⚠️ Heads up: this guide contains story spoilers. If you haven’t played yet, go enjoy it first and come back.
Intro — My Honest Take After the Platinum
IO Interactive (the Hitman studio) made this new spy-action game, 007 First Light, portraying James Bond’s younger days before he became “007.”
Honest first impression: it’s fun, but it feels “been there, done that.” It’s a well-made stealth-action game, but there’s a strong sense of déjà vu — a road already traveled by the likes of Uncharted. It really makes you appreciate how hard it is to make something new when players are this jaded. That said, infiltration has tons of routes, so there’s real freedom and you actually get to feel like a spy.
As a Bond fan, though, honestly I wanted to see more of Bond smoothly taking down enemies in a tux during the main story (that kind of thing is saved as a post-game treat).
Ever played the PS2-era EA Bond games, 007 Nightfire and 007 Everything or Nothing? Those two still stick with me — the rush of driving Bond’s Aston Martin through snowy mountains, especially blazing down a highway on a bike, I can still picture it vividly. That “being 007” feeling was really there. Go in expecting that here and you’ll be a little let down.
Back to the game itself: the combat — gunfights and melee — is fun. Using gadgets to take out enemies and turning the environment against them feels very Bond, and it’s pretty tough. I got a game over probably 5 times in the very first gunfight. There are a lot of enemies, so just shooting won’t cut it (shoot a fuel drum to blow it up, etc.). That freedom wasn’t in the older Bond games, so it felt fresh.
As a platinum target, this turned out to be a surprisingly meaty collectathon. The story is linear and moves fast, but the collectibles are absurdly plentiful. At story clear (~15 hours) I only had 54% overall. From there, filling in the collectibles is the real game.
This article shares, from actually earning the platinum, where it’s annoying and where you get stuck. Spoilers ahead — if you haven’t played, go play first.
Difficulty & Time
- Total playtime: ~20 hours (collectibles optimized with a guide)
- Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆ (2/5)
- Playthroughs: none (clean up via chapter select)
- Missable / permanent-loss elements: none
- Total trophies: 38 (PS5, incl. 1 Platinum)
My story clear was 15 hours at 54%, and total to platinum was about 20 hours.
The great part: nothing is permanently missable. No difficulty requirement, and collectibles can be grabbed anytime post-game via chapter select. The game has a ton of per-stage challenges, and if completing those were a platinum requirement the difficulty would spike hard — but relax, it isn’t. Completionists can enjoy the challenges, but for the platinum they’re not needed.
⚠️ The Biggest Wall: Collectibles — There Are Just So Many
The real enemy of this platinum isn’t the action, it’s the sheer volume of collectibles. If you’re about to play, keep a sharp eye out for collectibles on your first run and you’ll save yourself a lot later.
Collectibles total 92 (a LOT), across 5 categories:
- Postcards (→ trophy “The World Is Not Enough”)
- MI6 Files (→ “For Your Eyes Only”)
- Mementos (→ “The Returning Associate”)
- Playing Cards (→ “Casino Royale”)
- Legacy Items (→ “Legacy of Espionage”)
Collect them all and you unlock the Gold trophy “Collector’s Instinct.” Fun detail: every trophy name is a classic Bond movie title, so Bond fans will grin (the Platinum is named after the line, “The name’s Bond. James Bond.”).
These are scattered across each area, and many are hidden in “who would put it there?!” spots, so finding them all yourself is genuinely tough. At clear I was around 40% in each category, and had barely touched the playing cards. Note especially that Legacy Items are a separate category from the other four, so it’s easy to overlook them while hunting postcards or cards — hunt them deliberately.
How to Approach It
Just accept you’ll use a guide for collectibles. There are so many that even with an online map it takes a while. Three things to make it easier:
- Pick up as much as you can during your first playthrough (this slashes cleanup time).
- Use the Q Lens (L1). Scan your surroundings and interactable objects/hints get highlighted — exploration efficiency is night and day. When in doubt, Q Lens first. (You’ll still miss stuff, because this game.)
- Clean up chapter by chapter. Rather than bouncing between areas, filling one chapter at a time is easier to manage. The game splits chapters finely and they’re easy to replay, which is a genuinely nice touch.
🚨 Know This or Suffer: The Laser Strap Problem
This was the single most “ugh, seriously?” moment of the platinum for me.
The Black Market collectibles can’t be gathered without the “Laser Strap” gadget. You use the laser to disable/unlock specific targets and collect. Here’s the trap: when you go back post-game via chapter select, if the Laser Strap isn’t in your loadout at the start of that chapter, you can’t collect them. I started from the relevant chapter without it and ended up rebuilding my loadout from an earlier chapter.
The biggest specific pitfall is Chapter 9. It has collectibles you can’t get without the Laser Strap, but replaying Chapter 10 via chapter select changes your loadout to something else, so you have to restart from Chapter 9 to have the right gear. Go in from 10 not knowing this and you’ll hit “wait, I don’t have the Laser Strap” and get stuck.
To avoid it: before you start collectible cleanup, check which chapter gives you the gadgets you need (including the Laser Strap) and go back from there. Just knowing this saves a whole wasted run. The Laser Strap unlocks early (Mauritania), so from that chapter on it’s safest to keep it in your loadout.
Equip it around here.
🎯 Tricky Combat Trophies Explained
Some of 007 First Light’s combat trophies have conditions whose wording leaves you going “???” until it clicks.
Soft Landing — you’ll probably get it by accident
The condition is “tackle an enemy over a ledge,” but a normal tackle-and-drop won’t unlock it. The correct way: grab the enemy (R2), then grab-charge to carry them to the ledge and fall together. You rarely use grab-charge, so it’s easy to miss. In the “Advanced Close Combat Training” tac-sim, stage 2, there’s a ledge-side enemy right at the start you can retry endlessly — recommended.
Dud — the word “handle” is the trap
The condition “deal with a grenade before it explodes” — “deal with” here means hacking the thrown grenade so it doesn’t go off. Easy once you have the Watch gadget. If you shoot an enemy who’s about to throw a grenade before they throw it, you can also grab “Firecracker” — worth going for both together.
Women, Huh — a bit of luck involved
Trophy for hitting one enemy with another enemy’s taser. In brawls, usually one enemy keeps distance and fires a taser, so use dodges/grabs to position yourself so the taser hits their ally. A little RNG involved.
🤔 The “Onward” Trophy Not Unlocking Issue
This one had me thinking “is it bugged?”
The trophy “Onward” is supposed to be for raising your Security Level to 3, but reaching Security Level 3 alone sometimes doesn’t unlock it.
My actual flow: I cleared one Operation to raise the level, then cleared the Escalations “King of Rust” and “Bitter Cold,” reaching Security Level 3. But the trophy still didn’t pop. In the end, it finally unlocked when I cleared yet another Escalation afterward. There seems to be a gap with the displayed condition — genuinely confusing.
Also, the first mission of the combat training I tackled here was pretty tough and I struggled a bit. Escalations demand combat skill too, so getting comfortable with combat while aiming for Level 3 makes this smoother.
If you meet the condition but it won’t unlock, try clearing one more Escalation — it may pop. Don’t panic, just keep going.
Honestly, this game had quite a few bugs — things you should be able to pick up sometimes couldn’t be. Once that happens you start doubting whether everything is working right.
Efficient Platinum Roadmap
- Playthrough 1: clear the story (~15 hours)
- Grab as many collectibles as you can during the first run
- Post-game: clean up collectibles via chapter select (confirm you have the Laser Strap etc. before going back)
- Mop up combat trophies (Soft Landing, Dud, etc.) in tactical simulations
- Clear the TacSim challenges → Platinum
Key Points
- Pick up collectibles during the first run to cut cleanup time
- Before cleanup, confirm the chapter where you get the needed gadget (Laser Strap)
- Use tac-sims to retry and reliably get combat trophies
- Save the TacSims for last
Closing — A “Next Time” Kind of Game
My honest verdict: 007 First Light isn’t bad, but “that 007-game feeling” was faint.
It’s an origin story, so some of that is unavoidable, but if you’re expecting the series’ signature rush — Bond moving smoothly in a tux, that Aston Martin car action — you might feel a bit short-changed. (The Aston Martin scene… I did not expect it to just be spinning in place fighting. Apparently more comes via DLC.)
Personally, the PS2 Nightfire and Everything or Nothing had more of that “being 007” feeling.
Still, the variety of infiltration routes is fun, and the platinum’s difficulty was just right. The ending’s signature staging gives you chills — that part’s classic Bond. It even showed “JAMES BOND WILL RETURN,” so if there’s a sequel, I’ll close with hope for next time.
If you’re going for the platinum, just burn the Laser Strap collectible thing into your memory. That alone prevents a wasted run. Let’s do this together.
Playing a movie’s game makes you want to watch the movie, huh. Which Bond film is your favorite?
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