stick the odd essay reading in between shaken Martinis and fistfights with baddies. I’m sure no one’ll notice.
