007 First Light’s Most James Bond Detail Is One Players May Never Notice
007 First Light nails the look and feeling of being James Bond, but beneath every quip and high-stakes action scene, it also sounds the part. From under-the-radar tracks accompanying Bond on a mission of espionage to the iconic boom of brass and guitar solos when all hell breaks loose, the soundtrack from The Flight feels like it would be right at home in any Bond movie. This attention to detail is one of the most James Bond-like aspects of the game, though it may go unnoticed by many players.
And that's no accident, as the duo worked to honor the rich legacy of Bond while also tackling the unique challenges that come with designing a score for a narrative-heavy game from Hitman studio IO Interactive. But throughout the entire journey, The Flight and IO Interactive wanted to emphasize how players had to earn not only the 007 codename, but also the James Bond theme to go along with it.
One added layer of authenticity with the soundtrack was the location chosen for recording it: Abbey Road. The world-famous recording studio—where The Beatles recorded several of their albums—saw several Bond movie themes recorded inside it, from Dr. No to Skyfall. "[IO] kind of didn't even ask us where we wanted to do it," Smith said. "It was just like we've got to do it at Abbey Road. And then more importantly, you've got to get the right musicians. Quite a lot of the musicians that we used had played on Bond scores of the last 20-30 years and on songs as well, so that's always good."
One of the challenges that The Flight faced was finding a blend of music that would sound both timeless and contemporary. "We wanted to explore some new places with this, and obviously, each section of this game has a very strong geographical element, and we wanted to play off that with each part of the game," Smith explained. "But we also wanted to give it a fresh sound, a modern sound without being 'cutting-edge' in a way that's going to sound dated in 10 years."
There's been plenty of modern touches in the scores, very specific to the composers that did them. But I think Bond, it never feels old. It always feels current, and I think that's what we were trying to do as well. We knew what sounded 'Bond' and what didn't sound Bond, so we were our own strictest judges.
Finding the right sound was challenging enough, but The Flight also had to work out how to create the soundscape for 007 First Light in a manner that felt organic to the open-ended approach players were given in each mission. While the game has its fair share of scripted moments that propel players forward—like a thrilling rubbish lorry-chase getaway scene in the heart of London—there are also moments where the game allows you to explore the environment at your leisure and soak up all the small details.
"An interesting thing about this game is that this is probably the game that we scored in most traditionally, kind of like we would do on a TV show or a film," Smith explained. "There are a lot of linear parts to it so that you can do it like that, but then there are obviously massive non-linear parts as well. The key to it is trying to make those still sound cinematic—still sound like you're in a Bond film, not a clunky system."
"Now luckily, we've got this genius music designer (lead sound designer Ciarán Devlin-Rushe), who's thought up a system before we came on board, and then we refined it with him. The music reflects the state that Bond is in, whether he's walking around and he's not under suspicion by anyone, or he's in spy mode and there are people on the lookout for him, or he's in a massive gun battle. Those pieces of music need to be related to the geography, they need to be related to each other as well, so they can seamlessly transition between each other, so that the player feels like they're leading it."
The Bond Theme: A Signature Moment
By the time that players wrap up 007 First Light, one thing is clear: James Bond is here. Ending the game with his theme tune and a teaser for a sequel feels quintessentially Bond, and The Flight didn't want to mess with perfection. "We didn't want to change that radically," Smith said. "It's a great thing, we just wanted to do our version, in the 'feeling' of First Light. But we didn't want to change it, radically change that too much, because it's just a great piece of music."
007 First Light launched on May 26, and the game quickly earned positive reviews. Critics have praised it for modernizing Bond while staying true to his character, while the smaller beats have also proven to be surprisingly memorable. While IO Interactive is aiming to build a trilogy of Bond games, recent comments by Amazon suggest that the current rights-holders to the 007 franchise could be more involved in the sequels. Meanwhile, fans of the game can look forward to a new story mission soon, featuring Lenny Kravitz's polarizing pirate king character Bawma.
