Mr. Prepper

Review

“Ever since the plague and the change of government, this town has been unbearable. Lifeless, filled only with boredom, propaganda and control. I have tried to escape and I’ve failed, this time. But I’ll find a way. They call me Mr. Prepper.”

After attempting to escape from the sleepy town of Murricaville, you are brought back to your humble abode by The Agency. You have had your car seized and you are told that you cannot buy or register a new vehicle and you must remain in Murricaville. Not only that, but you’re on probation and you will have regular visits to check your house is in order and that everything is within the government regulations.

Once the Agent has finished talking with you then you’ll take control of Mr. Prepper and go over a small tutorial of basics: how to move about, how to stay rested and fed, as well as your main goals, how to build your bunker etectera. On your bedroom wall is your plan to escape from Murricaville, your Ultimate Plan. This plan shouldn’t be seen by the Agency inspector, in fact anything at all which the government decides is illegal must be hidden. Luckily your ultimate plan is on the backside of a Bless The President poster, just remember you make sure it’s hidden when the Agency comes calling.

It’s not just illegal items, too many items of normal everyday objects such as buckets, bowls, radio’s etcetera can be deemed suspicious. Hovering your cursor over an item can give some information on how many of that item you can own before it becomes too suspicious. Having none or too few items can also seem suspicious to the inspector, and will be included in his report at the end of his visit. You will also need to be careful on how much water and electricity that you use. If you are using far more than the average user then again, the inspector will become suspicious as to why you are using more.

To prepare for your escape you’re going to have to dig bunkers beneath your home, where you can hide everything as long as the inspector doesn’t find your bunker entrance. First, you’ll need to dig your first bunker; selecting the house icon on the bottom centre of the screen will allow you to select a space underneath your house. This space can be increased in size by moving the section left or right, and once you have the size of the room you wish to create, you’ll hit a green tick or a red cross if you don’t want to create the room. Once the room has been created, selecting the room will allow you to choose Build. This will then dig and remove all the dirt leaving a nice empty bunker for you.

Once you have your bunker, you’re going to have to have an entrance, so you need to craft a ladder. Outside on your backyard is your trusty Workbench but it’ll need a bit of fixing up before you can use it to craft a ladder and anything else. Once you have collected the resources required to fix up your workbench and craft a ladder, you’ll have to move the workbench into your bunker for safe keeping away from the pesky Agency and their inspections. You can upgrade your workbench which will allow you to make new items, furniture and equipment.

Just outside of your front door is your mailbox and a sign pointing to various locations. The mailbox will allow you to trade with new folks you’ll meet; you send them items, objects they require or money to buy things. Within a short time, the postman will deliver your mail with the items bought or money earned from items sold. As you progress, you’ll be able to buy and trade for better items to help you survive and eventually escape. The more you trade with your neighbours, the more trust you will have between them. This will maybe unlock new neighbours and they could also offer you new items to buy.

You will uncover new locations which can be found by clicking on the sign, then selecting a location will take you there. Locations such as the forest, mine and junkyard, could be divided into levels. The forest has multiple levels through which you can move, and there is a lift which you will need to fix in order to use it; it will allow you to move from one level to another more quickly. In the mine you will need to find the level passes, which will allow you to visit different levels of the mines, allowing you to explore more.

There are also resources which can be collected; for example, the forest has wooden logs laying around, as well as Blueberries and Guarana. There are also animals in the woods, and you can bait traps and catch them and gain some resources.  There are wolves which you will have to fight but you can collect meat and furs from them which will come in handy. In the mine there are bats and rats and also digging machines. If you find fuel then you can activate the machines, which will then start digging and with any luck will find you some resources such as gold, ore that can be used in a furnace to create metals, or crystals which can be sold.

To help you survive you’re going to need food and water.  You will need water for plants you grow as food; this can be collected from the sink in the kitchen, and it will only take a small amount of time before it replenishes itself. However, your water is monitored each time you have an inspection and using too much water will have the inspector becoming suspicious. This is also the same for your electricity usage and you are going to need electricity in your bunkers otherwise you're in the dark and you’ll be unable to grow food away from prying eyes.

There are objectives for you to complete while trying to survive at the locations you uncover and for the people you encounter. There is a day and night cycle where you can sleep at night to recover, although sometimes you’ll have to venture out at night.

You are able to take naps while you’re at home, you have your bed or even the sofa to nap on. Taking a nap for a few hours will allow you to gain some rest, you can have a nap at any time and for as long as you would like. However, you can only sleep after 8pm.  Going to sleep will allow you to rest fully and you’ll wake up in the morning.

Doing jobs or running about the place will take a toll on you, you’ll need to get well rested and fed. You can find berries and other foods which can help you survive and keep you fed but you’re going to need more than just those to keep your health up. You can cook foods on the oven in your kitchen such as soups, corn and smoothies. To begin with, the options are simple and they won’t last very long outside of your fridge. However, you can make your food last by canning them, putting them in jars or by dehydration.

As well as the need to be rested and fed you also have to keep your Preparedness. You must keep this high by always preparing for your escape. Do nothing, or do something other than getting prepared, and your preparedness will fall, just like your rest and health. If they hit zero then you will faint and you could be out for quite a few hours before you regain consciousness.

There are times when things go wrong, like the Postman disappears so your stuff doesn’t turn up for a few days, which might not be too much of a problem. The worst I have encountered so far is the bloody blackouts; every time I thought I had got enough food stocked (prior to being canned etcetera) a blackout would happen, which meant that my fridge didn’t keep things fresh. It took me a bit to figure out, but you do get some warning in the newspapers which hit your front door. Using this information can help you plan ahead, many times I got up in the morning after getting in late and needing my five minutes of beauty sleep only to awake and find no electric, so I was unable to cook and what food I did have was going off by the time the electricity was back up and running.

Along with your normal game, there are also two special modes, Creative and Sandbox. In the Creative mode you have unlimited access to all items and materials, and you can set it so that you’re immortal. Creative is for those people who want to spend their time being creative and have no limits in their buildings. The downside of this mode is that you cannot unlock any achievements as you progress.

Sandbox is in beta so you may have to put up with some teething errors, bugs etcetera. In sandbox mode all locations are available from the start and there is no story; you make the story for yourself. I decided to play your standard Normal game and I chose to play with the difficulty set to Normal also; there are also Easy and Hard difficulties if you fancy an easier or harder game than your standard game.

In the settings you will find options for Game (Always Run), Language (English, Polish, German, Chinese, Russian, Dutch, French, Turkish, Spanish, Portugues, Japanese, Hungarian, Swedish, Italian, Korean and Thai), Keyboard Camera and Screen Edge Camera Speed, Keep The Cursor Inside The Window and Show Tips, Graphics (Resolution, Framerate Limit, V-Sync, Buffering, Display Mode, Brightness, Antialiasing, Extra Antialiasing, Depth of Field, Ambient Occlusion, Ambient Obscurance, Bloom, Shadow and Texture Quality and Detail Level), and Audio ( Volume, Music, Ambient and Effects Sliders).

For the most part I haven’t had any problems playing Mr. Prepper; it has run well. The only issue I did have is that at times the game would stutter while in chat with folk. This didn’t happen all the time but often enough for it to be noted.

The graphics are great and I have enjoyed playing the game. I have only played under Normal game mode and difficulty; I haven’t tried any of the other two other special game modes currently on offer.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com

Mr. Prepper Steam Store Page