At PAX East 2025, there are a lot of indie games being showcased from up-and-coming developers. One of the games that caught my attention was Pizza Bandit from Jofsoft, which takes clear inspiration from Gears of War and Overcooked. The name may not say it, but it does, and it looks like it works well.

To give an overview of Pizza Bandit, it’s a unique blend of cooking and shooting, adding extra spice to the third-person shooter. In the mission-based 4-player co-op third-person shooter, you embody a wannabe chef utilizing his ex-mercenary skills to fund his dream pizza restaurant. 

Gameplay Impressions

I played one game of Pizza Bandit at PAX East with three other players in my party. You start off by killing a horde of enemies, which reminds me of Doom and Gears of War. The movement and shooting mechanics almost match what we know and love about Gears of War. 

Once you finish your objective of killing enemies, you’ll go into a building, or as we might say, a “kitchen” to gather ingredients to make food. What our party had to do was make Sushi, and there are steps in order to do so, just like in Overcooked. 

From my brief gameplay session, there is a lot of creativity in the customization of your character and throughout the weapons. They turned the Pizza Cutter into an actual weapon that is useful, and they even have different grenades, with one being a discoball.

Once you finish your objective, you will have to retreat to a ship to fully complete it with your crew. Pizza Bandit may not have the full qualities of an AAA game, but what it does offer is complete chaos and fun with your friends.

I never would have thought Gears of War and Overcooked could work together so well. If you are familiar with third-person shooters, you will not need any training in Pizza Bandit. 

Josoft has already announced that Pizza Bandit will be coming to PC via Steam. A closed Beta will also be going live this upcoming week.