The first lightweight Cameo proves that Triple-A video games take too long to make

Video games take a really long time to make these days. Whenever I need an easy reference on how bad things have gotten, I look back to the original trio of Uncharted titles. In a single console generation, Naughty Dog developed and released a trilogy of killer action epics that built on each other in profound visual and mechanical ways, transforming and elevating their overcrowded genre in just five years.

Drake's Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake's Deception are all beloved games in their own right and have been delivered with a cadence that has allowed the franchise to stay constantly current in the hearts and minds of gamers. Even the gap between the third and fourth games was only five years, with The Last of Us arriving from the same studio right in the middle. Since then, however, we've come to expect such a high level of photorealism and mechanical nuance from triple-A titles that most of them take half a decade to develop. This status quo is simply not sustainable and has resulted in this past generation of consoles feeling too empty.

Which brings me to this week's launch of 007: First Light, which hit early access today to extremely positive reviews. Five years since its announcement, the game is finally in our hands. Unfortunately, some aspects have already aged like ice cream in the sun. It's really hot in the UK right now so please get on with it.

Why is Khaby Lame in 007: First Light?

James Bond is a huge property and I have to imagine that working with IO Interactive was a logistical nightmare – even if the finished product is shaping up nicely. There are many ways a character probably needs to be presented, how their story needs to be told, and how their immediate gameplay experience needs to appeal to a mainstream audience while still feeling quintessentially IO. Amazon MGM probably wants it to sell millions too, so every measure will be taken to make that happen. This includes a surprise cameo by TikTok star Khaby Lame, who has previously appeared in other massive games like Fortnite.

If you don't know Khaby Lame by name, you'll no doubt recognize his popular TikTok posts, in which he makes the now-iconic facial expression while pointing out very obvious things to the viewer. You'll see him mocking over-complicated lifehacks by offering a selection of simple solutions or poking fun at things that have become the norm on the internet to increase views or engagement. I've always found this shit a little annoying, but apparently there's quite a large audience for it because Lame has become the most watched TikTok star on the planet with billions of views to his name.

Since then, he's written books, judged short films at Cannes, been a guest judge on Italy's Got Talent, and become a familiar face around the world for doing something that, if you don't look beneath the surface, is ridiculously simple. All of this led to him appearing in First Light as someone who points to a sign pointing the way to a specific location after James Bond asks for directions. He points to a sign, makes a face, and I guess players are expected to point to the screen and say 'Oh my god, that's the guy from TikTok!' The whole thing is a bit silly and hardly surprising for a game that wants to be the biggest release of the year.

And why it feels a few years too late

I bet someone at IO Interactive, or maybe a figure above them at Amazon MGM, had the idea to include Khaby Lame as a cameo alongside his famous “pointing at things” quip in 2022 or maybe even earlier, but failed to realize that the game wouldn't be released for several years. Even Fortnite was late to jump on the Lame bandwagon, and its appearance in 2023 drew well-deserved eyerolls from fans wishing someone else would take its place.

That was three years ago, so imagine how out of reach First Light feels in comparison. I've seen a lot of “ok I'm canceling my pre-order now” posts, and while I know a lot of them are meant in jest, it's clear that there's a general backlash towards this portrait that I feel is ultimately unnecessary. I doubt anyone will pick up a copy of First Light because Khaby the Lame shows up for a few seconds and expecting it to have that kind of effect smacks of executives saying “how are you guys?” to me.

But in an ideal world, maybe it wouldn't feel so dated? Triple-A games run a huge risk of being visually and mechanically out of whack when they're released because production started five or more years ago, and they rarely have the ability to innovate or be inspired by how the world around them changes during development. If you do, you can fall into an endless well of feature creep or lose focus on the core creative vision.

From what I've played of 007: First Light, it looks pretty cool. The stealth is satisfying, the gunfights are fun, and he seems to understand everything that makes James Bond so awesome. But it also wants to be an action blockbuster that anyone can pick up and play, and I think it's trying so hard to be defined as such that it's throwing out dated cameos like Khaby Lame trying to look like the coolest kid on the block. Fact? It's cringe and would have been much better if it stood on its own merits.

007 First Light

Released

May 27, 2026

ESRB

Teen / Blood, language, obscene themes, violence, in-game purchases

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