The opening hours of 007 First Light’s story depicts the iconic James Bond character at the very start of his spy career, still learning all the tricks of what it takes to become a successful MI6 operative before he can earn his number as 007.
One particular sequence that has seen a lot of praise from players over the last few weeks since launch is the attention paid towards the game’s tutorial montage, featuring Bond going through vigorous amounts of training between Malta and London, seamlessly teaching a large number of mechanics to the player without interrupting the story.
It’s a consistent talking point that I’ve seen a lot of praise for since the game came out at the end of May, and so I had to talk to IO Interactive to learn more about how the sequence was devised.
Gameplay director Philip Andreas Krogh says the original intention was for 007 First Light to be a “tutorial-less game”, instead baking the act of learning the mechanics and systems into each level in a natural way.
“The reference was from Naughty Dog, for instance in Uncharted 4 you sail in on a boat and you already feel like you’re in a real scenario. And yes there are some tutorials, there’s button prompts on the screen that tell you what to do, but it feels you’re already inside the game and playing it right and that was kind of the same feeling I want to get out of it.”
GAMINGbible / IO Interactive
However, the design team quickly realised that there were a lot more systems and mechanics in 007 First Light than your average Uncharted game. The amount of different combat and stealth mechanics at your disposal ended up being quite complicated to teach to the player without a tutorial, and so IOI eventually shifted into designing a training sequence for Bond to participate in.
007 First Light Was Originally Designed To Be A “Tutorial-less” Game, Like Uncharted
This then eventually spun off into the idea of making it a montage, with the sequence being able to move the story along while also teaching the various mechanics to the player.
“Because it was an origin story, and we knew he was getting into the training program, it makes sense to have a tutorial in some shape or form,” Krogh explains, adding that the idea was to keep to the “tutorial-less” aspect by having a training session that feels fun to play as a gameplay segment, but doesn’t feel too much like a tutorial.
“It was well integrated into the context of the story because of the whole origin of trying to get into the 00 program, so that was already set in place of why he was there. In that sense we didn’t have to invent a reason to go to the tutorial.”
This idea then evolved into making it a montage, showing Bond’s eventual progression throughout the two-week period of his training as he improves his physical skills with combat, shooting, and driving.
“It started with that idea of a tutorial-less game and then it became ‘what if we did a montage to make it as short as possible?’ Because we also don’t want players to get stuck in an hour-long tutorial. So how do we make that feel snappy, cool, and still teach you something?”
GAMINGbible / IO Interactive
In designing the montage, Krogh says that IOI worked from a list of mechanics that it wanted to teach to the player, then structuring each scene so there was a bit of variation, introducing new mechanics related to combat, spycraft, and driving in a mixed order.
The Training Montage Was Designed As A Response To Playtesting
As IOI continued development on 007 First Light, it would constantly refine the training sequence using feedback gathered during playtests. One particular problem that arose during this time was related to the gunplay mechanics.
“We really wanted to emphasise that the best shooting experience in our game is one where you keep moving forward constantly, and if you run out of ammo you could then throw your gun and engage with the next person, grab his gun and carry on.
“And people in our test were not really doing that, they were playing it as a cover shooter. We were pretty worried about that, because they wouldn’t enjoy the game as we wanted them to enjoy it. So we had to put a segment in the early tutorials that kind of showed that way of playing.”
Krogh says that the most important thing about the training montage was to “Keep up the momentum” so that each segment would flow naturally into each other, without the player becoming bored by any scene that went on a bit too long.
This meant fine-tuning transitions and jumps between scenes to shorten them when Krogh felt like they had started to drag on a bit too much.
GAMINGbible / IO Interactive007 First Light’s Best Easter Egg Was Discovered By Accident
One particularly clever detail that players discovered after launch was from a chapter called In At The Deep End, where Bond has to traverse a training course filled with enemies, environmental opportunities, and other interactive elements in order to grab a flag. It’s the player’s first chance during the training sequence to be let off the leash and to exercise all they’ve learned so far, either in stealth or combat.
However, one trick that was discovered by the community is that Bond can actually skip this entire level by doubling back when at the gate, running up along the catwalk overseeing the training course, and hop over the fence where the flag is to pick it up.
“I think it was Penelope [Lee Dovichi, level designer at IO Interactive]’s idea for that actually,” Krogh explains. “I think it might have been random that it happened, that it just wasn’t walled off in the beginning, and somebody just went up there. And then we looked at it and we’re like ‘well this is exactly what a spy would do so we probably have to leave this in’.”
Responding to player reception to the training sequence, Krogh says that he’s pleased with how players have taken to the game’s early hours.
“I mean, I’m very happy. Yes. I mean, I think it’s super awesome, obviously,” Krogh says, adding that “I’m very happy, like ecstatic actually, that it went down so well because I’m a little pessimistic, and always looking at the flaws.
“I was looking at it and I said ‘okay this could have gone the other way where people would have said they don’t remember anything of this montage and then they get in and they just get beaten up right and left, but that didn’t happen and they accept it and think it’s cool so I’m ecstatic basically.”
007 First Light is out now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
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