Hitman developer IO Interactive has announced its new project: a brand new James Bond game. Currently called Project 007, the game was revealed in a short teaser trailer, which confirmed players will be inhabiting the shoes of the famous spy in an original story created by the developer. Players will, for the first time in a Bond game, earn the 00 status throughout the events of the narrative.
The new Bond game will be developed on IO's own Glacier engine for both PC and consoles. It is unclear just what kind of game IO is creating, but with its history and experience creating the stealthy Hitman series and other solid games, the studio seems a great fit to tackle the Bond license.
Traditionally, James Bond games have been shooters. From the classic Goldeneye to Everything or Nothing, there have been some great Bond shooters, this is a genre IO is very familiar with. IO created Freedom Fighters, one of the best third-person shooters of its era, and went on to develop the mechanically sound gunplay of the Kane and Lynch series. Moreover, Hitman's gunplay has always been mechanically good, especially in recent titles like 2016's Hitman and 2018's Hitman 2. Despite the Hitman series focusing on stealth, IO has always made sure it feels good for player who choose to go loud with firearms.
As a stealth series, Hitman seems like a perfect fit for the espionage world of James Bond. Agent 47, the series' protagonist, is as much a Bond stand-in as any video game character. 47 is constantly jetting around the world to exotic locales, taking down baddies, gaining entry into their lair through subterfuge and using a variety of gadgets and weapons to best his targets.
The transition into a Bond-style game seems an organic fit -- Bond is a spy and hitman himself, especially as portrayed that way in the most recent Daniel Craig films. In these films, Bond is a blunt tool of the British government, and the audience even sees him make his first two kills in the opening scene of Casino Royale, thereby earning his OO status.
With the last two Hitman games, IO has proven it is more than capable of creating sprawling, clockwork-like levels that give the player many options to complete the mission. The character of James Bond in an exotic setting playing through the sandbox-style levels, requiring the player to employ improvisation and tactics seems like a great idea. After all, the Bond of the films is always having to improvise and adapt to the movement of the villains and the plot.
In time, more details will be revealed as to just exactly what kind of game IO Interactive is cooking up with the Bond license. However given the studio's experience creating exotic, dangerous worlds, filled with solid stealth and gunplay mechanics, it seems that James Bond fans can rest easy, as another potentially great Bond game is on the way.