James Bond has never been shy to get his knuckles bloody, and in IO Interactive’s 007: First Light, the rookie MI6 agent will have the opportunity to get into several scraps. This makes for a big departure from IO’s work on the Hitman: World of Assassination trilogy–where combat was always seen as a last resort–as the studio has been inspired by some of the greatest action games of all time for its Bond origin story. Taking a few pages from the Arkham and Uncharted playbook, the studio is aiming to create a combat system that’s fast, furious, and flows into cinematic setpieces.
“What are our references here? What are the other games that do this well, on the same scale and the same kind of scope as this game? Obviously, we have some references there in the approach to close combat,” gameplay director Andreas Krogh said to Game Informer.
“I think you see the Arkham games, you see those games in it. You also see some modern takes on destructibility in the environment that are not necessarily from the Arkham games, but newer takes like Uncharted. We have a deeper system than that because we want to do more of it, and from shooting, you see references that are also from modern games.”
Krogh added that the main takeaway is that any path should be viable for a player, whether that be fisticuffs, stealth, or using Bond’s smooth-talking skills and gadgets to escape a dangerous situation. “We want to set the player up to choose for himself. What kind of player are you? What kind of playstyle do you prefer? Play that way,” Krogh said.
Originally scheduled to launch on March 27, 007: First Light was delayed to May 27 so that IO Interactive could spend extra time polishing it. The studio has slowly been revealing more details on the game as its new release draws closer–like how Bond will tangle with a pirate king played by Lenny Kravitz–and if you’re wondering if your PC is up to scratch, you can check out the official 007: First Light PC requirements.