If Mr. Prepper was released in any other year, it would feel like a cute little “What if….?” style narrative that would tickle the inner conspiracy theorist inside of me. Being that we’re in 2021, on the verge of a totalitarian state, it makes me wonder if developer Rejected Games is full of time-travelers and giving us a brief glimpse into what our future holds. Regardless of whether this is a peek into what the coming years have in store for the world as a whole or a light parody, I think that no matter where you land on current events, we can all agree that hopefully, our government dictators figure out a simulation that works a little more fluidly than this title.

This is a game that really has a narrative that speaks to my inner conspiracy theorist, focusing on a world living under the boot of the government in a post-pandemic world that sees the general populace living under constant surveillance. You take on the role of Mr. Prepper, who is now under increased surveillance due to an attempted escape. You must work with what you have available to prepare for the inevitable downfall, and based on the trailer, create a spaceship to jet off-world to safety. Notice, I reference the trailer because I have yet to be able to beat the game, or barely make it outside of the tutorial for that matter, due to the sheer fact this game is a dumpster fire of epic proportions across the board.

At first, I thought these were issues that stemmed from running the game on the Xbox Series X, as my wife jumped into the game around the same moment I did on her Xbox One X model. She got in immediately while I was sitting on the initial loading screen for about 10 minutes. I assumed there was a longer than normal initial load state and it would even out once I was in-game, but I quickly learned this was incorrect as she managed to finish what she was doing in her previous game, save and quit, load into this title, and be way on her way through the opening cut scene while I was still staring at a scrolling loading icon. After a few dashboards, shifting the game between externals and the internal hard drive, multiple hard resets, and a fresh install, I finally managed to make it in only to have it freeze mid-scene, which continued throughout my journey at almost every transition. This also impacted my wife’s game on her slightly dated console later on, and became even more frustrating once I started to progress, only to learn that the game only saves when Mr. P decides to take a nap.

The gameplay largely resembles that of Fallout Shelter, where you slowly build out your shelter under your house by digging out chunks of ground, which I can only assume is being consumed since it just disappears and doesn’t seem to raise any red flags with the fuzz, who work as this game’s version of Raiders and Deathclaws. At random intervals, or depending on the actions taken, the fed that babysits you from outside of your domicile will come in and take a peek at what’s going on. If you fail to hide everything properly or set off too many red flags, he’ll haul you off to the gulag and treat you with a game over message. The problem I ran into with these is just how obnoxiously slow our hero is, and how he seemed to get sidetracked when it counted the most. This is largely a point and click crafting simulator where you will simply put the cursor where you want to go, click, and then hold down a button to run. However, it’s more of a slight jog that really had me struggling to stay engaged, only more so when I would end up stopping short of my intended goal off-screen, only resuming once I found our lost hero and told him to move a second or third time. The waiting game doesn’t stop there, as much like Bethesda’s bunker simulator, you must wait for things to be crafted, arrive by mail, or be broken down with no obvious option to skip ahead. Even when it comes to gathering supplies the game struggles to get things right – I’ve had packages shipped from neighbors where the timer freezes, leaving my packages in limbo like they were shipped via the USPS. In some cases, I would venture out to one of the exterior locales to be told I can’t go in the direction the game is pointing me, or collect materials that mysteriously disappear once I returned home.

Despite having one of the more interesting premises in the past couple years, Mr. Prepper feels like a failure on almost every level due to the plague of bugs that result in this feeling like one of the most broken games I have ever played, at least on the Xbox family.  Even if the narrative piques your interest, I would strongly suggest leaving this one buried, unless you’re willing to take a gamble on one of the other platforms.

3 out of 10

Pros

• A Great Premise That Feels Like a Peek Into the Future

Cons

• So Many Bugs
• Incredibly Slow Pacing That’s Further Dragged Down By Freezes/Crashes
• Missing Inventory
• Poor Save State Options

Mr. Prepper was developed by Rejected Games and published by PlayWay S.A. The game is available for PC and X1. The game was provided to us for review on X1 and played on a XSX. If you’d like to see more of Mr. Prepper, check out the Publisher’s site.

 

Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.

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