The titles aren’t exactly groundbreaking, but they’re not bad. I might go as far as ‘quite good’. Certainly a nice addition to the game, anyway.
The song is fairly typical of what I’ve come to expect in a contemporary Bond theme (grump, grump, “these days…” etc). It’s ok-ish but a bit underwhelming and never reaches the heights you want it to reach.
I think my problem is that I long for a Bond theme that makes full use of a powerful voice, possibly even a booming voice. Something that isn’t embarrassed by the concepts of chorus and melody, but embraces them. Unfortunately, those things show no sign of coming back into fashion.
I never pre-order games. The last time I did was for The Last of Us in 2013. I…um…pre-ordered First Light….twice (physical and digital). I also pre-ordered the 007 PS5 controller. I might have a problem.
No, you don’t. I just spent almost 80 Euros on a 7” vinyl and a CD by a singer I’ve more or less detested for most of my life – only because it has to do with Bond. If you’d told me some 20 years ago that this would happen, I would have kicked you in the face. And I have friends who’ll never know about this, as telling them would have the same effect as canned salmon at a dinner party: social death
I also panic-bought a PS5 Pro before the price hike a few weeks ago. Mostly to play First Light on the strongest hardware possible (that won’t cost me $5000).
As you know people will have opinions which don’t align with those who made the, uh, product.
And it’s not nostalgia on my side. I was ready for something fresh and different, especially in this format which caters to the young(er) and does not have to invite worldwide mass audiences of the four quadrants.
They chose to go the fan fiction way, safe and predictable. That’s what I don’t like.
I didn’t think it was you, but it’s the response the game is inevitably going to get and probably Bond 26 will. Yes, they are playing safe but given it’s the first time with the character, and their first time with much of the mechanics, safe is the way to go. If it works, then start rocking the boat.
Well, that was incredibly underwhelming. The visuals of the title sequence, while far and away the best part of it, are very underwhelming and further emphasize the need to do something different with the title sequence, if the films are going to continue to have one moving forward.
The song might have been better if it was mixed better, but this recent trend of having the vocals almost drowned out by the instrumentation needs to pass, and quickly. Even when the lyrics could be made out, it’s not a good song, one of the weakest in the franchise. The instrumentation is not good either, far too busy and lacking any kind of cohesion with the lyrics that are being sung. It’s like they initially commissioned both an a capella song and an instrumental, decided they didn’t like either as they were, so pivoted to a mashup of both.
Was hoping that this would be great and finally provide something positive to make checking the game out a worthwhile proposition at nearly $80. This definitely did not accomplish this. Will be waiting for this to be heavily discounted before even considering James Bond Jr.'s debut on this generation of consoles.
Are we perhaps expecting too much from First Light? Is moving forward with a fresh/different take really what, then, Eon would have commissioned several years ago? Most of the game was likely conceived when Amazon still had to swallow MGM, let alone get full control of 007.
As creative aspirations go the most significant element here is probably the young-ish Bond that some compare to the Uncharted games franchise. For an Eon-controlled entry into the game market that’s probably what we would have expected more or less, had Eon not taken the Amazon cheque and run off, no?
The real task of First Light, as I see it, would be the gameplay, the experience for gamers who may or may not pick this up and spend hours and days in its ramifications. Is it going to kick off a cult following? Will it stick with kids who may have no Bond experience other than TikTok and YouTube clips?
We’ll just have to wait and see. There is a lot of positive buzz around the game. Bond video games haven’t had big mainstream appeal since about 2004. And this is the first one in 14 years, and without Daniel Craig no less. So we’ll just have to wait and see. There’s been plenty of chatter and positive reception to the trailers and released gameplay. Even moreso, non-Bond and game fans are talking about it due to Lana’s song. My hope is that it is successful with good to great review scores and 4-5 million in sales.
Definitely, the expectations probably could not be met anyway.
Then again, they set themselves up for this with the release of the song and the title sequence before the main event, as if this were a proper entry (fnarrrr) into the series.
They should have waited, put the game out so that the audience would have rated how that turned out, and then afterwards they could have made the song available.
I wonder if Lana Del Rey, by now a superstar herself, is maybe not already a generation older than they want to reach? A hip item with those between 25 to 35 when they want to get the mid-teens on board? Or perhaps her fanbase is much broader and I just underestimate her reach.
At any rate her involvement in the game is of course a huge PR scoop for First Light and the best possible buzz for the release. The next big thing of TikTok’s generation would probably not have generated as much interest.
Almost certainly no, unless they’re holding back some absolutely stunning multiplayer gameplay that will be what keeps people coming back after the, presumably, short single-player campaign has concluded.
That may be what sums up the underwhelming quality of it all, in my mind.
Del Rey never became the big superstar the label tried to make her, and she definitely scores higher for an older target group. It just does not fit as well as it should.
Like getting Tori Amos to sing Skyfall. Sure, interesting and good. But Skyfall needed Adele.
The real problem with it is that they had an opportunity to do something new and exciting with this, but went back to something that just feels like it ticks the boxes of everything the music did during the Craig Era, with the exception of “You Know My Name”, which incidentally is still the strongest of the Craig title tracks two decades and four other songs later.
But still, even something that is just working off a template can still be effective, the problem is that the song just isn’t good on its own, and certainly isn’t what they should be leading the promotional effort for the game with.
That can easily happen to fans. The pent-up/unfulfilled desire leads to them fto ideate all sorts of things that will never be made. When something is at last released, it can never meet/match the expectations of the enthusiast, which have only grown exponentially during the long gap. Dickens and Trollope had the right approach: they did not give fans time to ideate.
Look no further that PLAYBACK (1975)–the greatest Columbo episode (in many ways a rewrite of ETUDE IN BLACK, but tighter). It has everything–Columbo out-of-sorts at the start; dog; Columbo-fish-out-of-water scene; sympathetic Columbo; Columbo stern with the killer; “Officer”; Gena Rowlands and Oskar Werner; and the best gotcha moment in the series. All accomplished in a fleet, elegant 70 minutes.
Was this level of scrutiny present when EA did their songs and title sequences for Everything or Nothing and Nightfire? I don’t think so. I see them as being inspired by the movies but to be judged separately, with an appreciation the creators were taking the extra step to provide something other Bond games didn’t.
After having old man Bond since Skyfall I’m ready for a change here. If IO continued the aged veteran approach I’m sure complaints about copying Craig would only be amplified.
