(Image credit: Future)

Hitman: World of Assassination is one of the greatest stealth games ever made, and when I saw IO Interactive get the gig to make 007 First Light, it felt like a match made in heaven.

Don’t get me wrong, I knew this wasn’t going to be a copy + paste of Agent 47’s formula. I wasn’t expecting to muffin boost up to a ledge and finish a gigantic level in seconds (yea, Hitman’s fastest players do some crazy stuff). But if even a whiff of Agent 47’s DNA that got me hooked made it to the Bond universe, we’re onto a winner.

What I ended up playing is not what I expected, and as Tom Marchum, Senior Combat Designer for the game explained to me, that’s very much by design. Instead, I got to work (and rework) my way through three hours of a real blockbuster that is equal parts Uncharted and Hitman — all while capturing the essence of an all-time great Bond game.…