First off; Proteus is a fine game. It has no enemies, no save points, no skills, no weapons, no levels, and no way to die. What it DOES have is a fantastic environment that, even though pixelated, is quite beautiful, A dynamic soundtrack which changes depending on what you are interacting with at the time, and a sense of wonderment, mystery, and exploration. If you are looking for a violent shoot 'em up or a viscous hack n' slash, this game is not for you. If you are looking for a dynamic, ever-changing environment where you can go to explore, chase frogs, and relax, this is a must have. To me Proteus isn't so much a game as it is my happy place.… Expand

I've got to go low on this one. This is not a game. This is an interactive screensaver. Let me repeat: This is not a game. Worst $10 spent. I'd rather get mugged. At least then it's an actual experience.

Hmm. I dont know if I did not understand this game. Or if it is just not my style. But I consider it waste of my time. After one hour inside I did not find single way how to interact with the world (I dont count chasing the "frogs"). THe graphics has nice style, but there is a little variety to enjoy it for more than few minutes. And music well it somehow reacts to the enviromnent. But not much. It is just an ambient noise. Not some interesting piece. So all put together, it was not worth the money or the time it took to realise I was ripped off by simple tech demo.… Expand

Proteus isn't actually a video game, it isn't even an interactive movie. I'd hardly even call it an "experience" let alone the digital Nirvana people claim it is. Proteus takes the "player" to an island which is supposedly randomly generated and it features a lot of pixelated objects passing for natural objects and animals. The player walks around using the WASD keys (W, mostly) and looks around with the mouse the music changes according to where you are walking and what you are looking at. Although the music will speak to New-Age electronic fans the game play won't. Neither will the graphics. Animals scurrying away and solid objects blocking your path is about the extent of your interaction with the world. There is supposedly an end to the game and I believe that "progress" is made by chasing certain objects in the world. This game is simply put an over-priced art-house project that one would expect to find on as a sort of attachment to a game developer's résumé. The odd thing is the high praise the game receives. What is so beautiful and entralling about this imperfect game that can not be found in the real world? Is it a desire to be connected to a less stressful and more beautiful world than the one the player lives in? Makes you think. "One gives to one's art what one has not been capable of giving to one's own existence … Expand

I have nothing against art games, I've loved art games before. Proteus is like taking one pretty picture and looking at it from different angles for about two hours. Then the game stops. If it were 1$ it would be appropriately priced.

Proteus is a really nice relaxing interactive-art-game-experience-thing. The warm, shifting colors fit perfectly to the soothing music, which alters depending on which element you pass. The sun rises, the sun sets, seasons go by until a year has passed. And you wander around, unwinding and enjoying the scenery and finding little eastereggs everywhere. Day and night have their own secrets, as do the seasons. Still the game does seem to be a bit short lived. The island is just not that big and after a couple of playthroughs (which mostly take around 40 minutes or so, depending on how long you choose to linger) you've seen all there is to see in this world. It would be wonderful to see this changed in either an update or a sequel. Bigger islands, more elements. That's basically it as far as I'm concerned. In the end I enjoyed Proteus, although maybe not for its full €10,- price. It left me with a taste for more; I might even acquire Journey, or replay PS3's Flower just because of this.… Expand

There is not much you can do in the game besides walking around. You need to follow some visual clues to advance. However after just one hour I had played it through and to be honest I do not really feel the urge to do so again. This game has therefore just not enough content to rectify even the low price of 5$. To be honest I even feel ripped off by that low price because it is not low enough for what you get. 1$ may would have been fine.… Expand

I'm giving it a 1-star review because Proteus is not a game. It's a somewhat interactive piece of art, yes, but it's not a game and no gamer should ever buy it. This piece of software could be displayed somewhere at an exhibition of modern art, but putting it up for sale, and to gamers, is nonsense. Maybe the devs should have tried selling it to some museum or TV channel to display it as a movie or whatever?
Music is great btw, and the visuals are well, acceptable, i mean the colors are fine but e.g. the Sun is too crude and all this super-pixelation doesn't look nice or even cool. Yes, I got a short-lasted joy when running after a few critters and enjoyed the music, but as a gamer I don't see any entertainment here. For $10 one can get a used Diablo 1 CD and play for days and days.… Expand

First off let me say that my low score has nothing to do with the game not having any objectives. I knew what I was getting into when I bought it, and I was not looking for a "game". What the game does, it does well, but my gripe comes from the lack of options and the lack of content.

The Good:
This game has a pleasing art style, although at times it begs for a little more depth in the details. Still, it doesn't come off as ugly by any means. The sounds is great too and it is fun to chase around certain objects to see how they will react with the sounds they make. Everything has it's own melody, and some objects actually interact with the player although these seem to be limited.

The Bad:
This would be an amazing title to play when you just want to relax and listen to some ambient style music to get your sense of wonder going. The problem for me is that it is way too limited. Every time I start a new game I get a randomly generated island to explore, but the islands are relatively small and it's always the same stuff just in different locations. Within 10 minutes, I realized that I have pretty much seen everything there is to see in the game so the only reason to keep playing is for the sound and visual.

How it could be improved:
It is hard to complain too much about games that run ten dollars or cheaper, but even at the light price tag this one just leaves much to be desired. As I stated above, you can literally see everything this game has to offer within a matter of minutes. With a game that has no goals and no penalties, it should really have beefed up the exploration a bit more. The island should be a lot larger and take at least a half hour to go from one side of the shore to the other. Also it could really benefit from having some caves or underwater areas.

Another problem is the game moves at a snail's pace. This is fine for the most part since you'll want to move slow and take in the scenery, but it would have been nice to have some sort of flight option available so you could get some different viewing angles.

The game itself doesn't need change so much as it just needs more substance to give a reason to keep coming back. If you like ambient music and you enjoy exploration this title may be worth looking into, but I can't recommend paying full price for it. Anything over five dollars is just asking too much for the very small amount of content you get.… Expand

Proteus is a game which invokes emotion, and creativity within us. You may be content with listening to the music at the start screen, or exploring an island of your own, which contains forest, snow-capped mountains, and beauty in every corner. As you explore, you might come upon some playful animals to chase through the woods, or a path leading to something new and amazing. The music of the game alters and changes as you go through different places, and as several events occur. If your eyes are feeling heavy, take a brief rest, and find yourself on an entirely different, enchanted isle. Proteus truly is an amazing thing.… Expand

This game is tripe.
The music is garbage.
The colour palette is tripe.
There is zero engagement.
Shaq Fu was better.

This 'program' is merely a cash grab. It worked. You have my money, but you have a sorely angered gamer as well.

Its a walk game, you do nothing... you CANT do notthing only push WASD, if the game were free it will be "ok" but also 7€? are you crazy saying that this game is 80 metascore?

Proteus is very beautiful, and very original. That being said, I don't recommend spending money on it. I found that it had no replay value. The first time you play, it's quite magical, and relaxing, and I can understand the appeal, and I can see why this game has received good reviews. But the second play through was so much like the first, that I lost interest rather quickly. Yes, you get a different island to explore each time you start, but each island has the same things on it, just laid out differently. There are some cool things that happen, but it's the same cool things every time. If you're really keen to check it out, play your friend's copy. I can't recommend spending even the low price of 10 dollars on a game that only offers an hour or two of original gameplay. The "Interactive sound track" doesn't resemble music. It's more like noise, albeit noise that you have some control over. I could see Proteus being really enthralling for someone on psychedelics, but if that's not your cup of tea, you probably won't play it more than twice.… Expand

It's inaccurate to call Proteus a game it isn't. It's an interactive experience with no goals or objectives and that's fine it's simply about exploring it's beautifully realised retro world set to its soothing musical score. And for what it does, it does well. It's just that it doesn't do a hell of a lot. Had the developers included the ability to interact with the world beyond it's simple movement mechanics, I can't help but think it'd be a more delicious, meaty package. How about adding the ability to build and destroy the world ala Minecraft? Or what about sprinkling in a few secrets to reveal more about this pretty world? Or how about just letting me commit massive-horrible-frogicide on those irritating little things?

I feel uncomfortable giving Proteus any kind of numerical score because for what it is, it's good, but it's a niche product that won't appeal to most, especially those looking for a “game.” So ignore the number the developers have done well realising what they have. I just think that with a few more mechanics and things to do it'd be a more interesting, meaty package.… Expand

There are those fancy "art" games, like Journey, or Knytt Stories. Then there are games that pretend to be "art," like The Path, or Proteus. These two games are somewhat similar in concept but no matter how much I despise The Path for pretending to be fancy art with deep meaning, it is still ways better than Proteus. At first sight Proteus seems to sport a nice retro pixelized look, but that is soon disrupted by all the low-polygonal stuff that just does not work with all the big pixelized sprites, most notably the terrain itself. Then there are the points of interest on the island only thing one can do is to check them out. There aren't many of those and (unlike those in The Path) none are really interesting in the first place. So you check the places out, then the night comes, circle of light appears, game shifts into next season. Things change color, and that's about it. You can go check out the places again, but there is no point really. Then again you won't have anything better to do in this "game" so you might as well do so. Then the night comes, next season, and yeah, why even bother. Go get some food from the fridge, take a piss, while games shifts to the next season again. Proteus is ugly, not interesting at all. At a few rare occasions the music is kinda nice, but most of the time its headache-inducing cacophony of bleeps. Mostly it does not feel like a game at all, even next to Dear Esther it does not feel like a game. Damn there is a game called 4 minutes and 33 seconds of Uniqueness (made by the Crayon Physics guy I think) and all you have to do there is to run the game for said time as the only person on Earth and it still felt more like a game than this one does.… Expand

This is a really original exploration game. Just wander around and look at the (oddly beautiful) pixelated sights and listen to the absolutely fantastic music...the music is the main component of the game as everything you look at it and "interact" with will change the score and add sounds dynamically. It's very peaceful and really satisfying. Just when you think "ok I've had enough" and are about to quit, you see something that keeps you in for a while longer. Anyone who is into ambient music NEEDS to give Proteus a proper go.… Expand

I was meaning to do a more pithy review, but lost my edge when I saw someone else already called Proteus an "interactive screensaver." I agree, and I do like a lot of "art games." Proteus, though, is extraordinarily slow-paced. It generally left me confused, which would be fine if it were going somewhere, but there didn't appear to be any ultimate "point" or there was, but well beyond the very short 20m I gave it. For example, a ring of fireflies formed at one point and made a large pillar appear, which must have released some type of invisible sleeping gas. It was probably the coolest moment of my experience, leaving me thinking "Mm. Okay."

I did try to like the game, but I guess I'm not nearly patient enough, nor interested in a game which doesn't adequately present itself as more than a distraction. Ultimately, I found myself wishing there was no interactivity at all, and that the character would progress by himself while I ate a bowl of ramen noodles. And then I wondered why I don't just eat outside before realizing I had frustration to unload here (and it's 2am!).

It did have soothing graphics (I think "beautiful" is an exaggeration it took me a while to figure out when I arrived at the side of a graveyard [and now I'm doubting my perception], partially because some of the tombstones were swaying). The music was soothing, too kind of reminded me of some of the early music in Rotohex. Proteus is very different, and bold in that originality, but I can't say it was refreshing. (But it is definitely thought-provoking reviews here are particularly polarized)… Expand

This is not even a game, it is not even anything, unless you are mentally challenged you will not find anything entertaining here. Getting pretty tired of buying humble bundles to just receive somebody's school project.

Not a game. Proteus is simply a world in which you walk around in, and it does a bad job at that. 30 seconds after starting the game my eyes began hurting due to the horrid graphics and colors attributed to them. The controls are slow and cumbersome, and the sounds (music) is simply the repetition of random chimes over and over again. Unless you like the idea of walking around in a "world" that makes no sense and hear random beeps every other second, you'd best forget you ever heard about this disaster.… Expand

If you're thinking about buying this at full retail, I really wouldn't. I knew it would be an open ended title where you would just wonder around the place, but it became really boring really quickly because there was nothing to interact with, even something small would have been nice.
Saying that, the music was soothing, and the landscapes were nice to look at.
I certainly wouldn't have paid full price for this, and I'm glad I got it in the humble bundle, to me, it's just another pretentious indie art game, or maybe I'm just missing something.… Expand

This is certainly an interesting game. It's very serine and immersing in its simplicity. The music is great, and the world dances to it. Although there is no real objective, there are plenty of things to discover as you walk. The concept is very good, and I like it a lot. It really pulls you in I didn't want to stop playing.

World generation, although the elements are limited, is quite good. All the islands I played on seemed very different in an unexpected and sometimes startling way.

Overall, I can only see myself playing a few hours. As good as it is, you can't roam in a pixelated world forever. However, you will certainly enjoy the time you spend.… Expand

Love it or hate it, Proteus is a unique game. Despite its retro-graphics, I rank it as one of the most beautiful games I've played in terms of artistic merit. It deserve damn sight more than 80 when crap like Mass Effect 3, Dragon Age 2, and BLOPS routinely earn. If you approach it with an open mind and judge it on its own merits you won't be disappointed.
10/10.

this game is one of the most beautiful games i've ever played, and it really shows what can be done with gaming as an art form. The 'game' is an experience where you are put into a zen state of mind, you want to explore the island and see everything. play it with headphones alone, and you will come out with a new experience under your belt. to those who reviewed this negatively, honestly what were you expecting? this is no COD, just a breath of fresh air.… Expand

Well, the idea's nice. Having seen the Yogscast do a little preview of it I thought it looked interesting, so I went and bought it on Steam. Unfortunately, the novelty of the game wears off very quickly, which justifies its low price I guess. Overall, a relaxing experience but nothing to write home about.

Oto następna po Dead Esther, gra z serii "Gry to również sztuka". Dla normalnego gracza tytuł który powinno się omijać, dla osób które chcą upewnić się że gry to nie tylko zabijanie, gra może nie jest obowiązkowa, ale warto zobaczyć czym to się je. Ciekawy pixelowy motyw graficzny, przyjemne udźwiękowienie które świetnie łączy się z tym co dzieje się na ekranie, oraz fajnie pokazanie każdraz fajnie pokazanie każdej pory roku. Grę uruchamia się tylko na jakieś 20 minut, jednak po tych 20 będziemy całkowicie odstresowani. Moja ocena 8/10… Expand

This game is actually pretty intriguing. The goal is to immerse yourself really, put your feet up, relax take it in, and the world will introduce curious things to you that will suprise you. I haven't had the same experience twice, and when it comes to a long stessful day, this is the perfect way to unwind. I absolutely love this game, and its truly special and unique

The biggest issue when rating Proteus is the idea that it truly does push the idea of what a game can be. Sure, there are no achievements or levels to gain, but what the game does have is a world that changes with you and a soundtrack that changes with the game. Many of the lower reviews seem to argue that it's not really a game, more just interactive art. And I argue that they are both one in the same, Proteus just exploits this to a different end.

If you're a fan of exploration, and are also ok with a game that has very little as far as challenge goes, then i would recommend Proteus heartily. If you need a game to be a little bit more fast paced, then there are plenty more to appeal to your liking.… Expand

Well I was prepared about what I was going to see in Proteus, though I didn't expect that. This game has no purpose, you only wander in the woods and you can't really interact with the environment. If that was a pre-release or Alpha that would be acceptable.

The graphic were nice though, old school but not messy. They were well made and that is the only thing I liked. Music wasn't that interesting and at some point it was boring. I only liked music during night.… Expand

I wouldn't necessarily call Proteus a game, it's more of a song in a way. The music is relaxing and ambient, and you have a beautiful world to explore. However, the world is very limited, but that doesn't stop me replaying. The main problem i have is that I've played it for 2 hours and have already seen everything in the game.

Don't listen to the haters, Proteus is amazing as long as you aren't expecting anything that it isn't. Proteus is an exploration game, and the fun is in wandering among the beautiful world. That's it. One of the most relaxing games I've ever played, and I find myself craving it. Chill out, wander around, enjoy the pixelly beauty. No more, no less.

I really want to like this game. It has interesting visuals, it's unlike anything I've ever played before, and it's relaxing and ambient. There are subtle goals and puzzles (so to speak), but the game isn't about progress so much as, for lack of a better word, "flow." You meander about your randomly-generated island for quite a while your first time through, until you realize how to (again, I use this word loosely) progress. While you amble, you are subjected to an ever-changing, gorgeous audiovisual landscape that is quite pretty (if a little sparse). You learn how to interact with the world around you, beginning with chasing animals around and culminating with the "solution" to the island's main "puzzle." Once you figure that out, you can explore the island through the seasons; the relaxation of spring, the hot, sometimes blindingly bright summer, the strange (and sometimes outright eerie) fall, and, finally, the sad, delicate sparseness of winter. Each season does have an effect on you, and Proteus is sometimes outright moving. It may not say much directly, but there are some definite themes going on here, and they're quite timely, too. Proteus is certainly an "anti-game," but that's the point; we, as gamers, have become too open to distraction and destruction. In these respects, Proteus succeeds. What it fails at is pure and simple longevity. It takes no more than an hour (two if you really enjoy it) to explore your first island and from there very little changes. Each island looks different, yes, but the themes and elements are all exactly the same. You might go on one or two more playthroughs just to figure out how a few of the more esoteric elements can be interacted with, but that's about the extent of it. It's also far too easy to get incredibly lost, but perhaps that's another theme of Proteus. The ambience would definitely be defeated by a HUD. This game is well worth a look, especially if you're into non-traditional gaming. If not, you ought to avoid this game. My final word on the matter is that this game is a part of the Humble Indie Bundle 8 right now, so long as you beat the median price. I highly suggest looking into this independent developer friendly, charity-boosting organization; you can get this game packed in with other interesting and (typically) more-traditional games on the cheap (or not-so-cheap, if you're feeling generous). That's the way to go for this game; that way, if you hate this game or find it boring, at least your money was still well-spent.… Expand

I didn't expect a lot from this game, but I did expect that such a simple looking program would run. It doesn't run. I know how to verify files/ drivers .net and all the rest. I had looked forward to this for a while, and it's a big disappointment to crash a moment after game launches. So I have to give this about the lowest score possible.

Good atmospheric game. And it's all. I can't play this game more than 15 minutes per week. I love that idea, creatures and switching between seasons. This game is must-have if you're stoner.

Proteus is a pretentious attempt to be an "art" game. It tries and label itself as an soothing exploration game, but fails in almost every regard. The exploration itself is fairly dull and pointless since there are so few actual sprites. Within about 5 minutes, you've seen just about everything there is to be seen. The "music" is extremely lackluster and it feels as though almost no time was spent on working on the sounds to create something that would actually sound good when strung together.

And while it has the barest pretenses of a goal and a plot, there really isn't much desire to continue on, because, as said above, the music generation is awful and the things to see aren't really worth seeing. It was potentially a very, very interesting concept, but it falls completely flat due to a complete lack of effort by its designer. I can appreciate wanting a minimalist style game, or having a game that's different from the standard fare, but this entire game was so poorly executed that its cringe worthy. Don't waste your money, time, or computer resources on this.

If you're looking for a decent take on an artsy game, go with the much, much better Dear Esther.… Expand