"During the training sequence, we make a false promise": IO Interactive on the ensemble James Bond game that 007 First Light never was

"And then we pull the rug out from under you"

It sounds like IO Interactive's take on the world of James Bond in 007 First Light was going to be quite different at first. Where the game as it currently is focuses on just Mr. Bond, once upon a time there was an idea for it to be something of an ensemble cast, where he would have been working with a number of double-O agents across his missions. Spoilers ahead!

There's an early section of the game that sees Bond taking part in a training montage, a bit of the game that's gone down quite well with many who've played it. But, as lead writer Michael Vogt told Eurogamer in a recent interview, "During the training sequence, we make a false promise, Basically we're saying this is going to be an ensemble piece, all the double-Os working together, as they do in Slovakia.

"And then we pull the rug out from under you when most of them die, and serendipitously, [Bond's] the last man standing. He could have died in that explosion but he doesn't, and so he emerges as the top agent. But in my very first pitch I think we were actually toying with the idea of making it an ensemble piece, that you had the different agents working together."

It's been seven years since the first pitch even took place, so Vogt apparently isn't entirely sure when it changed, but he was able to answer why. According to him, it's because it's a moment where there's a shift from "fun and games," to something more serious. "After that explosion, he wakes up to the more harsh reality. When M said that life expectancy is very short, it's like, 'Oh, right.' He gets it. And he matures from that, of course, and also from the guilt - maybe the survivor's guilt - of being the one who made it."

Mark was generally pretty positive on this Bond's relationship with his fellow double-Os in his review of the game, even if he did note its breakneck pace.