Driving and Chases

007 First Light has scripted driving and chase set pieces in its campaign, among them a car chase in Slovakia, an escape drive, boat rides and a bin lorry escape in London, plus the armed Aston Martin Valhalla in TacSim's Valhalla Protocol since October 2026. Critics found the driving serviceable but floaty, and there are no chase assists.

15:22 007 First Light's driving comes in scripted set pieces rather than an open road: IO Interactive describes driving sequences during high-speed chases and tense moments throughout the campaign. The ones named by IOI and guide sites are an intro drive, a car chase in Slovakia, an "escape drive", an "Airplane Chase", truck and off-road sections, a speedboat ride and a London escape in a bin lorry. Since Oct 5, 2026 there is also a car built for fighting, the weaponized Aston Martin Valhalla, in Valhalla Protocol, four TacSim missions added with the free Extended Operations update. Critics were lukewarm: TheSixthAxis called the driving "serviceable" and "a bit floaty".

Quick facts

Campaign driving	Scripted chase and escape set pieces
Vehicles named by IOI	Aston Martin DBS, Land Rover, truck, boats and a speedboat, bin lorry (guides), Aston Martin Valhalla (TacSim)
Armed car	Aston Martin Valhalla: machine guns and missile launchers
Valhalla Protocol	4 TacSim missions in Slovakia, playable since Oct 5, 2026
Chase assists	None

Sources: IOI 1.3.0 notes, Oct 1, 2026; IOI on Steam, Oct 6, 2026; Can I Play That?, Jun 9, 2026; PowerPyx, May 26, 2026.

Motion-blurred street with old houses and a stone archway; a yellow two-door car races away from the camera. — A yellow classic coupe speeds through a mountain village street, its tires kicking up dust in an official Steam store screenshot of 007 First Light IO Interactive

Which cars are in 007 First Light?

6:32 IOI has not published a vehicle list, but its patch notes name several. Update 1.3.0 (Oct 1, 2026) fixed Aston Martin DBS acceleration audio after "the mega jump", added camera vibration while driving the Land Rover off-road, and fixed a truck that would not move at a training facility gate. The same notes mention an intro drive, a "Mood Drive" and the speedboat from IOI's mission 08, Time to Die. Update 1.1.0 fixed a black car in the Q-Lab and a speedboat ride. GamingBolt's May 21, 2026 gadgets video (the clip above) names the yellow car seen racing down a mountainside in IOI's gameplay reveal as a 1970 Aston Martin DBS, beside a contemporary DBS and a Jaguar XJ that Bond drives as an undercover chauffeur; no source says whether the classic yellow coupe in IOI's screenshot above is that car. We found no Aston Martin DB5 in any official text, as of Nov 4, 2026.

The campaign's chases

14:08 These are the driving and chase moments the sources name, in story order. The clip is the Slovakia car chase from IOI's Sep 3, 2025 gameplay reveal, a pre-release build.

Set piece	Mission	What happens
Car chase	All the Time in the World (Slovakia)	Bond drives to the Grand Carpathian Hotel, then chases a rogue agent by car and boards his plane
Airplane Chase	Named by IOI without a mission; likely the Slovakia finale, where Beebom has Bond board a plane	IOI's reveal footage shows Bond thrown from a plane in mid-flight
Escape drive	IOI's mission 04, The Past Never Dies (Mauritania)	Named in IOI's patch notes
Bin lorry escape	Uninvited (London)	Bond escapes the Kensington gala at the wheel of a garbage truck, under pursuit
Boat sections	Time to Die (Vietnam)	A speedboat, and boat and quarry blockers fixed in update 1.0.4

Sources: Beebom, May 27, 2026; PlayStation Blog, Sep 3, 2025; IOI 1.0.2 notes on Steam, Jun 2, 2026; GamingBolt, May 1, 2026; IOI 1.0.4 notes on Steam, Jun 11, 2026; IOI 1.3.0 notes, Oct 1, 2026.

13:44 The bin lorry escape carries a trophy, "Agent under fire", which PowerPyx places after its Chapter 11, Uninvited; GamingBolt's hands-on describes the same scene as a garbage truck through narrow streets, and gameranx, which played it at a preview (May 6, 2026; the clip above), found it "pretty on rails". The Slovakia jump earns "Skyfall". Each mission has its own page: All the Time in the World, The Past Never Dies, Uninvited and Time to Die.

What critics said about the driving

7:47 TheSixthAxis found the driving serviceable but floaty and the car chases infrequent. Hardcore Gamer called the vehicle and diving sections "sluggish" and a later boat chase confusing. gameranx's Jake Baldino (May 26, 2026; the clip above) found the driving sequences few and far between and the sports car runs less thrilling than he had hoped, though he liked the destructive truck sequences. The sharpest complaint came from Can I Play That?, which found no assist options for vehicle chases, so its reviewer needed many retries; its QTE autocomplete also misses the plane sequence. See Accessibility.

The Aston Martin Valhalla in TacSim

0:22 The Valhalla is the one car you fight from. IOI calls it Bond's "most heavily armed ride", with machine guns and missile launchers, and Valhalla Protocol sets it loose in four missions by day and by night in the Slovakian mountains, where using its weapons earns time bonuses. The missions arrived with Extended Operations on Oct 1, 2026 and became playable on Oct 5, 2026. IOI notes that Aston Martin revealed the real Valhalla in Nov 2025 as its first mid-engine plug-in hybrid supercar, 999 to be made. Hotfix 1.3.2 (Oct 29, 2026) fixed places where the car could get stuck.

A low silver mid-engine supercar with black wheels under a ring of lights, screens and workbenches around it. — A silver Aston Martin Valhalla supercar parked in a dark workshop lined with monitors in an official Steam store screenshot of 007 First Light IO Interactive

What is still to come

IOI's Year One Roadmap promised off-road driving encounters at Aleph's black market in Mauritania for TacSim, and "returning vehicles" during Year One. As of Nov 4, 2026, the Mauritania content has not appeared in any patch notes, and IOI has given it no date.

Frequently asked questions

Can you drive freely in 007 First Light? No source describes free driving. 007 First Light's driving is scripted chase and escape set pieces inside guided missions, plus the Valhalla Protocol missions in TacSim.

Is there an Aston Martin in 007 First Light? Yes. TacSim's Valhalla Protocol puts Bond in an armed Aston Martin Valhalla, and IOI's patch notes name an Aston Martin DBS in the 007 First Light campaign.

Are there car chases in 007 First Light? Yes, though critics found them infrequent: a car chase in Slovakia, an escape drive, boat sections and a bin lorry escape in London. 007 First Light offers no chase assists.

How do you play Valhalla Protocol in 007 First Light? Valhalla Protocol is a free TacSim activity added in update 1.3.0 and playable since Oct 5, 2026. Open TacSim in 007 First Light to find its four missions.