There’s a trailer taking X, formerly Twitter, by storm of a coffee bean armed with two pistols engaging in acrobatic shootouts that’s giving Max Payne meets Just Cause with a bit of GTA sprinkled in, and I’m totally obsessed.
Dubbed Killer Bean, the game is billed as a first-/third-person shooter with procedurally generated elements that affect everything from the characters to the story itself. Based on the Steam description, the project sounds ambitious.
“You are Killer Bean, a rogue assassin who takes out the trash in this world, one bullet at a time. The procedurally generated story changes every time you start a new campaign in this first-person/third-person, roguelike shooter,” the description reads.
Playing as Jack “Killer” Bean, you were betrayed by the Shadow Agency. Thirsting for revenge, you set out to murk the people who backstabbed you, employing bullets, punches and kicks, and acrobatic slow-motion moves to get your vengeance. It’s like John Wick, but instead of playing as Keanu Reeves, you’re…Keanu Bean. Pun aside, Killer Bean uses procedural generation in an exciting way: Everything changes when you play, according to its description.
“Every time you start a new single-player campaign, everything changes. The locations change, the missions change, the characters change, the bosses change, and most of all, the story changes. Characters who you trusted before, may turn against you. Enemies who tried to kill you, may end up helping you. Simple missions can turn into deadly traps. No two campaigns are the same.”
That sounds fascinating if it’s executed well, especially considering its GTA/Max Payne/Just Cause vibes. I mean, watch that above trailer one more time. Killer Bean starts by butterfly twisting into a James Bond-looking sports car and immediately finds himself in a shootout with motorcycle-riding beans before jumping out in slow-motion to blast up another bean. It’s amazingly ridiculous, especially as you watch Killer Bean windmill to dodge bullets then take control of an attack helicopter to destroy some industrial-looking bridge. I’m not totally sure what’s happening here, but I’m all for it regardless.
While this may be the first big-budget Killer Bean game, it isn’t the first to come out. Based on two short animations from 1996 and 2000, as well as a feature-length film from 2008, the franchise saw the side-scrolling action platformer Killer Bean: Unleashed release in 2012 for Android and iOS devices. I played a little bit of it, and yeah, it’s pretty ridiculous. It’s got in-app purchases (that you can circumvent by watching ads), clunky touchscreen controls, and a plethora of levels to shoot through. It isn’t exactly an enjoyable experience, but it does provide a semblance of an idea of what the big Killer Bean game might play like.
Killer Bean doesn’t have a release date, but you can wishlist it on Steam now.