Killer Bean Is a Very, Very Bad Game

Killer Bean was first revealed in 2023 by solo developer Jeff Lew via a Twitter teaser that drew millions of views, and it later appeared at Summer Game Fest 2024 promising intense first- and third-person gunplay, Max Payne–style bullet time, vehicular mayhem, open-world chaos and more.

The game has finally arrived on Steam in early access and, technically, includes those features; it is notable that one person largely made it. Even so, it is not very fun to play, not very nice to look at, and often feels like a boring slog. You play as a deadly bean assassin who mostly kills random thugs that look identical while hacking every computer and phone encountered.

The character first appeared in a series of animated shorts and films Lew created through the ’90s and early 2000s. Enemies frequently behave poorly — sometimes looking directly at the player and then doing nothing, or losing track after spotting you — and a recent patch that claims improved AI did not fix these problems for the reviewer.

killer bean, jeff lew, steam, early access, bullet time, first person, third person, open world, vehicular mayhem, ai issues