007 First Light’s James Bond might not be your spy, but IO is okay with that

It’s one thing to cast a new James Bond and craft their style, but it’s another task to mold the world around him. 007 First Light has the benefit of utilizing IO Interactive’s Hitman expertise, from exploring exotic locales to understated facilities, all of them designed with meticulous attention to detail. In my chat with art director Rasmus Poulsen at Gamescom, I picked his brain about Bond’s fashion, environments, and delivering that classic ‘Bond feel’.

I haven’t stopped thinking about my 007 First Light preview session since Gamescom ended. Even as a gigantic James Bond enjoyer, I didn’t expect it to consume my every thought. But there are still elements it needs to nail when the 007 First Light pre-orders are shipped, and a lot of that comes down to the world Patrick Gibson’s Bond exists in. For some players, it might even be their first time interacting with the series, and Poulsen is keenly aware of this.

“This franchise is 60 years old or so. That means we have a huge tapestry to be influenced by, and we can remix some of these notions in a way where you feel like you could see a lot of different references in there without maybe pinpointing all of it specifically,” he explains. IO Interactive isn’t afraid to mingle with the past. We already have 007 First Light skins that directly reference Daniel Craig’s take on the character, but that doesn’t mean he overshadows Gibson’s version.

I tell Poulsen about how I see Roger Moore’s dapper fashion sense, Daniel Craig’s more modern clothing, and Pierce Brosnan’s way of carrying his clothing choices confidently. Maybe this iteration isn’t yours at first, but you go with him on his journey to become it.

Excitedly, he says to me, “What’s fun about that is that you feel at home, but it’s new at the same time. This is a new take on Bond for games. You go, ‘maybe it’s my Bond, maybe he’s for me’. But at the same time, you get those echoes of what the character is all about.”

The swagger of Bond extends beyond that, painting environments with a very specific brush. Making them distinctly of the ilk that Ian Fleming described is hard, too. I ask Poulsen about his influences and whether there are some that Bond fans wouldn’t expect. He mentions art installations and theater, finding reference points that the series hasn’t come into contact with before.

“Theater plays, poetry, and art, that’s a thing where I think people might be surprised that it’s not just action movies and roller coaster rides, right?” he jokingly relays. Poulsen comments that “it is also a bit more tender and maybe a little bit more nebulous in terms of how it affects the project […] I’ve been inspired by Bond for the other projects that we’ve been doing at IO right throughout the ages. So my professional career is really marked by being a Bond fan myself.”

Before coming to 007 First Light, Poulsen’s eyes have been with the Hitman games since Hitman: Blood Money. Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days, a game with a dour, unfilthered aesthetic no other game has the bravery to replicate, is where you really see his ideas in motion. Even in Dog Days, with its busted digital consumer camera vibes, it walks the line between realism and heightened reality.

“Making a modern world feel larger than and just out of reach, yet relatable, right? That balance between those forces is super exciting […] it’s been a journey. And of course, I have an amazingly talented team at home in Copenhagen that is working on these things.”

007 First Light is out March 27, 2026, but until then, you can check out more new Switch games that are releasing sooner. Or you can come chat about it with us on the Pocket Tactics Discord server.