Dan Houser Believes An Open World Spy Game Doesn’t Work – Will 007 First Light Prove Him Wrong?

Dan Houser has raised an interesting opinion about a certain genre of video games. Surprisingly, it’s more relevant than you think.

In a recent interview with Lex Fridman, Dan revealed new details about Agent. This was to be Rockstar’s take on the spy video game genre. It was also planned as a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

After announcing the game, both Rockstar and Sony got mum on the game’s status. We now know from Dan that Rockstar was not able to make the game come together.

But Dan has a harsher opinion about trying to make a spy open world game.

Why Dan Thinks Spy Games Don’t Work On An Open World

Here’s what Dan had to say:

I don’t think it works. I concluded—and I keep thinking about it sometimes, I sometimes lie in bed thinking about it—I’ve concluded that what makes them really good as film stories makes them not work as video games. We need to think through how to do it in a different way as a video game.

…And I sort of think I know why, because one of those films, they’re very, very frenetic and they beat, beat, beat. You know, you gotta go here and save the world.

You gotta go there and stop that person from being killed and then save the world. And an open-world game does have moments like that when the story comes together.

But for large portions, it’s a lot kind of looser and you’re just hanging out and you’re just doing what you want. And I want freedom, and I wanna go over here and do what I want, and I wanna go over and do what I want.

And that’s why it works well being a criminal, because you fundamentally don’t have anyone telling you what to do. And we try and create external agency through these people kind of forcing you into the story at times.

But as a spy, that doesn’t really work because you have to be against the clock. So I think for me, I’m, I question if you can even make a good open world spy game.

Are There Any Open World Spy Games?

Some fans misinterpreted this to mean that Dan didn’t think spy video games worked. Of course, that’s easily debunked by 007 GoldenEye, No One Lives Forever, and plenty of other spy video games, James Bond license or not.

It was a little harder to come up with spy games that exist in a real open world. There are many games that feel like open worlds, like Hitman 3, but aren’t quite there.

From our estimation, the best example here would be Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Punished Snake is not strictly a secret agent, but the game is intended to be played as a stealth game.

If we were to be even stricter in our definitions, the 2009 Pandemic Studios game The Saboteur seems to demonstrate what Rockstar was not able to execute. This stealth title does have you play a French Resistance freedom fighter in World War II.

But then again, Dan can point to the game’s ratings and how little it is remembered today as proof of his position. It’s partly true this game is fondly remembered as Pandemic Studios’ swan song.

What About 007 First Light?

I/O Interactive seems to be in the awkward position of trying to do the thing that Dan says is not possible. To I/O’s credit, they have tons of experience with open sandbox gameplay.

They have also proven they can be successful making their stealth games to the degree that they’re fully independent today. I/O is also going out of their comfort zone with what will be the first James Bond game in over a decade.

We would argue that I/O has a lot more going for them now than even Rockstar did when they ventured to make this game with Sony in the 2000s. We’re not bringing this up to create some artificial tension between Dan Houser and I/O Interactive.

But it will be certainly interesting if I/O finds the solutions to the dilemmas that Dan found himself under. Will we like 007 First Light? Will Dan like it?

We wish I/O the best of luck on their project.