Game Log:

Topic: Dodge-solescence (it works, trust)

Topic: Marvel Rivals and the cost of being a gooner-game

Review: 007 First Light [IO Interactive]

Combat - throwing hands and guns:

The combat in First Light is fine, but that's all. To start positive, the License to Kill mechanic cleverly reigns in those trigger happy agents because, I must remind you, this is Britain, we are British, and no amount of apologising can un-cleave the bin-man's head in twine. When it comes to gameplay, it forces you to utilise stealth machanics and visibly ups the ante when tiny, long-range, metal punches are sanctioned instead of the regular ones. It is a GOOD mechanic, and anyone who says otherwise is probably a bloodthirsty maniac which I'm going to sound like in the next two paragraphs.

The gunplay is satisfying, but nothing special. Whilst the game does introduce a couple of cool mechanics, where shooting different body parts has different affects, they suffer from "why not just shoot them in the head?" syndrome. With a one-shot headshot, I never needed to stagger someone by blasting their kneecaps - sure, some enemies had helmets and took 3 or 4 shots to the head, but their legs were armoured too! I can see the value of shooting armoured enemies hands to get them to drop their weapons, but I only found myself doing this when I was meaning to hit their head. I actually liked the semi-realism of only finding half a magazine in each gun you pick up, the scavenging for bullets and even throwing guns themselves made for combat encounters that felt truly desperate as I found myself literally counting shots in each firefight.

Despite this, there is something that dissatisfied my lust for violence, he said sanely: enter, the red barrels. Since the dawn of time, hitting red barrels in shooter games has provided a hearty explosion taking out all nearby enemies. I find these to be a bit cheap, all sizzle no steak, if your steak is piercing bald, British blokes' noggins. To worsen this, in some firefights, the barrels are more of a necessity than an option to use as the only cover is destructable and doesn't last long. This is where First Light needs to pick a lane: it wants me to deal with 20 goons, but not give me the ammo to do so, it wants me to take time to regenerate my health, but not give me the cover to do so... unless, that is, you shoot the red barrels. For want of a better expression, it makes me want to shoot a red barrel whilst stood on top of it, though I probably couldn't since it'd already be touching the skill ceiling.

I've always found myself to have a strange affinity for the classic "starter pistol" in video games. Be it the Para.45 of Uncharted or Apex Legend's P2020, (but NOT Valorant's Classic, fuck you, Classic) they have a certain je-ne-sais-quoi about them akin to vanilla ice cream that just keeps me coming back. Bond has sufficient time to play around with his standard issue pistol and it does not dissapoint, but I really just wanted to talk about starter pistols... as a segue into my similar love of a good sniper! The second I first saw the red beam of a sniper laser, my primal instincts kicked in, my neurons activated and my eyes widened because I knew I could get my hands on a one-shot machine with a satisfying kick and SFX to literally die for. As I ran toward the gun, glinting on the floor, I had flashbacks of sniping in Uncharted 4 as if it were a war I secretly enjoyed fighting in and wished I could return to. So imagine my dissapointment when I picked it up, heavy in my digital hands, and aimed in just to find my screen go from a 1.0x zoom to a 1.3x zoom... I was... scope-less. I was heartbroken. IO, fix your game.

Gadgets - powered by ipads and dish soap:

A recent trend in third person, triple A, story-driven games I've found is "gadget bloat". Don't get me wrong, the more freedom of expression in combat, the better... BUT it gets to a point where each item steps on another's toes and resource management becomes a hassle. The source of this, I've found, was Insomniac's Spiderman 2 which pioneered the "Hold (for Playstation) L1 for pop-up menu" which would change your normal buttons (like jump and punch) to special attacks and was a clever way to intuitively add lots of options with a limited amount of buttons.

Ghost of Yotei is a fairly recent offender, what with its 5 weapons, 2 pop-up menus each with 4 different items, 2 bows and 2 extra firearms each with two ammo types along with other combat mechanics like a wolf companion and throwable weapons. It begins to beg the question, why attack someone with my sword, work to break down their guard potentially multiple times to start slashing them whilst weaving in parries and dodges when I could just throw two kunai in their face with minimal risk? I could just shoot them in the head? I could just blow them up? It begins to devalue every weapon and every kill - offensive inflation, if you will. If you're anything like me, you'd avoid all these alternative tactics lest you get painfully neurotic about keeping every resource topped up between every encounter.

007 First Light does NOT suffer from gadget bloat in the slightest, which I'm very happy to say. With the melee and gunplay your main offense, the alternative methods fall to you Q-Watch and gadgets. Having just two plentiful and scavengable resources makes them easy to manage whilst adding a little diversity between what you use and when. The gadgets themselves are all fun and fit into Bond's espionage and combat tactics seamlessly with all of them being both simple and multifaceted, often working directly on enemies but also the environment. Despite this, there could have been a few more, and a better diversity between them as a couple are quite similar to eachother (I'm looking at you, dart phone and laser strap). The fact you can often only have three/four gadgets on a mission actively limits your reliance on them and adds another level of replayability as missions can be shaped by which ones you bring. In my opinion, First Light does exactly enough with its gadgets to make them the perfect addition to Bond's arsenal - rarely essential, but always handy.

Genre, both linear and open:

Boss fights - lights, camera, action:

To be perfectly honest, I did not like any of the 'boss' fights in the game. This is mainly because I think we as a society are past the type of boss fight which First Light offers up - the classic, boss is impervious to standard attacks, so you must lure them over a wet banana peel and get as much damage in whilst they're vulnerable because they're busy responsibly putting said peel into the nearest compost bin, then rinse and repeat 3 or, God forbid, 4 times. Bond's boss fights are particularly egregious as you have to do a host of semi-silly things to distract Damien and the Murtos before attacking them because you lost you gun... as if you hadn't JUST slaughtered hordes of armed, armoured enemies with nothing but standard issue Great British willpower.

The final boss fight against Damien was a little more unique and tense as running away was hardly an option and that cyborg suit, frankly, terrified me, however I ended up doing some Dead by Daylight ring-around-the-rosies maneuvers to avoid him which felt... wrong. The turret hijacking was something I don't think I've seen before and was satisfying to pull off, but was still very scripted and, sadly, easy.

When it comes to this aspect of the game, I think First Light didn't really need boss fights at all. When you see an opponents name and health bar expand at the top of the screen, a certain expectation is set and I found myself enjoying the wine cellar fight with both the Murtos (which lacked this) the most engaging of all. I can see the purpose of a final boss, but it's important to acknowledge too that, in the universe of 007, an appropriate boss fight mechanic can be hard to pull off. Short of giving Damien a health pool the size of Slovakia (ha), there isn't that much freedom to change things up whilst maintaining realism. This is where I think Uncharted 4 really hit the mark with the Rafe boss fight, desperate scenery and a completely new and challenging fencing mechanic - beautiful. Sorry IO.

Characters Set pieces Comparisons to Uncharted Length only 15 hours to £60 Part 2...