It’s hard to imagine any game translating a film franchise better than 007: First Light does

We’re big fans of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle here at Rogue. In fact, it won our first ever GOTY award last year. Why? Because it does an excellent job translating Indiana Jones into a video game… but it’s not very similar to watching an Indiana Jones movie, structurally.

 Machine Games took the approach of taking Indiana Jones’ typical adventures and placing a really amazing first person adventure into that world. It has recognizably, inarguably “Indy” stuff, like using a great disguise, fist fighting Nazis, solving ancient puzzles, and spouting off a lot of info about every random artifact you find. But, outside of some blockbuster set pieces, it also comes with this slow paced exploration that you rarely see Indy have the time for. The game is excellent because it takes a blockbuster movie and fits it into a genre that Machine Games excels at making.

Well, it wasn’t enough for just Jr. to get his own game by a great developer. It’s time for Henry Jones Sr. to take the stage with his own game. (That’s a Sean Connery/Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade joke, for the uneducated).

007: First Light, the much anticipated Bond game from IO Interactive, takes the opposite approach to Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. It is, essentially, a playable James Bond film. Every level waffles between suave espionage, against the grain chaos, and blockbuster nonsense. It’s honestly a much riskier approach than Great Circle’s slower paced expansion of Indy’s world, and if it was anything less than the positively excellent game it turned out to be, First Light would’ve fallen on its face.

See, I want to slow down and see Indy piecing all of the clues together. When I roll up on a tomb, I want to look through a notebook I filled out to solve the puzzle. I want the game to make me feel like I’m the world famous archeologist, not just an action star.