Mr. Prepper is a base-building shelter game brought to us by Rejected Games and published by PlayWay S.A. It is now available on Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 4 & 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.

The game will put the player in the role of a man preparing for the worst-case situation with the threat of nuclear war around, and you will have to start building your bunker and gathering supplies. There is a very short tutorial that will start you off by teaching you how to build your bunker and use the crafting table, and trading post to start gathering supplies. Then you will need to learn the rest as you progress from building sections for planting crops, and while also trying to keep your preparedness status in check.

While building your secret bunker, you will need to hide it from the government as they do regular checks on the people, and this is a big reason why the player decides now is the time to start this secret plan. Unlike other shelter games I have seen and played in the past, Mr. Prepper allows you to trade with other people on the street and leave the house to go and explore. You can visit locations to gather foods like berries, gather wood, or hunt wildlife. You will also meet other characters who share the same idea with you and will have quests for you to take on, as they offer some great rewards to help go to your bunker.

While the base game covers the story of defying the government and fending for yourself, the Animal Farm DLC, which is also available now, keeps the core shelter building while introducing a new story. You have been tasked with getting a farm back up and running and tending to the animals you encounter. You will be able to learn the new game mechanics and visit new locations in this DLC, while also trying to work out why the government is interested in the farm to begin with, as there is a new threat in the mode that comes from above with alien abductions.

You will be able to learn how to fish, breed animals, and build items they need to survive such as aquariums for aquatic life. There are two special game modes players can pick from for more freedom, either creative where the focus is on being creative and building, or sandbox which gives you all the locations to visit from the start of the game but has no storyline, so you are creating your own path to walk down.

The graphics are not very impressive as the game is played on a 2D scale of left and right movement, but it does feature animations of doors opening when the player changes floors in buildings. So, there are some excellent animations, and the background of specific locations does look nice, like the forest as you will see deer in the background eating and walking around, just overall it was not very impressive to me. The top section of the screen is displayed with the HUD of your tiredness, hunger, and preparedness metre, so keep an eye on this as it can slow the progress of building or getting around if you are not at a decent level to do so.

The audio for the game does have a subtle backing track throughout but does not support any voice acting in the game, which did make me sort of lose my immersive experience as I played. Control-wise, you will need to get used to dropping and dragging items from inventory to set them in the real world on the controller. It was a bad experience as, at times, it didn’t tab over to the correct section. For me, those actions are much better performed on a PC with a mouse and keyboard. Overall, the menus are easy to work out and navigate the more you play, but they just didn’t become any easier in terms of controlling it.

The difficulty does scale as you progress as there is not any guidance on where to get certain items. So, you will be left in the dark a lot in this game, but once you work it out, it starts to become a bit of second nature as you progress.

In conclusion, Mr. Prepper is a decent bunker survival game that fans of series like Fallout Shelter will enjoy, as it is the core experience but expands on it by being able to interact with the outside world. I am thankful there was a creative mode option as I spent time playing around with that and just seeing how big I was able to build up the base. At the same time, I did find the core experience to be a challenge, and as it is not my choice of game to sink time into, I was able to see the appeal that it offers.

Written by: Shane Walsh