{"id":1567648,"date":"2026-05-01T17:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/LQC43f56cLwbUYMWzazxyG"},"modified":"2026-05-01T17:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T17:28:09","slug":"hear-me-out-what-if-james-bond-just-shouldnt-be-in-videogames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/hear-me-out-what-if-james-bond-just-shouldnt-be-in-videogames\/","title":{"rendered":"Hear me out: What if James Bond just shouldn’t be in videogames?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I played a good few hours of 007 First Light<\/a> last week, and I encourage you to click that link and read all about what I thought of them. But my time with Jim Bond sparked other thoughts. Thoughts that probably don’t belong in a preview. Thoughts like: What if James Bond just shouldn’t be a videogame protagonist?<\/p>\n

I know what you’re thinking, and first of all I’d like you to stop calling me those names. Second, yes, GoldenEye for the N64 is a classic. You’re also not really<\/em> James Bond in it. You’re a hand with a pistol in it and, sometimes in cutscenes, Pierce Brosnan’s face. The character of Bond existed as a lore reason for your gun to emit bullets.<\/p>\n

But games that try to make you feel like James Bond<\/em>, that put you in his actual shoes and attempt to embody him as a character? They fall down.<\/p>\n

Admittedly, a lot of them are simply not very good videogames, but also: I think the very nature of Bond is that he is a creature of cinema. He just doesn’t quite fit into games.<\/p>\n

Part of this is, well, he’s annoying. This might scan differently to non-Brits or, indeed, to anyone who doesn’t share my particular brand of class psychosis, but James Bond is an insufferable public school dickhead. He’s a rowing club Tory boy through and through, and he comports himself like a man who has a right to the Earth and everybody on it.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>

“Actually I think of myself more as politically homeless.” <\/span>(Image credit: IO Interactive)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which is quite fun for 90-to-120 minutes of a movie, where he is surrounded by numerous other people who can roll their eyes at him whenever he opens his mouth. In a videogame for 10, 20, 30, 40 hours? Less so, and especially less so in something like a First Light, where a lot of his cocky one-liners and general swagger are delivered to empty rooms and enemy corpses, where no one save the player can tell him to give it a damn rest.<\/p>\n

But also, part of his charismatic arrogance is that he is suave and unflappable. Well, great. Good for him. I am not suave, and I flap at the slightest inconvenience. I simply don’t\u2026 fit into him? Should probably reword that. Whenever I, as Bond, fumble a counter, miss a shot, or try to duck into cover only to fling myself headfirst into a desk lamp, I break the entire spell of the character.<\/p>\n

I’m not singling out First Light for this; it’s just the Bond game I played most recently and, if anything, does a good job realising him as a character. It’s just that, again, maybe that character should not be a videogame character. <\/p>\n

One moment in particular in my time with First Light made me think this: 007 is doing righteous battle with a villain. Normal thing for 007 to do. During the fight, he grabs a teacup from the sideboard and drives it hard into his opponent’s face. <\/p>\n

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\"James<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

At this point he says something which I did not write down because I was in the middle of fighting a guy, so my recollection may be fuzzy, but I believe James Bond, 007, on His Majesty’s secret service, said something along the lines of, “Time for tea.”<\/p>\n

I posit to you: is a man who will say “Time for tea,” or something close to it, upon assaulting some sort of international terrorist with a cup, the kind of person in whose head you want<\/em> to spend 40 hours? He is not. But turning him into a man who doesn’t say that would make him not Bond.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

2026 games<\/strong><\/a>: All the upcoming games
Best PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Our all-time favorites
Free PC games<\/strong><\/a>: Freebie fest
Best FPS games<\/strong><\/a>: Finest gunplay
Best RPGs<\/strong><\/a>: Grand adventures
Best co-op games<\/strong><\/a>: Better together<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I played a good few hours of 007 First Light last week, and I encourage you to click that link and read all about what I thought of them. But my time with Jim Bond sparked other thoughts. Thoughts that probably don’t belong in a preview. Thoughts like: What if James Bond just shouldn’t be a videogame protagonist? I know what you’re thinking, and first of all I’d like you to stop calling me those names. Second, yes, GoldenEye for the N64 is a classic. You’re also not really James Bond in it. You’re a hand with a pistol in it and, sometimes in cutscenes, Pierce Brosnan’s face. The character of Bond existed as a lore reason for your gun to emit bullets. But games…<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1567649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[23,748],"class_list":["post-1567648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pc-gamer","tag-action","tag-games"],"yoast_head":"\nHear me out: What if James Bond just shouldn't be in videogames? | Arcader News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I played a good few hours of 007 First Light last week, and I encourage you to click that link and read all about what I thought of them. 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