Project Explore

I don't know if I'm just stupid or what, but I starved the content of this game in about 30 minutes... There was nothing else I could do, and even after searching for how to progress, I was left with nothing.
Not recommended... Even if there IS more content, the fact that I played for 30 minutes and then couldn't figure out how to progress after about 25 minutes just makes the game bad.

Game was fun when I bought it a few years ago. Then everything changed; art, combat fights etc. It is not the same game anymore and no longer fun at all. I had high hopes for this game but all is lost, and all that remains is a sad disappointed moment every time I read the game name in my game list. I also see the price went up while the game went down.

After several hours in, I'm yet to see the night, or an enemy, or a living creature.

I can't imagine how anyone would want to play this over Terraria or Don't Starve, or any other well crafted survival game.

It's a good start, it surely has charm, but it feels terribly half-cooked at best, and from what I have seen it doesn't offer any unique idea, concept, gameplay or anything else.

Project Explore definately falls under the Edge Of Space scams section. If your reading this and have not bought the game, DO NOT BUY IT! If you happened to just buy it and have yet to play, then highly recommend requesting a refund immidiately before it's too late! Those of you who know me, I only give negative reviews for games that are falsly advertised, incomplete, or my posts are deleted by the owner. This game falls under the first two!!!

AGAIN DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!!!! IT IS INCOMPLETE!!!!!

That being said, here are my findings and why the negative review.
Unless you have knowledge of how to run a server, this so called multi-player game gives no instructions on how to run one. Setting up the server for me was easy, as its basically the same way you would run one for Terraria or Starbound, which is locate the install folder, click on the server executable, and answer the questions your firewall throws at you.
Click play from Steams menu to run Project Explore and after selecting multi-player, add your server in the list. Youll have to find the server.txt to actually name your server, because the game client despite showing the name, actually only displays the title to you, everyone else trying to find you, just sees the defualt name. server.txt is located in:
C:\Users\YourAccount\AppData\Local\Project_Explore_Server.
I figure those of you who got ripped off who got stuck with the game, at least can get a partially semi good server running.
This game in incomplete. It was put into the regular market and being sold as a completed game, not an EA game, yet 95% of the content is missing and not even written in the game. Reading the forums, the author said he has been working on his own, which I would never give bad feedback for, but to sell a game as completed, when people have complained since 2015 that the game cant save all the user data, and anything a player puts into a chest gets lost immidiately, and never fixed in 3 years, that looks very bad.
The house I built, everything I put into it, in all the containers was gone. This was bad for me because my tools were in the chest and with no tools, you cant make more.
Tearing the game apart to see what it is made of took even less time than it did with EOS. This is because there is next to no content. Now just so you know, this was in multi-player mode. The server window would not accept any commands what so ever except for save and stop commands. The author told me some features were accidentally left out. Reading the forums, this was mentioned back in 2015. Three years and still not fixed?
Just like Edge Of space, the menu shows a lot of items you can make, but only 2% really exist. Looking at the chest I made, I discovered that other then the GUI information and graphics, nothing was written to actually store anything, so this is why after you close the chest and reopen it and find all your things gone, that is the cause. A lot of game code is missing. EOS actually has more content that this game, and that says a LOT!
The last two things were the nail in the coffin as the saying goes. Not only does the game disable Steams overlay which prevents users from taking screenshots and reporting the game, it also leaves an executable running in the background so despite closing the game, it burns up time so Steam actually thinks your playing it when actually your not. I caught onto this earlier today when I was playing TileMiner which the owner has been honest since the game was returned to the store, and even when he removed it. Took a lot of yelling people to talk him into returning the game to the store, and even though TileMiner is incomplete as he stated, there is still a LOT more content then this game. Anyway, while I was playing tile miner, a notification poped up telling me I got a card. Looking into my inventory, I found a card for Project Explore. I was like, how can I be getting a card for this game while playing another? After hitting alt-ctrl-del and looking in task manager, I discovered a executable running for Project Explore. Nice little routine which if you dont catch, burns up the time so when you do catch the issue of the incomplete game, chances of getting a refund are even worse, because Steam sees hours of game play yet all you did was load the game up, and either closed the game a few minutes later, and still it runs in the background. As I said above, screen shots using steams client are disabled, so the person who wrote this game and put it in the store for sale as a completed game, made it so you most likely will never see your money again, once you realize you really cant play much.
Items stored on the character so far are ok, but try playing a sandbox game like this and storing what content there is all into your backpack. you cant, and a lot of items have very small stack limits.

If I hade to rate it out of ten, a probable five would come of it.

Pros:
Cute little graphics that make it appealing
From my experiences (which is only a couple of hours, play time is false due to not closing the app) Little bugs or glitches.
Very simplistic: Hard to get lost it.
Very easy to pick up and beat within a short half hour, at most

Cons:
For a finished product, it has very little gameplay and very little motivation.
The map textures are, in a word, disgusting.
Lack of character custimization for a finshed game.
Turn based combat in a survival game is interesting, but doesn't fit in this case.

I originally bought this game a long while back as a joke with a friend, keeping the notion of "I have like 3 dollars in my steam wallet, and Its kinda useless." At first, I thought it sucked, but it had an odd charm about it. Back when there was custimization, better,less empty worlds, real-time combat and much more content, it was kinda fun, actually. But that has passed, and although bugs were removed, so was a shit ton of gameplay. I do realize that updates might still come, but as of now, it leaves much to be desired. So, as of now, It gets a thumbs down. If it does get updated and becomes interesting once more, that'll change.

I really want to like this game, I do. I got it during the steam summer sale shortly before the major changes to graphics and combat were made, and I rather quite enjoyed it! But now? Now it's been offocially released. There is less content than there was, combat is kind of annoying (and not really suited to this style of game, imo), there's less to do, the world was switched to an unlimited style of map (I have yet to find water of any sort since the changes), and overall the game feels far LESS polished than it was before the changes came out.

I won't be refunding, because I DID enjoy what time I spent in it before the changes were made (and I feel I got my money's worth back then, since I got it on sale at a really good price), but I can't recommend this game to anyone as it is now.

I've owned this game for a long time now, but as you can see I haven't played a lot, but I do prefer the old version. I don't like the fighting, the old version graphics were better and the gathering of materials was better in old version also. I wish the dev would have just added more content to the old version instead of completely changing it.

There isn't really much to this game; you can play for a few minutes or a few hours and you'll be doing the same things. It gets boring pretty fast, but has potential if randomly generated things are added in the future like dungeons, better building placement, and leveling that actually has an effect on your character rather than increasing how much food heals you by 3%...

If you want something to do for a bit, spend the dollar or two, if not, don't bother.

For some reason this $2 game is still getting updates years later and is pretty good. Beyond that, well, "A 2D sandbox survival game designed for creators, players, and everyone else.".

It is what it says it is.

Run, gather, fight packs of wild animals, die. Try again. Gather, run, fight packs of wild animals. Man this is a boring terrain. Die. Try again. Die again before you can pick up a rock. Hit the wolf, oh wait there are three more surrounding you. Dinner for the pack.

Sorry. it got boring real fast. If you like plain jane atmosphere with lots of bears and wolves well this is the game for you. May I suggest Rimworld? Yes Rimworld. This needs a lot of work. I don't understand the Very Positive raves about such an unfinished game. Oh well. Back to Rimworld.

If you want a good and fun survival game which is in early access well this is the game for ya! It's got some pretty good house building but only those who are truly creative would be able to make some good houses. Basically, it's a fun game and it's achievements are.. well, achievable. And beware of a bug that you might sadly possibly encounter. When you save and turn off the game you should probably take your most important items into your inventory in case the game decided to delete parts of your house like it has for me. Otherwise, it's pretty fun even with it's seemingly small amount of content.

As of now it's still very much early access. That said the Devs have been doing a good job coming out with frequent updates so no worries there. They make LOTS of references to other stuff, pepe, where the normal things are, jordan freeman, white mesa, two girls one chalice (yea figure that one out). Game play is pretty good, learning curve isnt very steep, died almost instantly in the first game, bludgeoning everything to death with a rock just doesnt cut it. Oh, huge thing, possibly game breaking since were all so used to it... you cant punch down trees. That said, for $5 the product is very unfinished, after about an hour of playing you get to OP and the game is no longer enjoyable. However this game does look very promising, so if you don't wanna mess with early access but it looks interesting, add it to you wishlist and watch it!

5/7 would read 2 girls 1 chalice again

I really Like this game, it's pretty awesome but there is ONE major flaw. As I went to go attack 1 of these wolves/doggies and then I started running and then like 10 wolves/doggies begin to follow me. I mean I'm ok with that, but there was also something that happened. I began to have micro stuttering. Like severe micro stuttering to the point where the game wasn't even playable.

My system specs are:
A10-7700k 3.8ghz quad core
GTX 650TI
14 Gbs of ram

Even with this I couldn't even run the game with all those wolves/doggies, it felt like 10fps even though it says I'm getting above the 100 - 200fps range.
I'm giving this game a thumbs up, but the only problem I see is this micro stuttering needs to be fixed :C

I do recommend this game. In fact, I've gifted it to two people already. You'll go through and see a few negative reviews on it, but here's my take:

This game is an Early Access Game. I've been in contact with the developer personally and he describes it as "Pre-Alpha." So, with this in mind, the game is going to have a few flaws. Another review mentioned how "the game is nowhere near ready for sale." True fact. Which is why the developer is still working to improve upon the game even as I'm typing this.

I would just like to point out a few things: The game is fun. It has controls that are easy to get used to. Currently the game has 153 unique items that serve their own purpose. There are currently 5 unique mobs, a 6th to be released with the next update. The building system is fun and easy. The crafting system is as well. All around, this is a great game that you can run on virtually any computer.

I mentioned the next update. The next update is going to be released in approximately 2 weeks. From what I hear, it's going to be a huge update. I don't want to go into details and spoilers, so I won't mention any specific additions. However, I will mention that there are going to be an indescribable number of bug fixes for every bug that has been reported by the community. And there will be quite a bit of new content from what I understand. You can find additional information in the Community Hub.

Overall, I feel that currently I can not actually give the game a rating because it is not complete. But if I had to rate it, I would give it a solid 7.3 out of 10. That number is sure to go up as bugs are fixed and the game progresses.

This game has a bunch of content and crafting options, very enjoyable if you're a fan of open world survival games! - although I havent invested too much time into this game yet, I'm looking forward to future interations and potential content updates further down the line!

Just as the introduction video on the store page initially "described" the game in just over a minute, it didn't take a lot of play for me to realize there wasn't much substance here yet. Will there ever be more - maybe, but it seems that it will take a long time before this is really an actual playable game to come out of this "Project."

I'd give it another six months to a year before purchasing, just make sure you check for any updates that happened during that time first.

I am really enjoying this game. It is in its early stage, the game is simple: gather, kill, live. I'm a fan of sandbox gameplay. It has some bears and deer, fishing, and woodcutting. I hope to see craftable furniture and items. The books are a nice touch. Thanks so far for a good looking game.

normaly i dont review early access..
however this little gemearned a special spot in my library...
i bought this as a cheap little shelf game play once never play again we all know the games..
this one surprized... it is well done pretty polished i ran into know issues while playing though i have heard of some...
the devs are extremely active in the forums and working on the game consistantly consistant updates wich also surprized me sevral a day at times ..
the graphics are what they are its a top down survival quite a few things to find buildings scattered aroudn the map with loot to find for survival or to help you build your own shelter or use oen of the buildings as your shelter ....
conmbat is a bit of a trick at first to get the timing right and not get killed ....
its fun and entertaining i have a very short play time for now but plan to play more...

all in all its a fun little time spender for a low price its worth a shot at getting as is but they are still improoveing it ...
crafting is pretty fun to get into aswell..

Update---Game sucks balls now. It was fine at the beginning but what they done Seabass and whatever his name is now, done to it after, screwed it up and ruin it's flavor.

Don't buy this garbage.












Not a bad little game. It's still a work in progress. Survival in it's simplest form. Hunt, Defend, Build, Loot & keep your Sanity. Crafting system is easy enough and there's several items you're able to craft. The Construction part is plain and simple. It's top down only so, you're not going to build anything like you can in Mine Craft therefore, it's not a clone.

It's not bug free, mind you as with all Early Access games so, keep your sanity and read the books.

EDIT9/2016::
So I made a review about this game in March of last year ... And frankly, not much has changed except maybe a graphical upgrade. There is now health-draining weather elements to constrain you to your shelter from time to time, some new enemies with extreme aggro, two crafting stations, one of which is used to break down junk and excessive equipment and the other to create some metal objects, including swords and crafting materials, and farming, which seems redundant with how easily you can find food anyway.

...Y'know, I hate to say it, but this game still seems like a poor investment on my part. The added features does give the game some additional depth, but it still suffers from a lack of challenge. The new enemies do admittedly make for some excitement considering their fast speed and tendancy to attack in groups, but they're not nearly enough to elevate this game above mediocrity. And as soon as you get a ranged weapon even they don't pose much of a threat.

There are plenty of games out there with survival elements to them; some of which focus on hardcore/realistic survival like Project Zomboid and The Long Dark, others which focus on base-building and defence like 7 Days To Die, and others which are just an elaborate excuse to slay enemies with the goal of gathering supplies like State of Decay or Subterrain; but all of the mentioned are good games because they focus on being whatever they are and manage to work in their level of survival to push the player into working hard to either win or just to survive as long as possible. They're fun either because they are challenging or they provide a lot of features and content to make your experience unique. But this game doesn't do anything right. It doesn't provide anything close to the features of 7 Days To Die or Subterrain, it doesn't have the content of Project Zomboid or State of Decay, nor does it test the player like The Long Dark... It's just a plain survival game that has little to offer other than the very basics.

Granted, for a two dollar game, this is okay. And the preview of the 0.3 version does show another graphical overhaul on the horizon. But frankly that's just sugar-coating to a very bland pastry. I guess I shouldn't expect too much given that this game only has one coder, but I feel like this guy is in over his head. A survival game needs a lot of attention to detail and knowhow to be accurate, fun or preferably both; something which I feel is beyond that of a single guy and his pet project. But given the opinions of the people who voted on my review, perhaps I'm wrong. Perhaps this game will become better with time... Or maybe it's just two dollars of disappointment.

Well, the developer has promised more content on the horizon, so we'll just have to see what happens.
EDIT9/2016::

First of, I'd like to point out that this is a preliminary review. As in, a comment on how the game stands right now. My attitude towards it will most likely change as it develops.
So, let's start off...

Right now this game contains about as much content as an average flash game on Newgrounds or Kongregate. It's extremely simple, and once you figure out how to move adequately you can easily fend off attacks by the wildlife (wolves and bears), whose only real difference is their speed. And if the developer reads this: You might want to change that.

Your main tools for harvesting the lands are rocks (as in common rocks you find lying on the ground) and axes; both can harvest any kind of harvestable resource (trees and boulders) or kill wildlife. There are also hammers and shovels, though their uses are limited to construction or reshaping the ground respectively, and they can't be used as weapons. Tools used exclusively as weapons include bows and handguns, which can be crafted relatively easily. Their advantage is not only in range, but they also slow your opponents drastically for about two or three seconds, making it far too easy to get in consequtive hits, assuming you have enough ammo. (And it would surprise me if you didn't, since that is also extremely easy to craft.)

You can also build your own house! Flooring, walls, doorways and roofs. Out of wood... J-Just wood... Oh, and different kinds of flooring with rocks, and wood... This will obviously be expanded on in the future updates, but right now it's just a bit boring building your own shelter, not to mention unnecessary since the map is littered with abandonned buildings. The only disadvantage to these is that you can't make doors for them, but meh...

All in all, I'm sensing the usual potential with early access games here. And if Scott Cawthon has proved anything, it's that single developers can produce good games. But right now, the game is far too limited, and much too easy. And it suffers from the same sort of problem that most survival games has: Hoarding! The game didn't do its description justice... Because as it stands right now, it's just another minimalistic survival game, with the same core ideas and the same problems. So sorry people, but I just can't bring myself to recommend this. And I'm usually a bit TOO NICE in my reviews...! You'd be better off playing Project Zomboid or something. At least that game has some challenge in its early stages...

But once again, this is only preliminary. I've put my money on this thing, so I better not be disappointed in the future as well. But I'm an optimist! So I assume that I won't be. :)