Analysis: Mr. Prepper – Xbox Zone

Today we bring you the analysis of Mr. Prepper. This title was developed by the Polish studio Games refused and published by Ultimate Games. We are in front of a game of resource management, in which we must collect, develop and build our own bunker, in order to prepare for a hypothetical nuclear war. It is ironic that there has been talk in recent days of a possible energy blackout in which Europe could be mainly involved due to the lack of supply. Well, with this title, we can put ourselves in the shoes of these people, called “preparersWhat they want is to be properly prepared for any type of incident or global emergency. Mr. Prepper It was released on PC on March 18. This time it lands on consoles, already being available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S.

Advice from Mr. Prepper: Prepare for the worst

The story begins with the voice of our protagonist putting us in a situation. In our country there was the plague and there was a change of government. It made our city unbearable, lifeless, bored and controlled by the government. Mr. Prepper He tells us that he tried to escape the city on several occasions, but all attempts were unsuccessful. However, announces he has a new plan.

It will not take us long to learn about this new plan. We will have to succeed in building a bunker, like a nuclear shelter, which will allow us to prepare for a hypothetical nuclear attack.. To do this, we must follow the sophisticated steps of our final plan. All of this we will have to achieve behind the backs of the government agents tasked with registering and examining our house from time to time. The aim of this review is to avoid and eliminate any type of suspicious activity that could go against the new government.

Our final evacuation plan will take a lot of work.

In order to achieve our final plan we will have a basic element in our house as the workbench. This workbench will be the place where we will craft the various items that we will need to improve our various rooms in the bunker. It will also be the place where we can undo certain objects to obtain the necessary raw materials.

In our room we will have the plans of what will become our final plan, which is divided into different phases. In each of them we have to collect a series of elements, such as metals, plastics, glass or those specific objects of the phase itself. At the end, new objectives will be added to us. We anticipate that collecting these items will always be complicated when requested, so we will need to scale up and increase our production capabilities in order to achieve this.

The importance of homework and exploration

We are faced with a game of exploration and crafting, but these phases of the game will not be as free as they seem. We will have specific areas, such as the forest or the mine, where we can advance through its different levels to get the raw materials and items needed for our worktable. As we increase the levels we will get better raw materials or harder to get in lower levels. Of course, in order to advance in the different levels of the exploration areas, we will also have to collect a series of concrete objects that will allow us to repair an elevator, a cable car or to obtain objects to improve our exploration.

Besides the exploration phases, we have a series of main and secondary tasks. The main tasks are usually related to our evacuation plan. We will meet our neighbors, some in person and others by correspondence. Among them stands out “MinutemanWho will have our same convictions of rebellion and resistance against the oppressive government, as well as of carrying out a preparedness plan before the possibility of a nuclear attack.

The neighborhood is with us. The importance of using the mailbox

We will also have other citizens of the neighborhood with whom we will deal and they will send us various secondary tasks. These secondary tasks will be to collect and deliver a series of elements and objects in equal parts.. The difficulty will increase as we increase confidence and deal with them. Among these neighbors stands out Jenny, which will be found in the forest exploration zone. This sympathetic and a little crazy old herbalist will be the one who will make us orders related to the plants, fruits and plantations that we can find or carry out. It will be a good contact to get seeds that we can plant in our bunker. Another curious neighbor is Bob. We will meet this character in the mines. Its main function will be to supply us with minerals and stones, but more importantly, it will buy us any kind of precious metal that we find. We can use this money for other purchases of hard-to-find materials.

Apart from these most characteristic neighbors, thanks to the mailbox of our house, we can exchange with as many. From the hunter, the supermarket and other various neighbors, we will buy them important items to fulfill our main and secondary missions. They will also buy us items that we may have created on our worktable that we do not need to meet our goals. With these sales, we will get the money we need over and over again.

Government eye checks for suspicious activity

If all of these tasks do not seem sufficient, there is a degree of difficulty that can give us some other headaches. As we told you before in the story part of the game, we are subject to an oppressive government, which will control all its citizens to avoid any type of suspicious behavior that could be directed against its president

Result of this visit He will give us an inspection report, where all these suspicious objects will appear and he will give us a result. Depending on this level of suspicion, your visit will take place in a week or less of days, leaving us less room to rule out or hide any suspicious activity or object.

Inspector’s visits will show up on our calendar, but sometimes we can get confused by leaving an item that shouldn’t be there, or removing some decorative items from the house that will set off the alarms. If the level of suspicion reaches the maximum, we will have lost the game. In this case, the day will repeat itself and we will have another opportunity to hide or eliminate these suspicious objects.

In certain parts of the game, we will be informed that the use of drinking water will be limited to certain levels, or that other requirements will be implemented, which we will have to comply with on the day of the inspection. Especially if we want the government agent to leave us alone for as long as possible, because his visits will mean that on these days we cannot leave our homes, because we do not know the time when he will appear. If we are not at home, a new visit will be scheduled for the next day, but the level of suspicion will increase.

How to manage in Mr. Prepper?

As already mentioned above, in Mr. Prepper we will have to collect, build or craft many items or items. It requires a lot of going through the different menus and inventories. As this is a game for Xbox, its management is done through a gamepad. In this section, we found ourselves quite uncomfortable when it comes to browsing the vast inventory, as well as pick up items or combine them. It is quite notable that this game was designed for PC and its adaptation on consoles leaves a lot to be desired in its playability..

To counter this point, we tried to connect a mouse, both by cable and by USB adapter, compatible with other Xbox games. Sadly, In none of the attempts was it possible to recognize the mouse and use the game with the pointer as if it were a PC. This is a missed opportunity, which could be added via an update and which would significantly improve the handling of the game.

Technical section. Graphics and music.

Technically, there are very few comments. The game is fully reproduced in 2D, in order to facilitate the task of building our bunker, as well as to make exploration easier. In that sense, it seems like a good idea to have chosen this graphical style since a 3D game would have involved having more nooks and crannies to control or explore.

Graphically it can be disappointing for these days. At times, you may see textures with poor resolution and pixelated. It’s a shame because the designs are great and they add a touch of miniature which suits the game very well. Besides not having adequate resolution, there are times of loading where the game feels choppy. For the hardware it was played on (Xbox Series X console) this shouldn’t have been a problem, but it looks like the smoothness of the game needs to be improved even further. In the same way, loading times are sometimes exaggerated, especially in exploration areas, because when changing area or level, a loading screen will appear that lasts a few seconds. We will see that these screens are not that large or graphically demanding to require that much loading time.

In the sound section, it does not particularly stand out. The background music is decent and so are the sounds of interaction with the objects. The game is dubbed in English and translated into Spanish.

Conclusions and personal opinion

In short, we are faced with a resource management and exploration game that will delight players who like to make objects in order to make new ones and thus progress. Although it may resemble in style the Fallout shelter, nothing to do with reality. Despite the fact that we both had to build our underground shelter, the functions and varieties had nothing to do with it.

In my opinion, this game would gain a lot in value and playability if PC mouse support was added, because at all times it is appreciated that its use would facilitate and improve the user experience. A missed opportunity but which I think could have an easy fix if added with an update. It might be the opinion of an ordinary PC gamer, but the truth is, my gaming hub is only on consoles.

For the price at which it is available, This title can rob us of a few hours of playtime and entertain players who enjoy the mix between collecting materials, building items and designing bunker rooms, as well as exploring.. The main and side missions will help make it more entertaining than it first appears.

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