If not for the free games I get every month from the Playstation Network for my PS3 for being a Plus member, I probably wouldn't be having too much to play. I'm broke, what can I say. I do get a lot of gems, and sometimes a lot of popular games like Tomb Raider, Bioshock: Infinite and Borderlands 2. Can't beat that with a stick.
Sometimes, there are some weird ones and sometimes there are some games that are not really games at all, such as Proteus. I downloaded Proteus this week because it's pixelated landscape called to me. I'm a sucker for old school looking graphics.
Proteus is an exploration "game". In first person mode, you explore an island full of trees, fairy and sprite-like entities, animals, mountains, and various architectural sculptures that happen to be on the island. That is pretty much it. While there are some odd things that happen which can be very interesting, and how and what you explore will change the seasons and open up more exploration, it just doesn't do it for me. I wish it did.
I like a variety of games. I don't need them to be action packed and in
my face at all times, so that is not my beef with Proteus. While I love nature, exploring and all the types of things that are happening on the island, what this game was missing was better graphics. I am not one to complain about graphics if the story is good, but considering there is no real story, and this is a visual exploration game, these Pitfall pixels just aren't cutting it. Such a rich environment of colorful trees, flowers, sunsets, and star blanketed skies needed a bit more kick to really put me in awe. I would like to see a Proteus II with a bigger budget and more realistic landscapes and sounds. Those owls weren't very owly sounding.
You can take a Postcard "snapshot" of the screen any time, which acts as a save game. You can go back to explore interest happenings at any time. What I would have liked was an actual camera so you can photograph spots and shuffle through the pics at any time. You can't quite do that with the postcards, because the moment you click a postcard to view it full size, you will restore the game to that point.
I think Proteus was also lacking a little bit more interaction. Even being able to click an action button while near certain objects to get them to do something would be cool. There is a "sit" button, but I'm not seeing the use so far. All it does is bring your view a little big lower. I guess it's supposed to be to sit down and enjoy the view, but honestly, I can just not move the controller for that. The PS Vita version has more interactive ability for whatever reason, and allows the player to more directly affect the environment.
Every new game that is started produces a different island. The randomly generated landscape may help you explore some things you might have missed the first time around, but otherwise offers no major re-playability.
The game is getting good reviews from official gaming magazines and has reeled in several awards, but I just can't understand why. Probably because they got to preview the game for free to write a review? The game is okay for free. Not so okay if you are paying the $10 price tag. That might not seem like a lot, but it does to me when there isn't a whole lot of "WOW!!" moments happening. The moments are more like "Hey, neat".
I don't HATE Proteus, because it is such a cool concept, but I wish this idea just had a little more to it. If you are a Plus member on the PS Network and have downloaded Proteus, or actually purchased it, what did you think? Am I just expecting too much?
Proteus is a 2013 open world exploration video game developed by Ed Key and David Kanaga for Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita.
The game was released on 30 January 2013 for Windows and Mac, and on 8
April 2013 for Linux. PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions were
later released on 29 October 2013.
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