The ending of new James Bond game 007 First Light makes it very clear there’s going to be a sequel, and via more than just the credit sequence (don’t worry, all this is totally spoiler free).
Except for the legendary GoldenEye 007, James Bond hasn’t had much of a track record when it comes to video games, despite innumerable attempts over several decades. But 007 First Light is not only a great adaptation of the famous superspy but an excellent action adventure in its own right.
The game is out today and that means you’re going to be bombarded by spoilers, whether you look for them or not. We’re not going to spoil anything ourselves, but we are going to tell you what happens at the very end: just before the credits start the screen is filled with the familiar phrase ‘James Bond will return.’
Bond fans will know that phrase has appeared at the end of almost every movie (usually at the end of the credits) since the early 1960s, often indicating the name of the new film, in what was essentially the first example of a post-credits teaser.
Publisher and developer IO Interactive hasn’t really spoken about their plans for games after First Light, but what surprised us about the ending of the game (don’t worry, we’re really not going to spoil it) is how much of it was a blatant tease for a follow-up, that continues plot points from First Light.
Traditionally, James Bond films have been almost completely self-contained, with an extremely loose continuity that doesn’t make any sense in terms of the time scales involved – which is clearly nothing the filmmakers ever really cared about.
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The Daniel Craig era was very different though and worked much more like a modern film franchise, with several of the films being direct sequels to the previous one. First Light seems to be pushing this even further, with a very explicit set-up for the next game.
Long-time fans will be able to guess one plot element, once they play the game, although how long IO will let it gestate, before allowing it to take centre stage, is impossible to guess.
So while no sequel has been formally announced it’s not just the promise that ‘James Bond will return’ that confirms another game, but the plot itself.
Of course, that’s the plan at the moment but it all depends on exactly how well First Light does. It’s five years since the last Bond film, so the character is not particularly high profile right now, although interest over who will play the character in Denis Villeneuve’s new film – the first since Amazon bought the franchise – will likely change that.
Nevertheless, First Light wouldn’t be the first game that teased a sequel and then didn’t get one, although you should never say never (again) when it comes to video games, where the aging of its stars is far less of a problem.
2014’s Alien: Isolation, for example, had no real ending at all and for years it looked like it never would, and yet surprisingly a sequel is now in development. So hopefully IO’s promise about 007’s return will be kept, either sooner or later.
We should clarify that First Light does have a very satisfying ending and is, in terms of its plot, entirely self-contained, but the teases for what happens afterwards are very obvious and very purposeful.
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