DaRmaZat Grand Emprise 2: Portals Apart is the follow-up to Grand Emprise: Time Travel Survival, developed by Tbjbu2 and co-published with GrabTheGames. The game launches on August 5, and will be available exclusively on PC via Steam. Billed as a fast-paced, one-time-only survival crafting experience, you are frequently transported through magical portals into a collection of fantasy worlds, each packed with new challenges and gameplay twists.
Unlike sandbox titles, Grand Emprise2: Portals Apart is a linear, tightly curated adventure designed to stay exciting from beginning to end. It’s meant to feel like a high-octane ride through increasingly surreal environments, rather than a slow-burn survival sim.
A World Full of Portals
It all begins in a dreamy medieval landscape, complete with oceanside cliffs and a massive tower concealing your first portal. Once inside, you’re dropped into a wildly different world and quickly introduced to the tech tree. From there, it’s all about collecting plants, wood, and stone to craft basic tools and weapons, and even a paraglider to ride rising air currents. You’ll fend off fantasy-inspired enemies, cook meat over open flames, and learn to cultivate special oxygen-producing plants to restore life to a withered environment—only to be whisked off moments later to something as bizarre as a ride on a giant spinning carnival wheel. The worlds are sometimes breathtaking by the game’s own standards—wildly distinct, with a jarring variety that’s clearly intentional.
The player character remains unnamed, but they face a surprisingly involved survival loop. Beyond crafting and exploration, you’ll need to manage hunger and oxygen levels, both of which can deplete fast if you’re unprepared. Weapons are crucial, as wandering enemies become increasingly aggressive, and not all of them can be taken down easily. You can adjust the difficulty at any time, and manual saves are allowed, with flexible respawn options that let you recover lost loot by retracing your steps. Despite some clever systems, the game’s UI feels rough around the edges—enemy health bars sometimes stick around long after a fight, menus overlap awkwardly, and some interactions require unnecessary button presses to dismiss pop-ups. Crafting feels rudimentary too, with no option to modify or deconstruct items once placed, and most stations are limited to one of each type, forcing you to wait through crafting cycles if you need multiple outputs.
Ambition Meets Uneven Execution
Even so, crafting and grinding are secondary. The true gameplay loop revolves around how you use the interlinked worlds to drive progression. Occasionally a yellow exclamation mark will guide you forward, but often it’s up to you to piece things together. While this lack of direction can be frustrating, it also encourages deeper exploration and rewards players who take their time to engage with each world. Map sizes are intentionally kept small to keep things moving, but that choice also makes it easier to get a grasp on your surroundings and experiment with tools and upgrades. It’s clear that pace and variety were prioritized over complexity or freedom.
This decision comes with trade-offs. Combat, for example, isn’t a strong suit—fights feel clunky and lack any sort of modern dodge or roll mechanics, leaving you awkwardly stepping forward and back between attacks. Performance is inconsistent, too. Visual effects like camera shake are overly aggressive by default, though many of them can be toggled off in the settings. The graphics themselves are colorful and imaginative, especially in sky-island environments that evoke games like Lost Skies, but animations are often stiff or unpolished. The music is mellow and serviceable, setting the mood without standing out, while sound effects can feel overly recycled—chopping wood with your fists sounds identical to using an axe, for instance. And unfortunately, controller support is still subpar, which may be a dealbreaker for some.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Grand Emprise 2: Portals Apart is a fascinating and occasionally mesmerizing experiment that’s full of creative ambition. The interconnected worlds and fast-moving structure create a sense of adventure that’s rare, and the way progression is woven into exploration keeps things engaging—at least conceptually. But the rough technical edges, simplistic building tools, and lack of polish in key gameplay systems hold it back from fulfilling its full potential. For players willing to overlook the flaws in search of a whirlwind survival trip across bizarre dimensions, there’s something here worth experiencing. Just know that the execution doesn’t always match the vision.
Additional Information
Release Date: August 5, 2025
Reviewed On: PC. Download code provided by the publisher and PR agency.
Developer: Tbjbu2
Publisher: Tbjbu2, GrabTheGames
Relevant links: Grand Emprise 2: Portals Apart on STEAM
