007 First Light's First DLC Now Available, Brings New Game Plus

007 First Light released earlier this year with the promise of future content for its TacSim mode, and IO Interactive has finally delivered. The 007 First Light Extended Operations DLC is out today for free, adding five new missions to TacSim, plus New Game Plus, fresh outfits, and a photo mode that was surprisingly absent at launch.

Four of the new operations center on the Valhalla, the supercar you only get to drive once in the campaign. Based on the trailer, these Valhalla missions appear to be driving challenges where you'll use the car's weapons and gadgets to complete timed objectives. Sadly, you can't swap it into other missions that force you to drive far less exciting vehicles – at least not yet.

IO Interactive has also introduced a New Game Plus mode, which I'll likely dive into first, especially with the path tracing update that arrived a couple of weeks ago. This mode also includes a new 00 difficulty, said to be significantly tougher than the original game's Purist difficulty. Enemies will react faster, some NPCs are replaced with more challenging variants, and combat becomes far more punishing with two-hit kills and a tighter parry window.

Beyond the new content, IO Interactive is refining weapon animations, and enemies can now throw you off a cliff, just as you could do to them in the base game. It's only fair, after all.

This marks the first content-based DLC for 007 First Light and is a welcome return for one of the year's best games so far. IGN's 007 First Light review gave it a 9/10, saying: "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 some may have hoped for a story expansion, Extended Operations is free and should keep players satisfied before James Bond embarks on any more official adventures. Hopefully, the game will finally come to Switch 2 next.