'007: First Light's' Younger Bond Chosen To Be "More Relatable" To "Younger Audience"
IO Interactive claim they chose to tell the story of a younger James Bond in 007: First Light because it would make him “more relatable” to a “younger audience.”
IO Interactive Senior Communication Manager Yann Roskell revealed that the game’s Bond is 26years old. In a blog post on the PlayStation Blog site, Roskell posted, “This is Bond as you’ve never seen him before — the youngest Bond fans have ever met. In 007 First Light, at only 26 years old, he isn’t the fully fledged 007 you know from the tux-and-martini days but a man with sharp instincts, sometimes reckless, who is still learning when to fight, when to bluff, and when to disappear into the shadows.”
He added, “In 007 First Light, Bond starts as a NAVY air crewman, when against all odds, an audacious act of bravery propels him on MI6’s most challenging training program. This training coupled with his natural instinct, wits, and heart will see him grow into a fully-fledged spy. It’s a completely original standalone story, developed in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios.”
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As for why IO Interactive chose to make an origin story with a young Bond, Games Radar’s Ali Jones reports that “007: First Light devs chose an origin story in part because it allowed for a ‘more relatable’ Bond for the potentially ‘younger audience’ than might turn out for the films.”
007 Franchise Director Jonathan Lacaille, who was most recently a Product Director on Ubisoft’s Star Wars Outlaws game and Studio Brand Director for Hitman: Blood Money - Reprisal, told the outlet, “We have a story to tell that people are probably very curious to find out. What are the events and the people that shaped the character [James Bond] is today? Was he always the womanizer that he is, or the strong man that he is?”
Lacaille also reiterated Bond’s youth means he won’t be acting like James Bond, “There's a lot of youth in him, so maybe some recklessness at times. And he has a lot of charm, but he doesn't know how to use it yet. He's maybe not as efficient as a [later] Bond would be."
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Lacaille went on to reveal that this younger Bond in an origin story means that they are targeting “a younger audience, maybe, than the Bond franchise is used to.”
He added that, “It’s a new story to tell, and also a story that would connect really well.”
Furthermore, he indicated that because they are not adapting any of Ian Fleming’s books or any of the films, it allows the team freedom to do what they want. Specifically he said the game “is not an adaptation or anything […] but that's what will allow us to make a great game, because then we have a lot of freedom that will fit with the gameplay mechanics."
What do you make of Lacaille’s comments and the fact that IO Interactive is telling a James Bond origin story with a younger Bond?
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Too much focus on the devs "story to tell" for me. Same language is used in all the "gender-journey" garbage put out in the guise of "games."
Bet? This younger Bond is pansexual - or some such anti-hetero slop pushed by the (Keebler Elves).
Io Interactive already had their shot to tell an original story with Agent 47 in Hitman and the developers did it well. They have their bona fides and thus nothing to prove in my opinion. I am disappointed that rather than honor Ian Fleming's work, the heads of Io Interactive threw it out using James Bond as a skin suit.
Maybe it's the consultants they chose, maybe it was stipulations from Amazon, but I don't want a game to be "relatable", I want a game to be awesome and fill the shoes of an experienced and most importantly competent hero. While playing Call of Duty or Gears of Wars knowing many friends who have served in the US military that it tough, harrowing, and sometimes deadly work. I want the distilled experience of combat without the actual combat!
To be uncharitable, video games are the junk food equivalent of reality. If I wanted to weeb out I'd play a classic Bioware RPG and inject myself into the character and even then I look at the classes and styles available first. I wonder where the self-centeredness and narcissistic obsession with the self came from. Maybe a lack of reading and too much social media. I remember when gamers were also avid readers!