We Played 007 First Light! - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: We Played 007 First Light!

Date: April 30, 2026
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Blessing Adeoye Jr., Andy Cortez
Special Focus: Blessing’s hands-on preview of IO Interactive’s new James Bond game, “007: First Light”

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Episode Overview

This week's episode dives deep into a hands-on preview of 007: First Light, IO Interactive's massive James Bond game. Blessing Adeoye Jr. played three hours of the game and shares his initial impressions, comparing it to both IO's Hitman series and cinematic action games like Uncharted. The crew interrogates every aspect: gameplay, cinematic flair, stealth vs. action balance, technical performance, music, story, party mechanics, and what it might mean for both Bond and Hitman fans.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Opening Impressions: “Game of the Year” Vibes

• Blessing played about three hours across three missions and immediately felt it’s a standout 2026 Game of the Year contender.

  “It feels like such a… game of the year contender. In the way that this is like the first game I’ve played this year where I’m like, oh, it’s buying clear—a game of the year contender.” (04:29)

• The preview demo balanced IO’s signature stealth-sandbox with highly cinematic, set-piece-driven gameplay reminiscent of Uncharted 4.

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Stealth & Sandboxing: Not Just Hitman with a Bond Skin

• Stealth mechanics are streamlined compared to Hitman—fewer complications, fewer layers (disguises, prepping, etc), but still allowing improvisation.
• Early missions are guided, linear, cinematic (similar to Uncharted or Naughty Dog games), then expand into larger sandboxes akin to classic Hitman, e.g., infiltrating a bustling gala with multiple ways to achieve objectives.

  “First mission was mostly guided, more cinematic… it wasn’t until the third level where they took the hand off the wheel and went, ‘Alright, you’re in a gala… do it how you want.’” (07:03)

• Gadgets: Bond’s smartwatch can hack devices, distract guards, and fire a poison dart to make targets sick (moves reminiscent of Watchdogs, but simplified).

  “What makes Hitman hardcore is you have to go find poison; here it’s just all on you. You’re James Bond; you got the gadgets. That’s also what makes it easier for a casual person.” (23:54)

• Sandbox “storylines” are often discovered via diegetic in-world cues (eavesdropping).

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Cinematic Set Pieces & Combat

• Major set pieces match Uncharted’s energy: chase scenes, crashing through environments, environmental destruction—lighting, effects, and choreography all praised for quality.

  “This chase scene was really fun… it’s another one of those where you’re like, damn, you guys are really putting it into these big budget set pieces.” (15:33)

• Melee combat: Feels organic, contextual, and forgiving—a bit like Uncharted 4 and even The Last of Us II. Bond parries, throws, grabs objects to stun, smashes enemies into nearby surfaces.

  “It’s almost like you’re playing a beat ’em up… if I was ever standing next to something, Bond would hit their head into it.” (46:43)

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Bond Feel & Storytelling

• Patrick Gibson voices Bond, infusing him with charisma, quips, and personality, earning comparisons to Nathan Drake.

  “I think this Bond has the charisma to feel like the next Nathan Drake.” (33:50)

• Story is engaging; Blessing felt invested in both immediate and larger mystery/thriller setups.

  “Moment to moment, at all times I was interested in what was happening… all feels very high quality.” (49:31)

• Some story details are embargoed, but the previewed writing and characters impressed.

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Technical Performance

• Tested on “beefy PCs,” no major performance issues noticed—explosions, debris, effects all ran smoothly, including large destructible environments.

  “There was no flaws in performance… as far as performance, it was pretty flawless.” (18:53)

• Limited bugs (e.g., character locking up in a cutscene), but nothing game-breaking.

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Music & Bond Vibes

• The orchestral Bond theme is expertly woven in for big moments, lending cinematic flair, while ambient music suitably underscores stealth. Lana Del Rey’s theme song also gets a shout-out.

  “This orchestral arrangement of the Bond theme is fantastic… the theme song I thought was incredible.” (15:20)

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Choices, Replayability, and Approach

• Multiple solutions for every objective; eavesdropping, improvisation, watching for environmental cues.
• Dialogue choices vary your approach—fake credentials, bluffing, or direct infiltration.
• Replay features: A future “Replay” mode for mission-based challenges (not quite as dense as Hitman’s systems).
• Combat approach: Guns are restricted unless “license to kill” is activated (i.e., when enemies are hostile). Until then Bond can only melee or use nonlethal gadgets.

  “You’re James Bond. You have a responsibility. You can’t just gun people down… Only when they bring out weapons do you get your ‘license to kill.’” (40:50)

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Audience, Accessibility & Franchise Direction

• More accessible than Hitman—although not a “pure” Hitman sandbox, it offers a streamlined experience that may serve as a “gateway drug” to stealth games.

  “I almost view it as …the sandbox sections as the gateway drug to Hitman.” (52:10)

• Replayable sandbox infiltration missions exist, but the focus is on story-driven cinematic adventure tailored to Bond fans (and Uncharted fans!), less so for those wanting Hitman’s deep systems.

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Critiques & Concerns

• Driving segments (seen in trailers) perceived as less exciting—Blessing didn’t get to test this part, but shares concerns that it could slow pacing.

  “The driving part did not look fun. It looked slow and not fun to control.” (48:52)

• NPCs sometimes feel more like manipulable “pawns” than realistic characters, but this matches IO’s general design philosophy in sandbox spaces.
• Some minor input on movement possibly feeling stiff to people new to IO’s games (concern raised by another event attendee).

  “I could see maybe it feeling slightly stiff at first to people, but I don’t know. I’m curious to see how more people feel about it.” (58:44)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bond vs. Hitman:

  “If you are looking to play Hitman, play Hitman. There are things about this game that feel very influenced by Hitman, but this is definitively not a Hitman game.” (43:04 — Blessing)

• On cinematic DNA:

  “This feels like this is an action game…this game is really gorgeous. The lighting looks amazing. The action, the momentum. This chase scene was really fun.” (15:33 — Blessing)

• On story and Bond as a character:

  “I think this James Bond has the charisma to feel like the next Nathan Drake… the amount of charm that he has. I think they’ve nailed having a character here who has that charm.” (33:50 — Blessing)

• On accessibility:

  “We’re just giving you the tools. These are things that you basically do in Hitman, but we’re making them really easy to do, and also fitting for how James Bond would play.” (52:10 — Blessing)

• On gameplay surprises:

  “This exceeded my expectations for sure. The way in which it exceeded my expectations is way more on the cinematic presentation side than the sandbox.” (52:44 — Blessing)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• Main Preview and Gameplay Impressions: (04:29 – 19:16)
• Set Pieces, Music, and Cinematic Experience: (13:29 – 15:33)
• Sandbox Mission Breakdown (Gala Infiltration): (23:54 – 33:09)
• Combat and Stealth Systems Deep Dive: (33:10 – 41:26)
• Audience & Genre Fit: (43:04 – 44:33)
• Replayability and “License to Kill” Mechanic: (40:50 – 42:10)
• NPC/AI Discussion & Critique: (37:45 – 39:22)
• Concerns with Driving & Movement: (48:52 – 58:54)

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Super Chat Highlights & Quickfire Q&A

• Does the game include card game minigames?

  No hints yet, but Blessing hopes so. (47:47)

• Any PlayStation “DualSense” features?

  Played on PC with DualSense, but no major haptic features noticed. (47:57)

• Fan expectations & nostalgia?

  The team feels the Bond/IP expectations are broad; unlikely that older Bond nostalgia or game hype will negatively impact the experience. (55:34)

• Post-launch and possible celebrity content?

  IO teased, “launch is just the beginning,” implying more episodic/content drops could come post-launch, potentially including new missions, elusive targets, or celebrity cameos—akin to the Hitman model. (54:44)

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Final Thoughts & Hype Levels

• All three cast members left the episode dramatically more excited for 007: First Light than they began, due to Blessing’s cinematic, hands-on account.

  “I was just hoping for an okay to serviceable story with variety of gameplay… If you could pair that with a narrative and dialogue that is worth a damn… We might be cooking here.” (51:09 — Andy)

• Blessing: The game’s set pieces and cinematic polish surpassed expectations, writing and character work is a highlight, and sandbox elements could open the door for new fans.
• Caveat: Some uncertainty about driving/vehicle sections and whether the more “casual” sandbox will satisfy Hitman purists.
• Release Imminent: With less than a month until launch, the preview sets high expectations for 007: First Light as both a bold Bond adaptation and IO’s next evolution.

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Summary prepared for listeners who want the full flavor and focus of the "007: First Light" preview episode without the promotional interruptions or small talk.

Transcript

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[Tim Gettys]

if you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kindafunny. What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games Cast. This time it is for Thursday April 30, 2026 an episode. I'm very very very excited. I don't really know the tenor, I don't really know the vibes of 007 first light and I can't wait to hear all about it. Of course. I'm your host Tim Gettys. I'm joined today By Andy Cortez.

[Andy Cortez]

Hello.

[Tim Gettys]

And also the man who's played 007 First Light Blessing. Adio.

[Blessing]

Yeah, Junior, I think what you mean is adio. Ye Blessing. Adio. Yay.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, that's good. That's real good. Oh, man, we got him the endyear a Bond boy now.

[Blessing]

Bond boy?

[Andy Cortez]

Really?

[Blessing]

Bond boy for life. No, I mean I, I, I got to watch more of the Bond movies. I definitely want to become more of a Bond boy because I know I would love probably all the modern and probably the classic Bond.

[Andy Cortez]

You're an Ethan Hunt guy.

[Blessing]

I, I love Ethan Hunt's my guy. But I love the Bond games.

[Tim Gettys]

It's going to be hard for you. Bless. I think if you are an Ethan Hunt guy, having seen all the Mission Impossibles to now go back and watch the Bond movies, I don't know that it's going to hit the same.

[Blessing]

I, I, I think I know what to expect tonally and all that stuff from James Bond because I played the Bond games and then also I've seen Skyfall and I remember enjoying Skyfall.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

So I feel like if I enjoyed Skyfall, I'd probably enjoy the other.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean I'm specifically talking about the Daniel Craig era compared to Mission Impossible. You play in the Bond games. That's way more Pierce Ross Rossnera.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

And like even before. But we're getting all over the place. What Bond movies have you seen?

[Blessing]

Only Skyfall.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, that's it.

[Blessing]

Only Skyfall. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, wow.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I got a lot of homework to do and I'm going to do that homework after this preview.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, it's a little tease.

[Blessing]

Oh, that's a little preview for my preview.

[Tim Gettys]

Love that everybody. Of course, if you're watching live, be part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com kind of funny games. If you have any questions about James Bond, Hitman IO Interactive Doug, send them in. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Ethan Hunt and he Andy will do impressions left and right. But I want to give a shout out to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega, Buster and Delaney. The Psalm twining for now, let's begin with topic of the show. Bless played 007 first light. Andy. I are here to ask him questions. All about it. We got to start just top level. What did, what did you get to experience from this video game?

[Blessing]

So I played around 3 hours of 007 first light. I believe most people who previewed got around 3 and a half hours available to play at a flight I had to catch and so I had to dip out A little bit early, but yeah, I got to sit down, play around three hours. There was three different missions that I got to experience. I mean, if I want to jump right into my preview here, I've been trying to think of the right way to say it because I don't want to put down other games that have come out this year so far, but for the three hours of Double Seven First Light that I've played, it feels like such a, oh, this is a game of the year contender. In the way that this is like the first game I've played this year. I'm like, oh, it's buying clear. Like, clearly a game of the year contender. Like, as I'm playing this preview, just from the three hours, of course, maybe it falls off a cliff. Maybe once we get to experience more, it trails off. You know, there's. I think there's a specific part of gameplay that I'm curious on how it resonates with the wider audience. But overall, in my time playing 007 first light, I think the things that it does to take what IO Interactive does well, which is the sandboxy, stealth gameplay, how they take that and mix it with the cinematic Uncharted 4, like, segments of gameplay that feel very locked in and honed into like great set pieces, great dialogue, great writing, making me feel like I'm watching a big budget movie. They're pulling these things together in a way that I am extremely impressed by.

[Tim Gettys]

I wanted to immediately start because you starting it off with that game of the year type conversation, the contender off the rip, that being the first thing that you're saying, I'm interested in that. You are definitely the IO poppy. You're the poppy of many things, but you're the Hitman guy. I love kind of funny Hitman. I think a. A blind spot for. For most of us, like, we might have dabbled here or there, but Andy was even saying a show on our show yesterday, Gamescast, talking about all the games come out in May when we were talking about James Bond that like, you. No, you'd get be so obsessed if you just put more into it, right?

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, Hitman.

[Greg]

Yeah. Right.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, yeah. So you having put so much time into the three Hitman's, the world of Assassination, all of that, if you were to play if this were Hitman four, right. Would you. Would it be like, oh, yeah, this is a game of the year contender to you, or do you think that this already is like, above and beyond that of like, this is going to be one of the six of the Game awards because they're. They're changing it up enough to make it accessible to more people.

[Blessing]

I think they're changing it enough. They're changing it up enough to make it accessible to more people. But they're also, I think, keeping in a lot of the heart and soul of what makes I Interactive good at what they do. If this is Hitman 4, I think I would not. I wouldn't feel as happy with it. Not because it's better or worse, just because Hitman is Hitman. Right. Hitman is all about the sandbox, all about the disguises, all about the stealth. 007, first light, I think, broadens Ion Interactive's gameplay styles where there's way more of like the Uncharted 4 style moment to moment. I'm doing these cool set piece things, style of gameplay before you even get to the sanebox, like the first two missions. Actually, the first mission I did was mostly like guided. I am, you know, I'm like sneaking through, like more of a linear level. I am following these more shorter objectives that they're asking me to do and having almost more of a cinematic type experience. It wasn't until the third level where they took the hand off the wheel and went, all right, you're in a gala. There's a bunch of people in this gigantic room. We have a big objective that we want you to do, and you have a bunch of different ways to do it. You know, that was the third level that they introduced me to. And so it seems like they're trying to balance it a little bit more, to give it more a big budget, cinematic feel, make it feel like more of an action adventure game as opposed to the pure stealth game? But I think they balance the two fairly well.

[Andy Cortez]

Would you say that what you've seen so far reminds you at all of Housemark going from their arcade roots to a Returnal and a Soros. Like, is this. Does this feel like the next jump for IO or does it feel like, yes, they're using what they've learned and there's all these things that they are great at and they have found a way to sort of elevate the formula and include. But you're kind of mentioning these larger, big budget, set piece moments.

[Blessing]

I think the more apt comparison would be to Insomniac with going from Sunset Overdrive and Ratchet and Clank to go into Spider man, where it is. We have. We see what you're doing with your gameplay and like, you know, you have a fun system here for movement and you have this very colorful design in your games and stuff. Hey, this might actually work for Spider Man. And then you play insomniac Spider man. And it feels right. It feels like a match made in heaven. I feel like 007 is a match made in heaven for IO in the way of. Okay, we see what you do with both stealth and with how systems heavy your game is, how sandbox your game is. And we're taking that and we're taking elements and putting that into 007. So to set this up, right, I really love the main character. You hop into the game as somebody can get the name of the actor because he's absolutely killing it. You're jumping in the game as James Bond. This is a prequel, right? And so you are a new James Bond. You are on a mission that goes awry. And then you get a call up from MI6 Mid Mission, and they're like, hey, this is MI6. We need your help. This is like on the boondocks in Iceland. And you're about to. You're basically being asked to infiltrate this enemy camp, right, this dangerous camp, and help free some people that they have trapped there, of which Patrick Gibson is the actor.

[Tim Gettys]

He was from the OA and Dexter Original sin.

[Blessing]

Yeah, Patrick Gibson, absolutely killing it in this role. The voice on the call is kind of like guiding you through and, you know, telling you, hey, all right, go into this room, do this thing. You accidentally get poisoned. And so like now the voice is guiding you through, like, all right, you want to go into this room. And then you go into the room. The screen starting to get all weird and it's very uncharted, very uncharted. You know, you are trying. You're opening different boxes, trying to find the serum to cure yourself. And like, you keep opening the wrong box and you finally get the good one, you hit the buttons, boom, you're back now. All right, cool. Thank God I'm saved at the last second type thing. Again, very naughty. Dogging energy. You then go out of the camp or no, you go out of that building. You're now into this camp that is filled with enemies and tall grass for you to hide in. You need to, like free up two groups of people. And what I like that they do here is I'm describing a lot of like stealth type gameplay. They take the stuff that they've done previously and I think they shorten it up in ways are a bit more digestible and easier for you, for you to do. Doesn't feel watered down necessarily. Doesn't feel like we're losing the soul of what we've done before. But it feels better contextualized for something that's going to be a bit easier to jump into and easier to digest.

[Andy Cortez]

You mean just less complicated in a way that you're not having to have this one item that does this. That then likely is it just like

[Blessing]

it's, it's less complicated.

[Andy Cortez]

Smaller segments.

[Blessing]

It's smaller segments. Okay. Yeah. And so like you're hanging out in this, in, in this place, you are jumping from tall grass to tall grass, freeing up the people. And then that leads into another action segment where you like topple down a big pole to cause a big like not explosion, but like a big reaction. Right. Everybody's like, yo, what the is that? Use that as a distraction escape at the last second. It's a fun cinematic moment like that set the tone in the right way for me where I'm like, oh, okay. This feels like this is an action game.

[Tim Gettys]

And I think that, you know, for my perspective, that's where I am so much more excited for this game. Like the Hitman stuff has always been just complicated enough that as cool as it is, it's not my favorite personal type of gameplay style. I am here more for the big set pieces and the more Uncharted like stuff. And when we first saw this game being shown off, it's all right, cool, we're getting a lot of story stuff. We're clearly going to get some big set pieces. And even the, the end of what we saw with the getting on the plane and all the explosions and stuff, it's like, okay, we're cooking, but a lot of that car drive and we were a little not stoked about it all because it felt like the less fun parts of Uncharted, the forced walk and talk type things, and we've been here, done that before. You're. You keep bringing up Uncharted 4, which I think is a very specific Uncharted to bring up. Obviously the most polished the, the most recent full length Uncharted game, Lost Legacy. After that most budget, all of that, right. Does is this hitting on that level. Because a lot of people have tried to make Uncharted and haven't been able to pull it off are the set pieces living up.

[Blessing]

The set pieces, I think are the closest that I can remember of a game living up to that. Right. Like one of my first notes I had here is that like I remember a while ago asking for a Mission Impossible game that was developed by Naughty Dog. That would be like my dream Title. I think this game is the closest that we're gonna get to that as far as the spy thriller. That kind of gives me that right. And Chartered 4 is the 1 I referenced specifically because of the polish, because of things like you get into melee combat and you have this seamless level of I'm meleeing this guy, and then, like, we're standing next to a table as we're doing this, and so I knock his head into the table and then I kick him into, like, the wall or whatever.

[Tim Gettys]

Hold on real quick. What we're looking at right now, that looks legitimately straight out of Lost Legacy. The opening. One of the opening scenes of Lost Legacy. You jumping on the rooftops with all the things. That's really funny.

[Blessing]

That's what I'm like. There's a. There's a flow here where it looks like they. They might have looked at Uncharted or looked at what Naughty Dog does as a template to be like, all right, this is what we want to hit. And it's really impressive. This game is really gorgeous. The lighting looks amazing. The action, the momentum. Action is amazing. This chase scene was really fun to set up. This one, right. Like, this was in the third level they threw us in, which started off in that kind of, like, more linear style gameplay, and then got us into the sandbox. And I think this is where the heart and soul of this game lies, is kind of how this. This mission goes.

[Tim Gettys]

And so I know you're not traditionally a James Bond movie person, but you are very familiar. You've played the games. You clearly know the theme song. And something that really makes James Bond, I think, stand out is their willingness to just let that theme blare. You know what I mean? He does something cool. You're hearing the. The big bombastic stuff, but when you're doing something a little more sneaky, you're getting, like, the smaller versions. How was the music in terms of, like, setting the tone and your experience for the big set piece moments, but then also for the stealthy, quieter.

[Blessing]

I love the music in this game. It stood out to me when, toward the end of the first mission, you were doing this big getaway thing. And as you get away, it is the big, like.

[Andy Cortez]

Like it needs to be a character.

[Blessing]

I had a moment where I was like, damn, dude. Like, they're actually doing this. This orchestral arrangement of the Bond theme is fantastic. I don't remember the small moment music as much, but I never had a moment where I was like, something. This doesn't sound right, right. Like all of it kind of kept me in the game. And so that's not a complaint for me. As far as, like, how. How they handled music, I thought they handled music very well, especially the big moments. And the theme, like, theme song I thought was absolutely incredible. I. The Lana Del Rey one, you know, they released it. I hadn't seen it until I was playing it here. And once I got to that screen, I was like, yeah, I like this a lot. Like this a lot. But to talk about that mission, right, that you were watching there, that was a fun one because it's another one of those, like, damn, you guys are really putting it into these. These big budget set pieces where you are. You are getting back home as Bond, right? You're looking around, you're this, like, empty house, and you run into people that are there with you that are, like, infiltrating the house. And it's like, oh, shit. All right, we got a scrap. You go from this fight scene, take out the first dude fighting the second dude. And then as you're fighting it, you go into a cutscene where there is a sniper that's on you, and you're like, oh, shit, right? You know, incapacitate the second dude. And now it is. There you go, incapacitate him. And now you are having to go from being in your house to getting across. You get out of this room and then go across the roofs and try to dodge the sniper fire. As you're doing it felt super cool. Again, I love how much destruction you're seeing as far as the sniper getting at you. But then pots are breaking, you see debris flying. And all this, when I played, played through this, I very much was just trying to go from COVID to cover and get as close as possible. It's fun watching back footage. This is the footage that they provided. And they're actually using their gadgets, which is fun. Doing a demo. And, you know, I'm not necessarily having, like, all the tutorial context and all this, right? I'm just jumping into this mission. But to see the way they. They do it where they are using their watch to, like, activate certain things. They're activating the air conditioner to distract the sniper and then create a way for them to go. This. This legitimately feels like it is a, hey, play the way you want. We're giving you options to open yourself up for how you want to solve whatever. Whatever situation you're in. And that goes double for when you're finally in the sandbox area that you get to after this. But I love this section because, yeah, from here you're crossing the roof. You then eventually get into the crane you see in the background, climb up it, use the crane to try to like create this path where you can get to the roof where the sniper is at. And then you ho. You like jump on the crane, run across it, hop down, fight the sniper and it's so fucking cool. It's so. I had such a fun time during the segment.

[Andy Cortez]

What's the. What did you guys play on?

[Blessing]

Played on PC but on Beefy PCs as well.

[Andy Cortez]

Beefy PC?

[Blessing]

Beefy PCs, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Because I wanted to ask about just the. You mentioned all of the explosions and all of the physics and things. You know, the IO showed off a decent amount of that in the couple of previews they showed. And, And I just want to know like, how, how those moments felt. Did you notice like a lot of slowdown in the performance? No. Yeah, all running pretty smoothly.

[Blessing]

All. All ran really smooth. Again, like very beefy PCs that we're playing on. But yeah, it ran. I didn't. There was no flaws in performance as far as, as far as how it ran. There were a couple of bugs I ran into. Nothing crazy. More so like my character locked up after talking to a guy. This is pre release and so those are obviously things that they can fix before the game releases. But as far as performance, it was pretty flawless.

[Andy Cortez]

This makes you very excited, Tim, because I. This game didn't look great. This game looked like it was going to be a solid, serviceable video game. But you started to wonder, man, are the IO hardcore Hitman fans going to be mad that they're not getting a new Hitman or something like this? Because they are getting this other, you know, thing that's trying to kind of reach the more broader fan base of people just in for cinematic, you know, video games or whatever. I, Yeah, I thought they. I thought it showed off pretty badly in a lot of the other moments that they showed off the video game. Until really the Nvidia one where.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, where it was like, to be fair though, it's like there was only the one bad presentation of it. And I think that we're just even extra harder on it because the expectations are so high. Right. This is one of those dream games of like, oh my God, the developer of this is. Has access to this ip and we've also been waiting for this for so long because they announced it so many years ago. At least the. That initial tease and then seeing it was kind of like, ooh, well, to your point, I did think, is it going to not make any audience happy?

[Andy Cortez]

The car one was separate from the one with the terrible frame rate in the airplane. Right.

[Blessing]

I think that was all the same.

[Tim Gettys]

That was all the same.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I could have sworn that was like two different things. Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

They started with the car stuff and then it ended with the. It was the car stuff and then like a little bit of infiltration into like a mansion. And then it was like the car chase to the airport.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah, that was. That was a tough showing for sure.

[Tim Gettys]

But whoever got this on Fantasy Critic, man, they're very lucky. So let's go.

[Blessing]

There you go. I want to talk about the more sandboxy gameplay because I think for me, that's where it got very interesting as far as what this game is doing. Because everything I've been describing so far has had that Naughty Dog esque feel of action adventure and being fast paced and everything's exploding and all this after you. That whole crane sequence, you know, the. You are now chasing after the sniper. You saw it in some of the footage that Barry was showing earlier. Sniper escapes into this gala. And now as James Bond, you're like, okay, I gotta go after this guy. And so you walk into the gala and that's where it is. Boom. Hitman's back, baby. Like, this is the sandboxy sort of gameplay. Now I say Hitman's back. Definitely way different from Hitman. Right. Like, obviously you're not Agent 47. You're not knocking people out and swapping clothes. And it's not all about blending in in that way. It's about blending in in other ways. Because as James Bond, you have sort of a different tool set. You have a few things. You have a. You got to give James Bond a cool spy watch type thing. I feel like that's at least for the James Bond games that I've played. That's been very standard. And so with your watch here that you're seeing in action, you can activate electronics. There's a battery powered thing. If you look to the bottom left, there's like a blue bar that is your watch battery and your. Then that affects how much you can activate it. But that'll make it so that if you see somebody with a phone, it's kind of like watchdogs. Actually if you see somebody with a phone, if you hit the watch button, that phone might blow up in their face and they're blind for a second. And so, like, if you need to sneak past them or if you need to pickpocket Them do something. Like, you can make that happen. There's also another function where you have, like, a poison dart that'll essentially make somebody throw up. They'll get sick for maybe, like, 10 seconds. They'll find the nearest trash can, hunch over it. It's funny because these are things that are similar to what's been in Hitman, but they're automatically on your person. And what makes Hitman hardcore is the fact that if you want to poison somebody, you got to go find poison. You know what I mean? If you want to, like, have something blow up in somebody's face, you got to prep it here. It's just all on you. You're James Bond. You got the gadgets. That's also, I think, what makes it easier for a casual person coming in and wanting to try these things out. Once I get to the gala, first thing I do is, what was it? I get to whatever objective that was. Like, find the phone. I find a phone in the bat in the bathroom. And, like, really, what the big objective is is that I need to get upstairs to, like, the security room to check the cameras. And so I'm like, all right, cool. Let me. Let me see where the security room's at. Walk up the stairs, and it is locked. It is behind, like, a security door that I need to get past. Okay, cool. How do I get past the security clearance? I walk around again. Plenty of people in. In this place. This lady that. That you see Bond talking to here, she's the first one I. I see of, like, oh, snap. There's an icon here that's like a eavesdrop icon. And so I go to it, and I overhear her talking, and she's waiting for a journalist that hasn't shown up. And she's like, hey, if this journalist doesn't show up, I'm gonna give it to this next guy. And so I'm like, sick. I go talk to her. She's like, oh, hey, how's it going? Who are you? And I have two options for names. I can say, I'm the person that didn't show up, or I can say that I'm the next guy that she's about to give it to. And so I say, oh, I'm the person that didn't show up. And she's like, okay, sick. Go. Go get your camera, and let's do this thing. And so now I'm like, oh, snap. Okay, I got to go find a camera. And so I walk around.

[Tim Gettys]

That's cool.

[Blessing]

Yeah, right? So I walk around the room. I try to find a camera, and on my way, I'm like, man, I cannot find this camera. But I see another eavesdrop opportunity for a guard that is hitting on a girl that is. That is, like, the receptionist working there. And I eavesdrop them, and they talk about how, like, she has some security card. And I'm like, okay, sick. And so I try to then talk to the security guard, and I act like I. I. I own the place, right? I act like, hey, you know, you. You got to be on your. You got to be on watch. On. On at your position. Like, what are you doing over here? And he's like, oh, I'm watching this room right here. That's right across here. Everything's good.

[Andy Cortez]

Real quick. Do you act that way because you have the option to act that way?

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Or is there a way to be

[Blessing]

more Pass was specifically, I go and I talked. They gave me an option to talk to him, and that's what Bon immediate immediately said.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, When.

[Blessing]

When you.

[Tim Gettys]

You say that there was the option of, like, you're the journalist that didn't show up, or the next in line, you chose the first option. And they're like, all right, cool. Grab the camera. Do you think that if you chose the other option, it wouldn't have been a camera? It would have been, like, a different thing?

[Blessing]

I think it would have been a different thing.

[Tim Gettys]

Interesting.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

That's cool.

[Andy Cortez]

Was there anybody you talked to at the event who, like, here's what I did, and, you know, I went about this a different way or.

[Blessing]

No, that was one of the sucky things about me having to dip the. The airport is I wanted to talk to people, but I didn't have the time. But, yeah, ended up talking to the security guard. He's like, I'm looking after this room, and I'm like, all right, cool. And then I'm like, all right, let's. Let's look in this room to see if there's anything I can fuck up to then distract him so I can pickpocket the girl that he's trying to hit on. And so I go into the room. I see the exhibit has a thing that I can sabotage using my. My smartwatch. And so I do that. It, like, starts short circuiting. He's. Then he then is like, ah, fuck. And then he, like, walks over to the thing. The girls. The girls now alone. I use my poison dark to make her sick. She, like, goes to the trash can, starts throwing up. As she does, I immediately pickpocket her. I have the key card now to go upstairs, and I'm like, hell, yes. Like, my thing actually worked. I. While doing all that, I saw like two to three other ways that I could have figured out how to get upstairs. And that's just in my limited time of hanging out and playing. I'm sure if I talked to other people, they would have had other things.

[Nick]

Question Blessing. Another more casual fan of. Of Hitman, but also into things like Assassin's Creed or some of the more modern Assassin's Creed stuff. When you have to do, like, infiltration, stuff like this seems like a similar way that they try to design, like, different routes for you. Similar with Watchdogs as well. My big question for you, talking about the sandbox stuff with Hitman, kind of like. Or with IO not going full Hitman, but trying to bring this a bit more presentationally, like a. Like a really big AAA appealing to mass audience here.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Nick]

How much of this feels like you discovering this on your own, and how much does it feel like very guided? Because I would say, like the big thing that it took Assassin's Creed to figure out for a few of the games, when I think it was like Unity was the first one where it was like, hey, here's a big set piece. Like, you have to infiltrate this church. And there's like a multiple different ways to do that, but they all kind of like, really, like, hand that to you on a silver platter type of way. And less like making you feel like you found these and discovered these on your own. Like, how did you feel about that balance?

[Blessing]

So the things that I did definitely felt guided to an extent, because the way. The way that I started them was I saw the little eavesdrop icon. So it gives me the option of, hey, there's. There's an open way here. Right. I like that because it reminds me of what they did in Hitman, which in Hitman, they had specific story missions that were these guided ways to take out enemies. Here they're taking the story missions and going, what if we just turn this into a mechanic of you eavesdrop? And that's how you learn about those things, as opposed to it being like an icon that pop that just pops up and says story mission. So I like that it's more in world I'm listening in. And I bet you. I bet you that once, like, the once more people get their hands on this game, they're going to find their own ways to do this. They're going to totally bypass the eavesdrop stuff. And like and find whatever fast, faster ways or cooler ways they want to get things done.

[Andy Cortez]

Did it feel like it became just rely on the watch after a while or were you having a lot of other methods of improvisation?

[Blessing]

Oh, that's a good question. It is a little bit heavy on the watch, but I didn't feel like it was all watch especially once I got upstairs because once I got into like the security no watch zone, it's like no, but it's not.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean I want to know what happened upstairs. Blessed. I really do. It sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun, but first I want to hear a word from our sponsors.

[Greg]

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you know what I hate? It's having to track down my wallet when I finally make the call to buy something online. You know what makes that a breeze? That big beautiful purple pay button that has all my information stored. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and 10% of all E commerce in the United States. From household names like Heinz to skims to brands just getting started. Get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. Easily create email and social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with one world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to process returns and beyond beyond. See less carts go abandoned and more sales go with Shopify and their Shop Pay button. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com kinda funny that's shopify.com kinda funny this episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. Mother's Day is right around the corner and you know what gift I gave my mom that just keeps giving an Aura Frame? Be like me. Ditch the Flower is an upgrade to the digital frame all of Kinda Funny loves the Aura Frame. With the Aura Frame, I'm able to constantly keep my mom updated with photos of her grandson via the Aura app. It's free. I just clicked the photo of little Benny shredding on his skateboard here in San Francisco. Tap a button and it's up on my mom's frame in Chicago. Aura Frames come with four free unlimited storage so you can add as many photos and videos as you want. But even cooler, for that Mother's Day gift, you can preload photos before it ships so it pops out of the box, personalized and ready to go. Your mom deserves an upgrade. Make Mother's Day Special with Aura Frames Named number one by Wirecutter. You can save on gifts moms love by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time, listeners can get $25 off their best selling Carver Mat frame with the code Kinda Funny. That's a U R A frames.com promo code kinda Funny. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by nocd. You finally sit down to game just you, your controller and zero responsibilities when your brain decides that's the perfect time to ask did I say something offensive earlier? And not realize it. And suddenly relaxing and enjoying yourself is impossible. No matter what you do to try to feel better, the doubt keeps coming back. Here's the thing. That kind of relentless thought spiral isn't just anxiety. It could actually be ocd. Unlike the stereotypes, real OCD involves intrusive, distressing thoughts that cause intense anxiety along with behaviors you feel driven to do to get relief from those thoughts. But it doesn't have to be that way because OCD is highly treatable with the right kind of specialized therapy. OCD needs ERP or Exposure and Response prevention, which has proven to be the most effective treatment. And that's where NOCD comes in. NOCD is the world's leading provider of OCD treatment and it's covered by insurance for over 138 million Americans. All of their licensed therapists specialize in ERP therapy and will help you learn to take the power away from intrusive thoughts in live, face to face video virtual sessions. If unwanted thoughts are taking over, don't wait to get help. Visit nocd.com to book a free call with their team. That's nocd.com youm tell yourself no one

[Blessing]

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[Tim Gettys]

What happened upstairs?

[Blessing]

Bless what happened upstairs. So I get there. I walk toward the area where I believe the security room is going to be. Um, but then I run into two dudes. Two security dudes. One of them probably the security lead. All I know is that he was an asshole because I go into a cut scene as soon as I get there. And one thing I want to acknowledge about this James Bond I know I said Patrick Gibson is doing a great job. I think the reason why he's doing a great job is because he feels like a character that is filled with such personality. Like, in one of my notes here, I'm. I've lost the note, but I say, oh, X is right here. I think this James Bond has the charisma to feel like the next Nathan Drake. Right. Like, and I. I keep talking about Uncharted, and I don't. I don't mean to keep comparing.

[Andy Cortez]

That's high praise.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, that's what it is.

[Blessing]

There's something about the way he's written, the. The amount of quips that he has and the amount of. The amount of charm that he has. Right. Like, I've not seen. I've not seen most Bond movies, obviously, but there's a thing I know about Bond is that he's charming. And I think they've nailed having a character here who has that charm. And that charm being core to who his character is and how he's able to move and do things. And so, like, you know, he's trying to convince this guard to. To let him through. Obviously doesn't work. And then the guard. The. The guard's name is Simon. And I remember this because the guard says, simon says off. You know, and the. The. It was something like. It might not have been that verbatim. It was like something like Simon says off and maybe piss off. Piss off. Maybe because he might have been British. That's a good point. That's a good point. Yeah, that's exactly how you sound.

[Andy Cortez]

Bloody nonce.

[Blessing]

But then they go back, they close the doors, and it's like, all right, gotta find another way through. And so I immediately sneak through the door to my left that is available. It's like, okay, well, I'm just gonna go through this way. I think I used my watch to open, if I remember correctly, go into a door. And I am doing the third person thing of, like, my third person cover. I'm covering behind, like, a drawer that, you know, is right next to a door that I can see people. People through. And I'm like, okay, cool. Now I'm. Now it's me and guards. It's not about the gala anymore. It's about me getting past these guards. And I see the options at the bottom that I've not used yet. One of the buttons says bluff. There's a bluff button in this game. And I'm like, all right, let's see what that's about. Right? Like, I see A tag on them that I can use this button now. And so I hit the button, and Bond basically screams out, like, some random shit of. I forget exactly what it is, but it was like, just the random thing of like, hey, I need help over here. Got to fix up a spill or something. And the guy's like, oh, shit, let me go see what that. So that guy comes back, I take him out very easy and then walk through. And it has the Hitman system, too, of, like, there are certain people that are recognized that you're not supposed to be in the area. Other people that will recognize that. That we'll see like, oh, no, you're not supposed to be here. I'm now seeing that. Like, all right, these guys don't even know that I'm not supposed to be here. So I then walk in, I hit a button that basically has Bond, like, make friends with them, right? Like, again, it's a very, like, personality driven gameplay mechanic of walk up and just be like, hey, what's up, guys? Like, say a lie. And now they're chill with me. Or at least they're disarmed for some seconds before they realize, like, oh, this guy's doing some shit that he's not supposed to be doing. Do that, get into the back room, where I then encounter Simon and two of his goons. I could sneak right into the security room, but I decide I'm gonna take out Simon and his goons first because I think that'll make it easier. And so I fight the two goons. Simon's the last up, you know, fucking one, two, punch, hit him all. Hit his face on the desk, knock him out. And then Bon says, Simon says, lay down. And I'm like, come on. I love that. I. I did not think they would have a voice line for me taking out Simon. What they did. I was like, that's cool. Eventually get into the security room and then, like, carry on the mission from there. But I just wanted to break that down of, like, damn, this all feels so natural in terms of what it's asked me to do with stealth and sneaking around. And it never felt like. I don't know, I feel like there's plenty of stealth games that I'm like, oh, this is gonna be frustrating for anybody who's not a stealth person. You know what I mean? Like, there are plenty of stealth sequences where it's like, oh, hide, get caught, and now everything's over. This one is very much the tools. Feel like they're there to make stuff easy and fun and Malleable to the way that you want to experience it. And I think that's what I love the most about this, this portion of gameplay.

[Andy Cortez]

Once one thing I wasn't super impressed by in that sort of gameplay thing was the. The NPCs very much felt like they were devices that you could just control in the world. Like, they didn't feel super real. They felt very binary in that I do this, they do that. I am here, they don't react to me being here. Did you feel like any of that was improved? Because it did feel like in that earlier thing that they showed. Of course, you know, earlier gameplay can be improved always. But it felt very much like they were as controllable as I'm gonna hack that thing to explode it. It just. It didn't feel like they were super responsive a lot of the time.

[Blessing]

I mean, I feel like that's the way it is, these IO games, right. Like the, the NPCs feel like they're there to be pawns in like the, in. In this puzzle box that you're in. Like you're there to fuck with them in these games. And so for me, that's more of a thing where, you know, I exploded this person's phone in their face or I shot this person with a dart and they had to go throw up. And like hell yeah, now I've just opened up away from myself. I will say not everything works on everybody. Like, I not. You can't hit everybody with a. With a poison dart. Some people it might not work on. Some people might not have a phone that you can explode. Explode in their face.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't worry, I'll explode their. I'll just explore their phone. How do you know they have a phone?

[Blessing]

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so like it very much is there are certain people you do certain things to. Everything works. But also I did. I didn't mind it. I never felt like, oh, these are like the empty's. Never felt super flat.

[Andy Cortez]

Gotcha. Okay, cool.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

So you're saying that it feels very natural to play a lot of this stealth stuff, but what if you play unnaturally?

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Did you try to go in guns blazing? Because I do feel like there's a lot of people that are going to do that. Like, is that instant fail state?

[Andy Cortez]

No. So we're shooters, Nick, we're shooters.

[Blessing]

I. So this mission I went full stealth. The previous mission I talked about my first one. I talked about the third one I played. The second mission that I played was Bond being part of MI6 and doing the training program. And it was basically an obstacle course that allows you to. Basically, you have to get to the end of this obstacle and get the flag at the end of it. And they have real people that you are interacting with and having to take out or sneak past and do all these things. And the point of this mission is to show you the different ways in which you can approach things. And I did it. I played through it twice. First time, I was stealthing through just to understand the stealth mechanics. And it was like, all right, cool, I understand how this works. Second time, I was like, I'm a go buck wild. I'm gonna start shooting. I'm gonna do everything. First thing to know is that you can't just start shooting. You're James Bond. You have a responsibility. You can't just gun people down. You can't get into gunfights unless you have a license to kill. What that means is that you are either causing enough ruckus or enough of the enemies have seen you and have decided to take out their gun and try to kill you. If the enemies bust out their weapon, you then get a license to kill. And now you can bust out your weapon or pick up a weapon.

[Tim Gettys]

I love it, but that's hilarious. That's how that works.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

I think it's their way of like, wanting you to also engage in the melee combat before you. Before you engage in the shooting. I didn't mind it. I really liked it.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. In that demo, see, because we saw the license to kill popped up once you got onto.

[Tim Gettys]

Up at the top of the screen there.

[Andy Cortez]

But in that earlier, the first one, it was like, once you get into the section where the airplane was the license, the kill thing popped up. And it very much felt to me that IO was like, this is our easy way to just say, hey, no more stuff. Just go, go, explode shit. Like, go, go guns blazing. This is a different section of the

[Blessing]

video game, and I'm sure it'll probably feel more natural as the game progresses of, like, if you get to a very high security area where somebody spots you and immediately is like, take him out. I'm sure immediately that's going to be the license to kill thing. Right. Or, you know, if you're in that section of I've exited, we're in this hanger and everybody's already on that. On that timing.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, bet this is an action set piece.

[Blessing]

This is an action set piece. You're immediately granted the license to kill. Go guns blazing. I think in the sequences that I'm Playing that are a bit more infiltrating. You kind of have to earn the license to kill by causing a ruckus and pushing the enemies to that point where they want to kill you. That's when you can kill them.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Did it feel like it was hard to get to that point, or does it feel like IO is actively pushing you to not do that?

[Blessing]

I was surprised by how hard it was to get to that point for the mission that I did. It didn't take, like, forever, Forever. But it really was a thing of me infiltrating, seeing the first NPC being like, all right, fuck it. I'm just. I'm start punching them and pick up their gun, you know, So I start doing that, and then, like, second person comes up. Knock it off. Yeah, second person comes up. I start fist fighting them. And I think it took like two or three people before they started shooting, which overall is probably like 10 to 15 seconds of gameplay. I was just shocked that it took that long. But I also like that, like, they don't immediately start trying to kill you off the bat.

[Tim Gettys]

We have a bunch of super chats, some of which you've already kind of talked about, but I like some of the framing of this so we can go through them kind of quickly here. Aaron Lime says, how much of this is Hitman and how much of this is 007? And we can even call that more uncharted. Right. Like, in terms of style, as a Hitman fan, but someone who doesn't care about Bond, I'm curious if this game's for me, what's the percentage split there?

[Blessing]

I'd say like 70 towards Bond slash Bora, like Action Adventure, but 70% Bond, 30% Hit Beat, 30% Hitman, maybe even less. Like, if you are looking to play Hitman, play Hitman. Like, there are things about this game that feel very influenced by Hitman, but this is definitively not a Hitman game. I will say, though, you know, if you're really fitting for something new and fresh and you're a Hitman fan, one of the things they mentioned during the preview is that they will have a mode that's going to be kind of like a replay. Specific missions that are the infiltrate missions, so you can have that in a more, like, singular fashion. I can just pick this and play this and probably try the different things, maybe go for, you know, different kill styles, all that shit. That stuff will be there. I just don't know if the stealth and, like, the density of mechanics is going to be as you know, interesting and like deep as a hitman game is, that's not what this game is.

[Tim Gettys]

And then this is me just adding to this. But you explaining like the things your watch can do, I'm a little let down. Like, it's like the things you're doing kind of feels like, all right, cool, like hacking the phone to explode and poison darts. It's like, damn, we're still doing these things, like making them throw up. But it's like I also, it goes back to the how do you make a detective game good, right? It's. There's like certain things that are just hard to translate to, to a video game with, you know, limited buttons and like tutorial.

[Blessing]

You get the vibe that you will unlock more things though.

[Andy Cortez]

I hope we get a mission where the, the, you know, the watch doesn't work and you got to get that banana and throw the, throw it at the enemy.

[Tim Gettys]

Mario Sunshine.

[Blessing]

One thing I should mention about the flood.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't bring up the fucking sunshine ever.

[Blessing]

One thing I'll mention about the watch. I mentioned that you have the battery that's powered by the blue meter for the poison dart. You have like another green meter that's next to it that powers that and powers other things. Right. You, that stuff depletes very quickly. The way you fill that back up is like random things that are in the level that you pick up. Like there's it's. It's a fun, like a weird video gamey thing of just walking and being like, oh, there's the blue thing. I'm going to pick it up to refill my watch battery. There's the green thing. I'm going to pick that up to fill my poison dart. It works for what they're doing here. But I did think that was kind of funny. But also, you know, you're not going to have unlimited access to the watch in the dark stuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Sandy Crane with a $5 super chat asks. As a major Bond fan, this looks like a dream. I couldn't be more hyped for this. How does the flow of hand to hand combat to stealth feel vice versa?

[Blessing]

It feels very fun and forgiving. Forgiving in a good way. Right? I, I like the, the melee combat a lot. Again, I hate how much I'm saying Uncharted here. But like in the way that Uncharted 4, when you get into those hand to hand combat segments and it's like, damn, like they're scrapping, like I'm taking this guy, I'm like knocking him into this thing. Like kick him and off of this thing. It's almost really.

[Tim Gettys]

All you're doing is.

[Blessing]

All you're doing is tapping square, square, square. Yeah, yeah, you're doing that here. Like, I believe there's a grapple button as well. And so like there's a bit more. Actually, I forget if charted might have also had a grapple button. I forget. But like, it's fun. It's almost like you're playing a beat em up, you know, it's like you're playing the warriors or some shit. Where it is. I can grab this guy, throw him into the thing, punch this guy. There is a parry in this game as well. I should shout that out. And so you got to time that out as well.

[Andy Cortez]

How much contextual combat is there, Divine? Contextual, like how when the last of us two really shines, when you. When your melee chains to knock him into the wall, when you melee change to, you know, whatever is in the world that. Oh, there's a lot that feels really unique.

[Blessing]

Yeah, no, there's a lot of that. Like, it is. I felt like if I was ever standing next to something, James Bond is going to hit somebody's head that thing.

[Andy Cortez]

Does he ever like pick up something? Like a little glass off the, you know, a little bottle or something or.

[Blessing]

Well, you have a button to pick things up. So actually I would do that manually. So as you see here, you see those things are there. You can like literally pick something up and just throw it at somebody. Said usually to distract them, but in combat it'll stun them for half a second.

[Tim Gettys]

We got a couple here that I don't know you're going to have the answer to because you've had limited experience. But Spartan wants to know, does the target seeking briefcase from Hitman make an appearance?

[Blessing]

Oh, I did not see a target seeking briefcase. I'd be very surprised just based off of how Hitman works versus how this works, because I don't. You don't really have the same inventory system as Hitman, where Hitman, you can carry whatever on you. You know what I mean? Here I don't know if you would have the spot to like be like, I'm just going to hold this briefcase so I can throw it at somebody. So I doubt you're going to see the target seeking briefcase.

[Tim Gettys]

Dexter asks, are they implementing card games like poker? Any hint at like maybe some types of. Of mini games or things to break up the styles of gameplay?

[Blessing]

No hint of that, but I hope that'd be cool.

[Tim Gettys]

And then Science Dog says, it looks like, it was played with the dual sense, but on PC. Did the game take advantage of the haptics that you noticed?

[Blessing]

Oh, I didn't notice any haptics. Like any. Anything that felt super wild. But yeah, I was playing on PC. I was playing with a dual sense. All felt fine.

[Tim Gettys]

Did you see any of the Kravitz?

[Blessing]

No, didn't see any Kravitz.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Sad.

[Andy Cortez]

I will say the stunning lack of Kravitz.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Again, I didn't get to finish the full demo experience because I got cut short. I was blown away. 1. I will say I was spending a lot of time in that sandbox area because I was. I was being a little nerd about it, just redoing things. And so, like, that's a good sign for just. I like. I like the the around ability in this game. I just around with things and just have. Have a good time. But as I was walking out, I saw somebody driving a truck and I was like, I didn't realize that this devil had a driving section. If I knew, I maybe would have picked up the pace and tried that. Because that is a concern of mine.

[Tim Gettys]

The driving is the. The. I think the biggest concern because, like, we keep talking about that state of play, being negative on it for, like, performance issues and stuff, but observed it didn't look fun. Like, the driving part did not look fun. It looked slow and it looked like not fun to control the person that

[Blessing]

was doing the truck driving section. I felt the same way. I was like that. I don't know if that looks fun, but maybe it's short. Might not matter.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a means to an end, to just get to the next part.

[Blessing]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tim Gettys]

In terms of. So you didn't get too much because of what you played of, like the bad guys and all that, but like story, you're liking the character of Bond. You're liking his personality. Do you think you're going to be engaged in a similar to uncharted way throughout this experience?

[Blessing]

Yes, 100%. There are plenty of things that I cannot talk about in terms of story because of the embargo, because I don't want to spoil things. But moment to moment, at all times, I was interested in what was happening. Like, and if a character is talking, if I'm on a call with somebody, I'm reading notes. Like in the section that I. The right before the section that Barrett showing when I was in the house, just walking around, you're picking up notes and learning things, and I'm all in on whatever they're doing with the story in this game. Like, it all feels very high quality.

[Andy Cortez]

That makes me very excited. Yeah, I think, you know, we've talked about it before then, but it just feels like the industry has a, a noticeable lack of like quality writing. Like it's really rare to kind of get a, a game that is consistently good in not only just narrative, but dialogue. And so when I heard you talking to Nick about how much you enjoyed the, the writing and how much it felt like, you know, like you're watching a good movie.

[Blessing]

Yeah, it's like, like the example, right. We're watching again this chase sequence. I was invested on this guy that we're chasing, you know, and that's, that's just based off of the scenario that I was at in the house. I'm. There's these two dudes that are here in the house to like kill James Bond. And I take them out and I'm like, okay, well who's this person sniping at me like I gotta chase this guy, right? Like I'm. I wanted him. I wanted to see what his story was as well.

[Andy Cortez]

How his eyebrows. So white. Yeah, we gotta ask him, man, a lot of questions.

[Tim Gettys]

Andy, what's this doing for you? Like where were your hype levels before this games cast and where are they now on a scale one to ten?

[Andy Cortez]

Well, I mean there is the unfortunate part where it's like, oh shit. The expectations go up pretty high just based on this preview. But going into this I was just hoping for an okay to serviceable story with variety of gameplay, give me cool improv, let me use the environment to my advantage. And I always, you know, I always dig whenever games can, can make you feel like you are outsmarting it. And if you could pair that with a narrative and with dialog that is like worth a damn. It's like, oh shit. We might have a. We might be cooking here.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Excited for it.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm definitely way more excited now hearing this from you. Especially like all the uncharted talk. I'm like, that's what I'm looking for. And even the simplified Hitman stuff, that sounds like kind of way more what I would be looking for from a gaming.

[Blessing]

I think it's, I think it's the right choice for what they're doing with this game. And I think it's. I almost view it as a, for like the sandbox sections as the gateway drug to Hitman.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Where like Hitman I think can be very hard for, for some people. Right. But like here it's like, we're just giving you the tools. These are things that you basically do in Hitman, but we're making them really easy to do and also fitting for how James Bond would play as a character, I think. I think plenty of people are going to play this game and go, damn, I want more of this type of gameplay. And then probably go and play more Hitman.

[Tim Gettys]

So I need to ask you. Bless. About your. Your hype levels, because you haven't actually played it. And starting this off with the game of the year conversation, like, I want to know more. Did it exceed your expectations from gameplay and stuff, or was this like, hey, they're doing what I really hoped that they would.

[Blessing]

This exceeded my expectations for sure. And I. The way in which it exceeded my expectations is way more on the cinematic presentation side than the sandbox. The sandbox stuff is, like, what I thought it was going to be. I think it was interesting to see how they were doing it, but it's like, okay, cool. This is what I expect from IO Interactive. It's everything else. Like, a couple things I'll point out. One, you know, I talk about how good James Bond is and Patrick Gibson is doing. It's so interesting seeing that IO Interactive has this level of writing and story. Not that, like, I'm talking shit on IO Interactive or anything, but I think it's more so a realization of maybe how limited you can be with the Hitman World and Agent 47. Because Agent 47 is very stoic. His whole thing is he's kind of a blank slate. You know, he's not meant to have the personality. He's not meant to be that charming. He is meant to blend in. He is a. That's a soldier, right? James Bond here, I think, is allowing IO to flex those capabilities in ways where I'm like, damn, y' all had this in you. That's kind of crazy. And so that, for me, is, like, really exciting and, like, one of the key ways in which this is surpassing my expectations. And then, yeah, just the visuals of it, the set piece stuff, like, it feels like they are, like they are leveling up in terms of what they can do with, like, presentation and just all the crazy you can do visually, I was very, very impressed by that stuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Do we think that there will be anything regarding, like, celebrities? Not counting the Kravitzes, you know, when we talk about the. These sort of missions you go on in Hitman with Eminem.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. The elusive target. Yeah, there was also. There's another big celebrity in it right. Wasn't the girl from Eternals in it? Maybe I'm wrong.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh yeah. Gemma Chan.

[Tim Gettys]

Gemma Chan, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Gemma Chan is in it. Yeah, but I meant more like will James Bond talk with Harry Styles?

[Blessing]

Here's the thing.

[Andy Cortez]

Or not him, but just an actual real life celebrity.

[Blessing]

Here's the thing. I wouldn't be surprised. One of the quotes they gave during their presentation during this preview is that launch is just the beginning, which made me go what do you mean? Like you made. What do you mean? And it made me. It made it sound to me that they're going to treat this a little bit like Hitman. I'm sure it's not going to be all the way like Hitman because Hitman. If you remember when Hitman One first dropped the new Hitman One, it was an episodic game. Dude.

[Andy Cortez]

We're going to have a moment where we go after all of the Bonds.

[Blessing]

That'd be crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

We're gonna have a moment where like we go after Daniel Craig or the villains from those games. Like it just. Or younger versions of them or whatever.

[Blessing]

But yeah, I think this is gonna. I think this is. If this is successful, especially if this is successful, it's gonna have a lot of post launch content is the way I read it. But at the very least it's gonna have some post launch content. Them saying launch is just the beginning.

[Tim Gettys]

Final super chat to wrap up the show here is from T. Sweezy who says are expectations bound to ruin people's time with the game. A rose colored glasses on previous Bonds gonna hurt it too. Jumping in from the outside having not played it. I don't think so because I. So expectations for Bond means so many different things to so many different people. Like I don't think that we're in an era right now where James Bond is looked at as the most prestigious thing. Right. I feel like, and I say that as a fan of the Daniel Craig movies, but even those inconsistent at best. And that was the last. Oh my God. 20 years. 20 years, Andy. Of what Casino Royale was 2006.

[Blessing]

Oh, wow.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Jesus.

[Tim Gettys]

Holy shit.

[Andy Cortez]

We still haven't gotten a new guy.

[Tim Gettys]

Wow. That's insane.

[Andy Cortez]

I think for me, I think it's expectations with what I.O. is capable of.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And I love hearing that. This feels like their level up moment. Let's use lessons from our, you know, what are we good at design wise and how can we also push this to a place that we knew Hitman never really wanted to go to, but James Bond is deserving of Moments like these big ass, you know, cinematic actions.

[Blessing]

Makes way more sense for a James Bond.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Than a hitman. There's two things I'll. I'll throw in there, right. I wrote down like a couple of things that I'm like my quote unquote biggest negatives. They're not negatives, but things that I could see maybe letting people down. One of them being the sandboxy stuff, you know, I think for me, playing the first two levels, immediately I was like, oh, this is gonna be a game of the year. Top three for kind of funny. And then I got to the sandbox part and went, okay, I. I love this. I'm so curious to see if people vibe with this on the level that I do. I could see that being a thing where people get there and they're just like, I just want to get to the next big story thing. I want to get to the next set piece. I want to get to. I could see that happening, but I still think that this game is what it should be. But one of the things I'm curious,

[Andy Cortez]

I very much vibe with I. Whenever I. As much as I love being the first person shooter, like keyboard mouse type shit, I love how can I get through this without alerting. How can I be sneaky, even playing stuff that isn't nearly as stealthy, like something like outer worlds or whatever, you know, how can I get by everybody and use the environment to my advantage?

[Blessing]

And my one.

[Tim Gettys]

My example of that, and it's like, I feel like a lot of people would hate this, but I love the amount of it there is in Spider man. Like when you Those. The stealth missions, like not the married, not the Mary Jane stuff, but the like the Spider man ones where it's like the. If you get seen once, like, you're.

[Blessing]

Dude, I love that. I love that. Oh, dude.

[Andy Cortez]

I was like, there's 17 people just like, up again. Webs.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Spider Man 2 needed way more of that. Spider Man 1 had that for days.

[Andy Cortez]

That's right.

[Blessing]

Rocked. But yeah, the other thing I have, and this is based off of a conversation I had with somebody. Somebody was leaving, leaving the event the same time as I was, and I was asking them what they thought and they brought up movement. Not feeling great for them. And I wonder if it's a thing where I'm so used to playing Hitman that I'm used to the way this feels.

[Andy Cortez]

That's their locomotion.

[Greg]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

I could see maybe it feeling slightly stiff at first to people, but I don't know. I'M I'm curious to see how more people feel about it. When. When y' all get your hands on it.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. A month away. Less than a month away before we play James Bond Double oh, seven first light. Very exciting. Thank you so much for that. Bless. That was an excellent preview. Got me sufficiently hyped. Let us know in the comments below what you're thinking about this new James Bond game. And until next time, I love you all.

[Andy Cortez]

Goodbye, everybody.

[Blessing]

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