PlayStation has now issued an extended State of Play for 007 First Light, the new James Bond title. Just to clarify, I’m referring to a 30-minute-long, meticulously detailed analysis of gameplay – not a fifteen-minute overview with a few gameplay excerpts. It was broadcasted on YouTube and Twitch, and, as usual, the reactions were a mixed bag, to put it mildly.
Within moments, some players were visibly excited. GabeTheDCUFanBoy was already chiming in with CAN’T WAIT!!!!!! and an overload of fire emojis, something we deeply cherish. At the same time, there were other players who had no clue a State of Play was happening today. Muddy Verity expressed, “Sigh. Didn’t even know there was a SOP today 🥱.” Which, to me, feels warranted, because these streams can feel quite unexpected.
And then there’s the performance aspect. Several gamers commented on the issues. Michael bluntly stated, “Fix the performance. That was horrible.” and Hadigan Matter stated, “Good lord performance is embarrassing!!! I wouldn’t be shocked if it dipped sub 20 at times.” That’s quite concerning. On the other side of the issue, Sebastian commented, “looks awesome. too bad its 30FPS… 😔.” so, yes, frame rate is clearly a major issue.
Not everything is bleak! Jenni seems to have a lot of positive remarks, stating “So damn excited!!!!! Now that’s how you reveal gameplay.” She even requested for a photo mode to be included, which I think is really nice. Tony/onitenshu, on the other hand, had a bit more middle of the road, nuanced remarks, “It looks for the most part great and a lot of fun however the draw distance and lighting is rough and the frame rate stability needs a LOT of work.” So it sounds like with a bit of refinement it could be good, but that very much depends on the code to make those small tweaks.
Look past what I was saying earlier because people challenged when the release date is. Like LoyalVonJoni, “I was wondering was there a release date? Idk if I missed it?” and in the replies, Willie actually said, “March 27th 2026.” It’s still way too distant for now, but at least a date is set in stone now.
Some seemed to be uninspired by it. TribeOfTwelve stated, “Noone gives a fuck about 007,” which is just…quite harsh. And Laughing Man saying “soooo bad 🤦♂️” just goes to show that, once again, people were let down. This is very much opposed to Daniel VL, who’s mentioning, “007 FPS on 03.27.26,” so the date is getting some clarity, at least.
This game was even singled out. NDLien Chipo mentioned, “Looks like the world of assassination dlc,” which is valid in the Hitman community. Pres510 went on to say, “Nothing but a Hitman game.” which could indicate that it’s similar to those games. GamesTrailerzers added, “Uncharted 5 looks good.” as a joke. It’s clearly not, but it’s a blind stab at guessing.
And, of course, there’s the one person commenting on the old PlayStation versus Xbox exclusives. Blake Foster commented, “Hi PlayStation, put Stellar blade on Xbox. Thanks 😀,” which is like, that’s never going to happen. But anyways, take your chances, I guess.
Although some gamers have already recognised the issues with the performance and others are indifferent to the whole controversy, it appears, based on IO Interactives’ tentative release of March 27th, 2026, that they have some time to resolve the issues. Let’s hope they do, as no one would want to play a stuttering Bond game. And perhaps, if they do implement that photo mode, it would be pretty cool. So, this game does need attention as it might be promising after a good polish. Or it does might turn out to be a disaster. We really don’t know.
