007 First Light Early Review: Bond Energy, Hitman DNA, and PC Issues

A strong Bond game is here, but my first few hours today came with freezes, crashes, and NPC glitches I cannot ignore.

007 First Light was one of those games I had been waiting for. Not just casually watching from the side, but really waiting. I saved up for it, sacrificed around ten other good games on my list, and swallowed a few camels to make the price feel acceptable.

That is why the rough edges hit harder.

When a game costs this much, and when players have to make real choices just to buy it, “it will probably be fixed later” is not good enough. I wanted this to be amazing. And when 007 First Light works, it really can feel amazing. But when it breaks, it breaks the Bond fantasy fast.

I played the game for a few hours on PC today, May 30, 2026, so this is an early review / first impressions piece, not a final full review. The glitches I mention here happened during that session. This is not old footage or second-hand complaints. These were part of my own current PC experience with the game.

Still, the first hours of a game matter. They are where the tone is set, where the player either gets pulled in or starts wondering why a full-priced release still feels like it needed more time.

For more PC coverage and technical thoughts, you can also read our recent feature on why new AA and AAA PC games still fail ultrawide players, and our guide on why new games crash on PC.

007 First Light

Release: May 26, 2026 on Steam / May 27, 2026 wider launch

Genre: Action-adventure, stealth, third-person action

Developer / Publisher: IO Interactive

Platforms: Steam, Epic Games Store, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S

007 First Light – 32:9 Ultrawide PC Gameplay Test

Gameplay captured by Fix Gaming Channel during early PC impressions of 007 First Light in 32:9 ultrawide.

---

007 First Light can look impressive in wide scenes, especially when the game’s cinematic presentation works.

When It Works, This Feels Like IO Interactive Doing Bond

The good part first: 007 First Light is fun. It has action, style, movement, stealth, and that clean IO Interactive structure where you can feel different systems trying to play together. You can clearly feel the Hitman DNA in the way missions are built, how spaces are arranged, how NPCs move around you, and how the game wants you to read a scene before making your next move.

This is not just a simple action game with a Bond skin on top. At its best, it feels like IO Interactive trying to build a modern spy fantasy with more speed, more cinematic action, and more direct Bond energy than Hitman. It has moments where I sat there thinking, yes, this is the kind of James Bond game I have wanted for years.

There is movement. There is style. There is that feeling of controlled chaos. One second you are moving carefully, the next second the situation explodes and you have to react. That part works. That part is strong.

And honestly, when the game is firing on all cylinders, it can feel insane in the best way.

But The Technical Problems Are Hard To Ignore

The problem is that the technical side kept pulling me out of it.

When your partner NPC is standing there talking to a lady and suddenly starts going in circles, that is not good. It might sound funny when you explain it after the fact, but in the moment it breaks the scene. It breaks the illusion. For me, that is points off.

Then I walked up to another NPC, and the character somehow ended up standing inside a desk before popping up on top of it like that was supposed to happen. Maybe some players laugh and move on. I laughed too, for a second. But this is a full-priced Bond release. At some point, these things are not just funny glitches. They become part of the review.

I also had freezes and crashes today. And that is where the comparison to MindsEye came into my head. Not because 007 First Light feels like the same game, and not because the design quality is the same. It is much better than that. But the technical frustration gave me those flashbacks: the freeze, the crash, the weird character behaviour, the feeling that something good was being damaged by technical problems.

IO Interactive has already posted a 1.0.1 game update mentioning crash fixes and NPC pathing issues, which is good to see. But the problems I am talking about here still happened in my own PC session today, May 30, 2026.

I will follow up with videos of some of the weird stuff I ran into today, because this is the kind of thing players should be able to see for themselves. If patches clean it up, I will gladly say so, but right now these issues were part of my current first few hours with the game.

That is frustrating, because under those problems there is clearly a very good game here.

The Price Makes These Problems Feel Worse

I do not care how big the budget is. I do not care if a game is AAA, AA, indie, or made by three people in a room. Games are supposed to work as intended.

Of course bugs happen. Of course games are complex. I know that. But when you add the starting price of modern big releases, the patience gets thinner. A lot of players cannot just buy every new game that looks interesting. Some people have to pick one game and leave many others behind.

That was me here.

I had to sacrifice around ten other good games on my own list just to buy this one. That says a lot about where game prices are now. Buying one full-priced release often means saying no to several smaller games that may deserve attention just as much, if not more.

So when I pay that price, I do not want to feel like I bought a game that still needed another few months in the oven. I want to be pulled into Bond. I want to enjoy the missions, the gadgets, the action, the style, and the tension. I do not want NPCs walking in circles, characters popping onto desks, freezes, and crashes to become part of the first impression.

About Those 10/10 Scores

The official review-score marketing paints a very strong picture, but my own PC session today was not clean enough for a 10/10.

So where the 10/10 scores are coming from, I honestly do not know.

I am not saying other reviewers are wrong. Maybe they had a cleaner experience than I did. Maybe they played on a different platform. Maybe the technical issues did not show up as much for them. Or maybe they value the Bond fantasy, story, and production more than the problems I ran into.

That is fair. Every reviewer has their own experience.

But based on my own early hours with the game today, I cannot pretend everything worked perfectly. When a full-priced Bond game delivers this much style, action, and promise, but also gives me freezes, crashes, NPCs walking in circles, and characters glitching into desks, I cannot score it like none of that happened.

For me, those things count. They affect the experience. They affect the score.

How I Score Glitches

I do not score every glitch the same way. A small visual bug is one thing. A funny animation that happens once and does not affect the game is not enough to destroy a score. But crashes, freezes, broken NPC behaviour, and immersion-breaking pathing problems are different. They do not erase the good game underneath, but they absolutely count.

Without those issues, this could easily sit higher for me. In the state I played it today, with the problems I ran into during my own session, 7/10 feels fair.

So Do I Recommend 007 First Light?

Yes. Kind of.

I recommend it because the core game is good. The action is fun, the Bond energy is there, and IO Interactive clearly understands how to build tension inside a mission space. There are moments where 007 First Light feels like a proper return for James Bond in games, and that is not a small thing.

But I recommend it with a warning.

If you are sensitive to launch bugs, crashes, freezes, and strange NPC behaviour, maybe wait for more patches. If you are paying full price and need the game to feel clean from the first hour, be careful. The potential is huge, but my early experience today was not clean enough to ignore the problems.

I think this will be fixed. I think the game will probably become much easier to recommend in the future. That is also why the score is not lower. Under the rough technical layer, there is a stylish, exciting, very playable Bond game here.

I just wish it had not launched feeling like another big release pushed out before it was fully ready.

Early impressions after a few hours played on PC on May 30, 2026.Score: 7/10

Verdict

007 First Light is fun, stylish, and full of Bond energy. IO Interactive’s fingerprints are all over it, and when the game works, it can feel like the modern James Bond game many players have been waiting for.

But the technical issues hurt it. Freezes, crashes, NPC pathing problems, and strange glitches pulled me out of the experience too often during my first few hours today. I still recommend it, but not blindly, and not without warning.

Right now, 007 First Light is a good game that could become a fantastic one after more fixes.

Related Reading

• HITMAN World of Assassination Hits PS VR2 with Full 4K HDR
• Your Monitor Isn’t the Problem: Why New PC Games Still Fail Ultrawide Players
• Why New Games Crash on PC

---