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I thoroughly enjoyed 007: First Light when it launched back in May, but one area where I thought it fell short of delivering a fully-fledged James Bond experience was in its cars. While there are some great vehicle sequences in First Light's campaign—including a fight on a cargo plane and a killer action scene involving a massive dump truck—its handful of car chases and non-dump truck driving sections tend to be short and not especially memorable.
Most disappointing is the late game sequence involving an Aston Martin Valhalla, which also appears briefly in the most recent Bond film, No Time to Die. IO Interactive spends pretty much the entire game teasing the Valhalla, with the car gleaming alluringly on a pedestal every time you enter Q-Lab. But when Bond finally gets to sit in the driver's seat, it's essentially used for a short turret sequence and you don't get to drive anywhere.
Thankfully, this flaw has now been addressed—sort of. Earlier this week, IO Interactive released a free DLC pack for First Light. Titled 'Extended Operations' it adds a bunch of new modes and missions to the game, including one that finally lets you take the Valhalla out onto the road.
The mission is called Valhalla Protocol, and it's part of First Light's TacSim mode—which is a bit like Metal Gear Solid's VR missions if they had a preposterous budget. Valhalla Protocol lets you cut about the mountains of Slovakia in Bond's heavily armed sports car, blowing up drones and other vehicles using its rockets and twin machine guns.
Obviously, I'd have preferred to see a mission like this in the campaign, but it's still nice to see the Valhalla liberated from that tiny garage adjacent to Q-Lab. That isn't all the DLC offers either. Alongside Valhalla Protocol is a new TacSim Operation called Jungle Heist, which reworks First Light's showstopper Vietnamese hotel into a randomised affair where Bond has to pilfer some documents inside the safe of one of the hotels' luxurious villas.
These two new missions come bundled with a Photo Mode, a New Game + that lets you replay the campaign wearing different suits and able to adjust your gadget loadout during missions, and a new "00" difficulty level that unlocks after completing the campaign. Oh, and there's a bulldog you can pet in the game now—IO's way of saying thank you for 7 million wishlists.
First Light was a big hit for IO Interactive, becoming the studio's fastest selling game after selling 1.5 million copies within 24 hours. While it seems likely we'll get a second helping of IO's flavour of Bond, it still isn't wholly clear whether IO itself will get to make it. Back in July, Amazon Gaming's general manager said the company would "probably want IOI developing it", but a sequel from IO has yet to be confirmed.
In that same conversation, Amazon also didn't rule out purchasing IO outright, thus bringing the Danish developer formally under its wing. Much as I enjoyed First Light, given the choice between a sequel and an independent IO Interactive, I think I would take the latter—if only for Hitman's sake.
2026 games: All the upcoming games
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together
Continue reading...
Most disappointing is the late game sequence involving an Aston Martin Valhalla, which also appears briefly in the most recent Bond film, No Time to Die. IO Interactive spends pretty much the entire game teasing the Valhalla, with the car gleaming alluringly on a pedestal every time you enter Q-Lab. But when Bond finally gets to sit in the driver's seat, it's essentially used for a short turret sequence and you don't get to drive anywhere.
Thankfully, this flaw has now been addressed—sort of. Earlier this week, IO Interactive released a free DLC pack for First Light. Titled 'Extended Operations' it adds a bunch of new modes and missions to the game, including one that finally lets you take the Valhalla out onto the road.
The mission is called Valhalla Protocol, and it's part of First Light's TacSim mode—which is a bit like Metal Gear Solid's VR missions if they had a preposterous budget. Valhalla Protocol lets you cut about the mountains of Slovakia in Bond's heavily armed sports car, blowing up drones and other vehicles using its rockets and twin machine guns.
Obviously, I'd have preferred to see a mission like this in the campaign, but it's still nice to see the Valhalla liberated from that tiny garage adjacent to Q-Lab. That isn't all the DLC offers either. Alongside Valhalla Protocol is a new TacSim Operation called Jungle Heist, which reworks First Light's showstopper Vietnamese hotel into a randomised affair where Bond has to pilfer some documents inside the safe of one of the hotels' luxurious villas.
These two new missions come bundled with a Photo Mode, a New Game + that lets you replay the campaign wearing different suits and able to adjust your gadget loadout during missions, and a new "00" difficulty level that unlocks after completing the campaign. Oh, and there's a bulldog you can pet in the game now—IO's way of saying thank you for 7 million wishlists.
First Light was a big hit for IO Interactive, becoming the studio's fastest selling game after selling 1.5 million copies within 24 hours. While it seems likely we'll get a second helping of IO's flavour of Bond, it still isn't wholly clear whether IO itself will get to make it. Back in July, Amazon Gaming's general manager said the company would "probably want IOI developing it", but a sequel from IO has yet to be confirmed.
In that same conversation, Amazon also didn't rule out purchasing IO outright, thus bringing the Danish developer formally under its wing. Much as I enjoyed First Light, given the choice between a sequel and an independent IO Interactive, I think I would take the latter—if only for Hitman's sake.
2026 games: All the upcoming games
Best PC games: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games: Freebie fest
Best FPS games: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs: Grand adventures
Best co-op games: Better together
Continue reading...
