Grand Emprise: Time Travel Survival

Open the game.. thinking how its gonna be..

-The physics are occasionally hilarious, NPCs will stare into your soul for a little too long, and I’m 90% sure I broke history by teaching a caveman how to floss dance.
-Never in my life made so many bridges in the sky instead of on the water...
-My house literally floating above ground seems like I made the houses before gravity was invented?!?!
-Started in the Stone Age, punched a tree, tamed a dinosaur, accidentally invented capitalism in medieval times, then got hunted by time cops in the future. 10/10.

Game is enjoyable going through different "eras" and technologies. I thought it looked good and controls were good. It was a little hand holdy and short.
PROS: looked nice, engaging, fun use of time periods, riding dinosaurs, good sound
CONS: a bit hand holdy in always telling you what to do so not really a survival game. it took about 12 hours to complete which felt a bit short if I hadn't gotten it 50% off.

After giving this one another go, I am changing my recommend from a no to a yes, but I will leave my original review below so you can see my initial reaction.
After playing more, some of the things I didn't like at first are now things I like about the game. I think I just had to separate my expectations from other similar games and see this one on its own terms.
Yes, it's easy. Almost too easy. But I think that's the point. It's VERY linear and each progression takes little effort. It's the perfect game for when you want to zone out a little and not have to think too much. Besides, you'll get so lost in the beauty of the game that you won't want to have to work too hard. I do still think the combat system is janky, and the sprint/dash thing is awkward. But overall, it's a very fun game that just took me some getting used to.
Final thoughts after finishing the game: well OK then, that was kind of a fever dream lol. The further I got into it, the weirder it got. Also, the buggier it got. Also, the simpler it got. I think the developer had some grand plans for this one and started out really strong, but kinda phoned it in at the end.
It was still a ton of fun, almost a descent into madness. It tried to be a lot of different things and mixed a lot of different genres. It didn't feel like it excelled at any of them, but the variety was interesting and had me as entertained as I was bewildered. It's a short game, only about 20 hours start to finish, but I'm glad I purchased it and finished it. Looking forward to the sequel!
Original review:
I feel bad for leaving a "not recommended" on this one because it has a LOT of fantastic things going for it. First of all, it's a beautiful game. It might be the most beautiful game I never wanted to play. The artwork alone that the developer put into this game is absolutely fantastic. It's also incredibly fast for what it is. I've played far less beautiful games with lots more lag than this. I think the developer is really good at what they do. You could put this art and this optimization on an AA title and people would pay $80 for it easy. The premise is also very unique and refreshing. In an over abundance of stale survival games that all do the same thing, this one offers a unique progression idea!
Where it completely falls apart is the mechanics, the combat system, and the tech tree. It's hard to explain, but it's just janky and muted. It's kinda like if you took ARK and gave it an "arcade mode". It's kinda like the Fisher Price of survival games.
It's a shame, I wanted to love this one. When i first fired it up I was simply in awe. And then I had to play it and I was like ugh. I probably will keep it installed and play it every so often. It doesn't seem like a terribly long or complicated game. Maybe picking off an age here and there. But knowing what I know now, I probably wouldn't have bought it. I encourage you to try the demo first before deciding.

Currently a short game, wish there were more npc, more map, some of the maps were just to get a to b. Replay is low at the moment.

Is it Janky? Yes. Is it fun? Yep! In some sense this feels like a tech demo a studio would send to publishers seeking funding to develop the full game. Also, I don't think calling this game asset flip does it justice...

Most, if not all assets, did not come from the dev, but the dev themselves weaved everything together into an unique experience with their own programming skills. If I were to complain about something, it would be about the over-reliance on graphics as a selling point, taming foxes sucks, and the first boss battle was completely unbalanced. Game could be a lot more optimized as well....

In terms of fav era... I gotta say the Dyson Sphere, Colonial, Industrial, Primitive and Dino (in order.)

Also, this game totally should have had controller support.... Dev dropped the ball on that one. I would have given a pass if the Colonial era was RTS like AOE 2 rather than first-person. I like the inter-dependencies between eras too. That was both fast-paced and kept things fresh.

Will I buy the sequel? Maybe, if they add controller support (or have an era with RTS elements where keyboard/mouse makes more sense.)

To be honest I had lots of fun with this game, for what it is.
It is rather short and has its quirks, but it's an interesting journey with mechanics and gameplay almost constantly evolving till the very end.
Not sure if it's worth the full price thought compared to other games of this range.

I played the sequel to this game first, "Grand Emprise - Portals Apart" (because it was on sale first) and let me just say that the original game is a huge improvement overall, so I am glad I started with the sequel as it felt more like a demo or introduction into the game. I enjoy the game, the mechanics are fun to me. And if the developer doesn't make these games then nobody will. So we need them to continue to make these games and improve upon them. Follow the footsteps of this first game, its so much better in my opinion. In this game the worlds feel much larger and the images seem more sharp. You feel like there is more to do in the game, more aspects of survival.