The Flight spent more than two years composing the score for 007 First Light, adapting the familiar sound of James Bond to an interactive game in which the music changes according to each player’s actions.
Composers Alexis Smith and Joe Henderson recorded part of the score with 24 members of the London Chamber Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in November 2025. The musicians had one half-day session to record 32 minutes of brass-heavy action music.
Giving A Younger Bond His Own Sound
Developed by IO Interactive, the game presents an original version of Bond’s early career. Players first meet him as an inexperienced Navy aircrewman before he enters MI6 training and works toward gaining his licence to kill.
Because Bond has not yet become 007, The Flight held back the franchise’s best-known musical cues during the earlier missions. The opening operation in Iceland instead uses darker electronic and experimental sounds to match its bleak setting.
Familiar motifs appear as Bond develops. The composers received permission to use music associated with the films, including John Barry’s theme from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, rather than creating imitations of established Bond themes.
IO Interactive officially introduced the game as a reimagined Bond origin story in its announcement. Smith said the existing music brought pressure because the new score still had to sit alongside decades of recognised Bond compositions.
Music That Responds To The Player
Unlike a film score, the game’s music must support several possible versions of the same scene. A player may remain hidden, enter a chase, fight enemies, complete every objective, or leave before finishing the encounter.
The score contains different musical paths and endings for those actions. Smith described the process as a puzzle because events do not happen in the same order during every playthrough.
The Flight combined live orchestral recordings with electronic production and software instruments. Smith said digital orchestral tools were important during composition, but recording experienced brass players gave the finished score a quality the software could not reproduce.
Production Continued During Bond Ownership Change
The project was the last Bond production supervised by Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson before creative control of the franchise transferred to Amazon MGM Studios. The change happened during development and initially led the composers to question whether the game would continue as planned.
The Flight previously worked on games including Alien: Isolation, Assassin’s Creed, and the Horizon series. Their earlier credits also include work with Björk, Mel C, and the Freestylers, making the large orchestral Bond score a different type of assignment.
First Light also uses electronic sounds in a nightclub sequence before shifting toward fuller orchestral arrangements during later missions. IO Interactive released the game worldwide on May 27, 2026, according to its official launch announcement.
Patrick Gibson voices Bond in the game. Its cinematic presentation has led some fans to call for Gibson to play the character in the future Bond film directed by Denis Villeneuve.
Featured image credits: PSN MY Gift Card – DearPlayers Malaysia
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