A new James Bond game currently called Project 007 is in development by IO Interactive, and since most players are familiar with the company through their popular Hitman series many are likely wondering whether Agent 47's most iconic weapon, the Fiber Wire, will make an appearance. The Fiber Wire is one of the most useful items in Agent 47's arsenal, and it has appeared in every single Hitman game in the franchise to date.
James Bond is known for utilizing a multitude of both high- and low-tech gadgets in order to accomplish his goals. Video games like Agent Under Fire and GoldenEye 007 showed off the various ways Bond could utilize his Q-developed gadgets in a video game world, but with IO Interactive now in charge of the IP players are expecting an even more gadget-focused Bond than before. Agent 47, after all, is basically James Bond in all but name already - and has been shown to be just as cool, if not more so, under pressure.
With that all being said, James Bond and Agent 47 usually have very different goals. 47, by definition and title, is a Hitman, someone whose job it is to eliminate their target by any means necessary. Bond, on the other hand, holds a 00-rank, which means that while he has a License to Kill, he should morally attempt to avoid doing so unless there are no other options available. If IO Interactive wants to stay true to Ian Fleming's original version of the character and truly tell a "James Bond origin story" as they have said, this is an important distinction to make.
Video games are often built around killing, but they don't have to be. One of the best ways to play Hitman 2 or any other Hitman game is to carefully find a way to eliminate the required target without hurting or being spotted by anyone else. The game even rewards players with a special Silent Assassin ranking if this is achieved.
Unfortunately, the majority of previous James Bond video games tend to focus on Bond shooting his way through problems. Even the Bond games with a lot of gadgets and subterfuge eventually devolve into simple run-and-gun action experiences. While this may reflect some of the more famous James Bond films, it isn't true to the character Fleming created. Bond tries to avoid killing whenever possible in his original incarnation, and even the early Sean Connery films tried to show Bond merely incapacitating enemies, not murdering them. After the success of GoldenEye 007, however, James Bond video games tended to be nothing but first-person shooters for a while.
If IO Interactive gives Bond a way to strangle his opponents at the press of a button, it would reduce the impact death should have in 007's world. Give him chloroform, give him hand-to-hand knockout moves, give him a pen that shoots sleeping gas - but don't give James Bond a way to instantly murder people. There are a lot of fantastic qualities from the Hitman series the developers can use in Project 007, but giving players creative ways to murder people shouldn't be one of them. Instead, the company should focus on giving Bond creative ways to incapacitate, avoid, and trick enemies - because a super spy wouldn't leave a trail of bodies behind them.
