Survival games are always a bit of a mixed bag for me, sometimes getting too hyper-focused on the mundane act of staying alive, other times simply too brutally tough to easily enjoy. In the case of Mr. Prepper you’d be excused if, at first glance, you’d think it plays a bit like Fallout Shelter, that was certainly what crossed my mind, but the good news and bad news is that it’s a completely different animal. You play as a survivalist with some issues with “the man” who is trying to do whatever it takes to get the hell out of his creepy Suburban hellscape populated with bland neighbors and distrustful law enforcement who are perpetually trying to catch your subversive ass. To a degree, if the game could run with this sort of theme and match it with some decent gameplay, perhaps it would have been a success… but sadly there’s no getting around the fact that the controls are clumsy if I’m being generous and really make even simple actions miserable. As if the normal time constraints in a day weren’t enough, the need to try to cover up and hide anything that the po-po may deem subversive pretty much turns into a fustercluck of frustration every time as you struggle to find and remedy everything before they get impatient at your doorstep. Perhaps on a PC it would be more accessible but if you’re playing this on a console with a controller there’s not nearly enough sweet juice coming from the considerable squeeze.