007 First Light Guide: How to Master the Parry
Thinking you can button mash your way through a fistfight is the fastest way to get James Bond knocked out cold on a concrete floor.
While you can avoid a massive amount of conflict by following my complete stealth guide, eventually your cover will blow and you will have to throw hands. 007 First Light puts a heavy emphasis on melee combat. The enemies here are aggressive, they gang up on you, and if you just stand there trying to trade punches, you will lose every single time. Your primary tool for surviving a brawl and regaining control of the room is the parry system.
The Basic Combat Controls
Before you step into a restricted zone, you need to commit your defensive inputs to muscle memory.
Advanced Defensive Tactics
Once you know the buttons, you have to actually learn how to read your opponents.
Reading the Yellow Indicators
If you are constantly tapping your parry button and complaining that the game is ignoring your inputs, you need to slow down. Panic mashing does absolutely nothing in this game. The combat engine actively punishes you for spamming the button.
To execute a parry, you have to watch your enemy carefully. Right before a strike lands, the enemy will flash with a bright yellow glow. That exact moment is your timing window. Press the parry button once when you see the yellow flash. A successful parry will either completely block the incoming attack or perform a counter that throws the enemy off balance. Once an enemy is staggered, you can press X and Square together on PlayStation to execute an instant takedown.
The timing window is incredibly forgiving on the lower difficulties, but it tightens up significantly if you are playing on a harder setting. You also do not need to be actively facing a target to defend yourself. If a guard tries to hit you in the back of the head while you are punching his friend, you can still parry the unseen attack as long as you hit the button during the yellow flash.
Dodging Red Attacks and Breaking Guards
Not every attack can be blocked. You have to recognize when a parry is going to fail before you take a massive hit to your health bar.
If an enemy winds up for a heavy charge attack, they will flash red instead of yellow. Parrying a red attack is completely useless. When you see red, immediately use your sidestep input to duck out of the way.
You also have to deal with enemies who play defensively. If a guard is actively holding up his arms to block or parry your incoming punches, do not keep swinging at him. Instead, hold your Grab button to lock onto them. From a grab, you can follow up with a barrage of punches, or simply press and release the grab input to physically throw them and break their stance entirely. If you want to end the fight quickly, drag your grabbed target over to a hard surface like a wall or a desk and bash them against it for a fast knockout.
Mastering this flow of parrying yellow attacks, dodging red ones, and grabbing defensive guards is the only way to survive the massive brawls in the later chapters. If you are still struggling to stay alive, make sure you look over my essential tips and tricks guide to optimize your gadget loadout for heavy combat.
