Hitman: World of Assassination is a pretty brutal game. Garroting, chopping, stabbing, slicing, shooting, bashing — it’s all here and makes sense for a series literally called Hitman. But Hitman is about more than cleverly killing targets. Strangely enough, Hitman is also one of the funnier video game series out there, an art IO Interactive has honed over multiple entries. And, thankfully, IO hasn’t forgotten that part of its legacy with 007 First Light.
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First Light doesn’t initially seem like it is a chucklefest. Narrowly avoiding death and being hunted by mysterious thugs don’t exactly leave the door open for much in the way of comedy. Some of this has to do with how linear and restrictive its intro is. However, its humor opens up as its gameplay mechanics do.
007 First Light Has Plenty of Slapstick Comedy
It’s possible to mess with guards in ways that can lead to hilarious results, many of which are empowered by silly physics. During brawls, players can slam enemies into fire extinguishers and watch them go flying or hack certain objects to fling them around like cheap ragdolls. The exaggerated nature of the physics always makes these moves equally shocking and funny. Even literally shocking enemies is goofy because of how flashes of their skeleton can be seen between the jolts as if they were in a Looney Tunes cartoon. It’s a ridiculous detail that absolutely did not have to be in the game, but it is fantastic that it sneaked its way in there. Hitman’s sandbox is wider, so it only makes sense that its capability to do funnier things is also wider, but First Light still has plenty of that same charm.
Hitman’s incidental dialogue is also a key part of its humor. Agent 47 is often surrounded by aloof power players who have little to no self-awareness, which leads to entertaining diatribes if players are willing to stick around and actually listen. Agent 47 plays into this with his stoic line deliveries to those unaware of his true identity as he hides behind, say, a flamingo costume. IOI packed the recent trilogy full of small exchanges that only play under certain scenarios or conditions, making for a funny reward for those poking around its world. For a series with such a gritty outer shell, it’s remarkable how outlandish and unserious so much of its dialogue is. These conflicting tones don’t clash, either, thanks to the quality of the writing. A less witty game would suffer.
007 First Light Is Full of Tiny Missable Jokes
First Light carries on this tradition. Like Agent 47, Bond also finds himself flirting among the airheaded rich and powerful. And the elite here still have the same vapid personalities. While eavesdropping is a mechanic with a button prompt that is valuable during missions, eavesdropping on the promptless civilians is similarly fulfilling, albeit in a different sense. For example, studious players will hear a multi-part tale about one character’s rebellious college child, while others will cringe through the most insufferable man cluelessly hitting on two women who are equally disinterested in his advances. The actual collectibles in the game are just fine, but seeking out these conversations is a more worthwhile exercise because they fill out the world in a more entertaining way than a dossier on Greenway or a reference to Moonraker ever could.
But these two series have one key difference. For all of the goofs and gaffes in the gameplay, Hitman’s cutscenes are deadly serious, matching the gruff carapace found in its marketing materials. They don’t even copy Dead Rising by having serious cutscenes with characters in absolutely foolish costumes.
Where First Light differs is how much its comedic sensibilities are baked directly into the cutscenes. Bond’s more playful demeanor is also reflected in the dialogue and story segments, meaning there’s only one Bond who is consistent across the whole game. Many of these quips are at least a little clever, while some exchanges are downright hilarious. And, importantly, the game doesn’t force jokes in where they don’t belong; it has a respectably high hit rate.
This ability to expand its comedic skills into another aspect of the experience once again shows how IOI stepped its game up here, since it would have been just as easy to go down the Hitman route again and just keep its sillier moments to the gameplay. Instead, First Light’s comical style is more well rounded and hasn’t lost any wit or charm in the translation.
007 First Light takes many aspects from Hitman, from its more open-ended mission design to its focus on stealth. A lot of that is to be expected from a game revolving around a spy. But the most surprising strand of DNA Bond shares with Agent 47 is his sense of humor. So while you’ll predictably be bludgeoning and shooting a whole host of mercenaries and evil goons like the barcoded assassin, expect to giggle at their ragdolling bodies and idiotic sob stories, too.
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