James Bond 007: First Light Free Download Ends Soon

Ahead of the launch of 007: First Light, developers IO Interactive have reintroduced Le Chiffre, as played by Mads Mikkelsen in Casino Royale, as an Elusive Target in Hitman: World of Assassination. The Elusive Target mission is available as a free demo from the larger World of Assassination experience (which combines the recent Hitman trilogy into one definitive package) and completing it will unlock the all-black suit from Casino Royale in 007: First Light.

Actually owning World of Assassination will also net you the Midnight Ray outfit in 007: First Light as well. Those who already own First Light (releasing on May 27th) will also gain access to the "Timeless Tuxedo" suit within World of Assassination.


For the Hitman uninitiated, the recent trilogy and its World of Assassination repack has been praised by critics, leading to IO Interactive being picked to develop 007: First Light. World of Assassination is particularly praised for its versatile stealth gameplay and the "immersive sim" aspects of each of its large, detailed levels, giving several NPCs learnable routines that, on top of the level design, make every mission of the game replayable. Aside from the acclaimed offline campaign content, World of Assassination is also a live service game with limited-time Elusive Target missions and other goodies to incentivize players to regularly check the game for new content.

By comparison, early impressions of 007: First Light indicate that the game maintains similar attention to stealth and gunplay mechanics and has higher production values to boot, but is a more linear experience to service the cinematic James Bond aspect of the game. This isn't a bad thing by any means: adopting the same level design as World of Assassination would make First Light less of a James Bond game and more of an elaborate skin over Hitman. IO Interactive's stealth action expertise is still used here, but more explosive, cinematic set pieces akin to Bond (or, say, Uncharted) are commonplace in First Light as well.


For those interested in seeing what 007: First Light has to offer, IO Interactive uploaded the first 13 minutes of the game for free viewing on YouTube, which we've embedded above. Hitman: World of Assassination Part One is also discounted to just $5.99 on Steam at time of writing, with the limited 007 Elusive Target content available as a completely free demo even if you don't own either game. For prospective fans of either franchise, now is a great time to hop in.