Ever since 007 First Light’s take on James Bond was revealed, fans of the spy have shared a wide range of opinions. It’s safe to say this younger take on the character has stirred up some feelings. But developer IO Interactive expected that — and welcomes it with open arms.

Eurogamer recently had a chance to visit IOI’s office in Brighton and spoke to a handful of people on the development team. And they spent some time talking about the leading man himself, played in the game by Irish actor Patrick Gibson, best known as Dexter Morgan in the prequel show Dexter: Original Sin.

“People having differing opinions about a James Bond: that’s great,” Tom Marcham, combat designer on the game, told Eurogamer. “If we made a Bond where no one had any opinions on them, it would be the dullest Bond ever made. So the fact that we’ve got a little controversy on that, I think it’s a good thing.”

Marcham reflects on the chatter that surrounds casting decisions of the iconic character in the movies; we all remember the Daniel Craig discourse, right? So to IO, this is no different.

He’s also full of praise for Gibson, of course, praising his performance because of “how much [Bond] grows on you throughout the game.”

Narrative and cinematic director Martin Emborg calls their version of Bond “a strong character” and that he’s “another take” on the classic film and literary figure.

Talking about his “unearned confidence”, Emborg says “This guy hasn’t seen death in the way that an older Bond has. When you’re a young man, you feel immortal […] and he’ll definitely learn that he’s not.”

The chat makes for an interesting companion to GamesRadar’s own interview with Marcham last week, where the combat designer talked about the License to Kill system: while Marcham tells Eurogamer this Bond’s “got some rage in him”, with GamesRadar, he addresses the adaptability of the character in certain situations.

“There has to be guns around. Bond won’t shoot an unarmed man. If you have a section where absolutely no one has any guns, you won’t shoot anyone, so you’ll be using the close combat system.”

“The moment they pull a gun: License to Kill. That’s it,” Marcham says, highlighting the ‘dynamic escalation spaces’. “Once the gun’s in their hand, they’re showing clear intent to kill: License to Kill. You dynamically escalate in those spaces, which means that we have this unique system where you can suddenly trigger a gunfight at almost any point in that encounter, which means that the encounter plays very differently,”

We’ll have to wait and see how this mix of gameplay and character intertwines when the full game launches on Switch 2 this summer. Of course, if you have other consoles, you’ll get a chance to play 007 First Light much sooner, as it comes to PS5, PC, and Xbox Series on 27th May.

Look, at least we’ll be getting real-life smart glasses in game. For some impressions on the game on PS5, check out our sister site Push Square’s preview.