Tested on Steam Deck OLED.

The short version: lock it to 30fps, drop settings to low/medium, and this thing runs great. Stable frame times, no crashes, no weird Proton issues. Just works.

Battery came in at 2h45m in my testing which honestly surprised me - for a day-one AAA this size I was expecting worse. And it runs fully offline, which matters a lot for a handheld.

The game itself is really impressive. As a Bond fan I wasn't sure what to expect from a new studio taking on the license, but First Light delivers. The writing, the setting, the feel of it, I think it all comes together rather nicely. Playing it on Deck in handheld mode actually feels like a good way to experience it and I don't think its a compromise.

If you're a Steam Deck owner sitting on the fence, don't wait. This is one of the better AAA releases we've had on this hardware in a while and this game proves the Steam Deck can still punch hard!

Full performance breakdown video: https://youtu.be/bDgnjE0nncg

First non-mobile Bond game in 14 years and IOI delivered. We went from "Well done 47" to "Well done 007". James Bond is back in the gaming world, shaken, not stirred.

I’m writing this review while sipping a Martini cocktail, shaken, not stirred. 007 First Light is a very good action game. A mix between Hitman, Uncharted, and some Watch Dogs elements. The game is built like a Bond movie from A to Z, with a blend of cinematics and gameplay scenes that mix together very well. The game is gorgeous and the casting and voice acting are top-notch.

Unfortunately, since there is a storyline to follow, the game takes you right where it wants you to go, meaning you have much less freedom of action than in a Hitman game. The options for completing a mission in different ways are very limited in levels that look open, just like Hitman. But if you take away the Hitman connection, it's a fantastic popcorn game. The few gunfights, stealth sequences, and melee combat scenes are highly enjoyable. Some parts give you major Daniel Craig vibes, just cracking heads like a brutal madman, and honestly, it’s cool af. The game also features a 'Tactical Simulations' mode with tons of Hitman-style challenges to complete and it's really fun.

In the end, it's a brilliant James Bond game with a well-crafted storyline that shows us the beginnings of the 007 character. Pure entertainment, perfectly developed and mastered in its construction. Highly enjoyable.

Heeeeelloooo my friends! :)
Once again, I’ve tested a game on the Steam Deck—this time, it’s "007 First Light." So far, I have to say I’m very surprised by the performance; I actually expected 30 FPS or less, but the devs have done a great job so far! :) I made a test video on the Steam Deck, you can find the video right here:
https://youtu.be/hu7TlgpDUkk

The intro was amazing. IOI were the right choice for Bond. Visuals are great, runs flawlessly, and the sound design is the best of any AAA game in recent memory.

007 First Light somehow taps directly into that old-school GoldenEye 007 feeling — tense missions, stylish espionage, and that ‘one more level’ pull — while still feeling modern and cinematic. It’s obviously its own thing, but if you grew up loving GoldenEye and also appreciate the immersive storytelling and polish of Hitman this feels like the perfect blend of both worlds. Cautiously hyped, but the vibe is absolutely there.

The Good: Bond, James Bond

When 007 First Light avoids its own pitfalls, the experience serves as a superb Bond simulation. IO Interactive effectively transitions their Hitman expertise into a high-velocity espionage adventure. The interplay between quiet infiltration, intel gathering, and combat is well-tuned, featuring gadgets that are a joy to utilize. Patrick Gibson is excellent as an inexperienced, impulsive 007, while the sandbox architecture ensures significant player freedom in mission execution.

The Disappointing: The Clunky First Impression

Getting to the good stuff takes patience. The pacing right out of the gate is surprisingly rough. The opening intro and the initial MI6 training sections feel rigid and clunky, bogging things down before you're finally let off the leash. Additionally, the quick-time events (QTEs) sprinkled throughout feel like a jarring relic from a decade ago, especially on kb&m, breaking the immersive flow the game seems to hint at.

The Dealbreaker: DRM and a Hobbled Offline Mode

My biggest issue with the game isn't the pacing, it's the draconian, anti-consumer tech bolted onto it at the eleventh hour.

The last-minute addition of Denuvo DRM to the PC version (dropped less than a week before launch) is a massive bait-and-switch. Beyond the risk of CPU overhead and performance stutters, it completely locks down the executable and restricts file access. If you're the type of player who likes to dive into the directories to extract assets or build custom JSON mods to tweak the experience, you are entirely out of luck here.

I’m a modder, as in I create mods for games, and I was excited about modding 007, and some stuff will likely still be possible, but Denuvo will certainly limit what we can do, and make everything much more difficult.

Worse still is the state of the "offline mode". For a strictly single-player game, the offline experience has been aggressively gutted. Even on PC, if the game fails its strict server check-in, you're locked out of a game you paid for. On top of that, playing offline inexplicably blocks access to the challenge systems, which are heavily tied to the game's progression and replayability.

While the main campaign is technically playable offline, the game relies on a single-player live-service model. This means your progression is tied directly to IOI's servers. Playing offline entirely disables access to:
Item and gadget unlocks
Suit unlocks
Challenges and experience points
Mission grading and leaderboards

Any actions you take or milestones you reach while offline will not be recorded, meaning you must be connected to the internet to actually earn the game's mastery rewards.

99% of people reading this will just say, “WhO dOeSn’T HaVe iNtErNeT” but that's not the point. If their servers go down for any reason, now or in the future, that’s a lot of features that you no longer have access to, and I’m sick of these bs limits in single player games.

BTW I couldn’t refund after I learned about the DRM because I bought it on greenmangaming before they had updated the listing to show the drm was added just a few days ago.

The name's Castle, Jerome Castle... and I give this game a 007/10.

First Light has been great thus far—I throughly enjoyed its prologue and opening sequence (especially the title song). However, I'm not completely sold on the various casting choices just yet. There's also been a heavy focus on tutorials, and because of that I did find the pacing to be quite slow. I completely understand this is an origin story, so can't really say I didn't expect that, but I am eager to be let off the leash so I can start to explore freely and hopefully work some of Bond's classic charm.

As for performance and visuals—absolutely perfect; the game itself runs extremely well, and looks gorgeous in every scene! I must say, my favorite part has been scrolling the list of available outfits. It was a pleasure to study each one, and recognize that the designer actually understood true tailoring/fashion with each suit, all of which are so very authentic to Bond's style.

If the thought of dropping £59.99 on this has you shaken, I hope my review has left you stirred enough to pick up a copy and start playing—it's definitely worthwhile.

This game is genuinely great by far. This game acts as a more fluid hitman, and the gameplay loop is very fun. There’s a lot of good to come from this game. Edit: Haven't finished yet, but this game is a MUST BUY! The story is quite excellent.

not far into the story yet, only just completed the introduction but so far it feels really good. game is really well optimised especially on 4K with max settings (nvidia gpu so cant comment on others), no stutters or anything either, controls feel very fluid too (keyboard and mouse).