007 First Light launched earlier this year with the promise of future content being added to the TacSim mode, and IO Interactive has finally followed through.
The 007 First Light Extended Operations DLC launches for free today, and adds five different missions to the TacSim mode, along with New Game Plus, new outfits and a photo mode that was somehow missing from the game at launch.
Four of the new operations will revolve around the Valhalla, the supercar you get to play with in the campaign, like, once. According to the trailer, these Valhalla missions look like driving trials, where you’ll use the car’s weapons and gadgets to complete challenges on a timer. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to just substitute it into other missions where you have to drive decidedly less exciting vehicles – at least not yet.
IO Interactive also added a New Game Plus mode, and that’s probably what I’m going to be diving into first, especially with the path tracing update that came out a couple weeks ago. The mode also bring along a new 00 difficulty, which is supposedly significantly harder than the Purist difficulty in the original game. Enemies are going to react faster, some NPCs are swapped for more difficult variants, and combat is going to be way more unforgiving with two-hit kills and a tighter parry window.
Beyond the content additions, though, IO Interactive is also improving weapon animations and enemies will now be able to throw you off of a cliff, just like you were able to do to them in the base game. It’s only fair, after all.
This is the first content-based DLC for 007 First Light and is a welcome return for one of the best games of the year so far. IGN’s 007 First Light review returned a 9/10. We said: “Demonstrably obsessed with bringing the Bond fantasy to life in a way no one has ever managed before, 007 First Light is the best Bond game I’ve ever played.”
While I’m sure some folks were hoping for a story expansion, the Extended Operations is free, and should tide people over before James Bond goes on any more official adventures. Hopefully the game will finally come out on Switch 2 next.
Jackie Thomas is the Senior Tech Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. She’s been covering gaming hardware for more than a decade for IGN, TechRadar, Gizmodo, PC Gamer and more. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
