007 First Light is the stealthy James Bond game I've dreamed of

007 First Light is the perfect way to reboot James Bond. This younger version of the character isn't a misogynistic brute like he is in the novels, but he's still a cocky crusader who can kick ass with flair. And, thanks to Hitman developer IO Interactive's extensive experience making stealthy assassin games, First Light excels by letting you actually play James Bond as a spy, and not just a guy who shoots everyone in sight. The result is a thrilling espionage adventure that's only marred by a few annoying extended shootouts.

While I loved Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64, I also can't deny that its single-player campaign is nowhere near as fondly remembered as its main draw: a way to murder your friends on the same TV. The games that followed never quite captured the magic of the character — they almost always tried to boil the cinematic experience of Bond with shooting and car chases. IOI's ingenious choice was to build a Bond game around Hitman's rock solid stealth gameplay and large, NPC-filled environments, then make it as immersive as possible. The focus is on interactivity, instead of chasing the specter of cinema.

You start the game when Bond is a lowly airman with no connection to MI:6. After your plane is shot down by a mysterious private military group you have to quietly avoid soldiers while learning the game's basic stealth routine. It works like you'd expect: You can hide in or behind cover to avoid enemies, and there's a subtle awareness gauge as they see you. I appreciated the ability to run to cover, since it made Bond feel a bit more nimble than someone like Uncharted's Nathan Drake. (The game also delivers a subtle jab at Drake, joking that Bond is starting to resemble an archaeologist adventurer.)

IOI doesn't rush anything in 007: First Light. There's a large chunk of time before you're able to take down enemies from stealth, and it takes even longer to get unrestricted access to guns. There's around three hours before you're on your first genuine assignment. In between, you're attending MI:6's training camp, where Bond makes a few close friends (and potential enemies).

IOI spices up the obligatory tutorial with unusually cinematic flair. At one point, the game compresses the martial arts, shooting and parkour trainings into a single fluid sequence, exactly like a montage in film. I barely had time to process that I was jumping between completely different actions and locations. Before I knew it, Bond was field-ready (and I knew which buttons to press.)

As you step into the world of MI:6, you also get equipped with a variety of hardware from Q, the character who typically outfits Bond with high-tech gadgets. The Q-Watch lets you hack into nearby electronics, similar to the hacking mechanic in Ubisoft's Watch Dogs. The dart phone can instantly poison people; a laser strap can cut through locks and blind baddies; the missile pen is what you think it is. They're not all useful — I never found a reason to equip the Shockwave Camera or Flash Mine – but at least they let you tune the game to your liking.

Beyond Bond's hardware, technology also plays an enormous role in 007: First Light. It turns out that MI:6 has also partnered with a tech billionaire for — say it with me now — an AI supercomputer that sorts through all of the world's available information. THEAI, a reference to the Greek goddess of foresight (and oh so close to just being "the AI"), has apparently been a smashing success for Britain, but the dystopian implications are clear from the start. How can we tell if an all-powerful AI makes mistakes? And wouldn't it be possible for a technology giant to manipulate the AI's discoveries for its own gain?

IOI's Hitman roots are clear from the very beginning of First Light, but they become even more apparent once you reach the end of spy school. First you have to infiltrate a crowded night club to track down a suspect, which hearkens back to a handful of classic Hitman levels. The game's scale becomes truly apparent in the second mission, where you're looking for a former MI:6 agent in a boutique hotel (which also happens to be holding a chess tournament). The hotel itself is massive, immaculately designed and filled with dozens of guests and attendees, many of which are involved in scripted routines or conversations. This one portion of First Light's clockwork pocket universe feels more alive than many soulless open world games.

It's not quite an immersive sim like the Dishonored games, but in true Hitman fashion, you can accomplish your objectives in multiple ways. Just don't expect to go in guns blazing. In most scenarios, First Light's "License to Kill" feature prohibits you from firing on enemies unless they pull their guns first. It's really just a reminder that you're not playing a cold-blooded assassin, and it encourages you to spend your time stealthily moving around environments and taking down enemies silently.

The game is thankfully more forgiving than Hitman if you blow your cover, where doing so could alert the entire map and force you to re-load a save. If an enemy spots Bond, you can just beat them down or slam them into nearby surfaces. Things get more complicated if multiple enemies see you, but you can still proceed with your mission once you take care of them.

While First Light remains relatively grounded most of the time, it wouldn't be a Bond game without a few elaborate set pieces. You'll find yourself parkouring through London skylines (a nod to Casino Royale's opening), having fist fights where you're crashing through multiple floors and plowing through cars in a garbage truck. There are also a handful of shootouts where you'll have to mow down dozens of enemies, which offer visceral thrills but also quickly feel repetitive.

IOI has clearly spent more time thinking about stealth than large-scale action, and it's sometimes tough to tell where you need to go when 20 people are shooting at you. I replayed the first major shootout, which took place in an airport, around 10 times before I found a survivable pathway. (For the easily frustrated, you can also reduce your difficulty level on the fly.)

Perhaps it was just a result of flying through the game for this review, but it was hard to ignore pacing issues throughout First Light. As the action and nefarious conspiracy escalates, the game gets bogged down by extended stealth sequences, fetch quests and half-hearted boss fights. They don't ruin First Light's overall experience, but it definitely feels like it could use some narrative tightening.

I can't help but be impressed with the ways First Light pushes against expectations of the franchise. It takes hours before we're in a genuine mission where we can shoot bad guys. You spend a significant chunk of time with Bond's MI:6 training classmates.Even Bond's face scar feels like a bit of a cheeky middle finger at the character's pretty boy image. He's hurt in the opening of the game, and we see it slowly heal throughout the story.

007: First Light sets a new bar for stealth action games, and even more impressively, it sets a new baseline for what we should expect from Bond media writ large.