Surreal exploration experience
I start off in the sea next to the island, so I move ashore. I see some frogs nearby so give them a chase as they make beeping sounds. I climb the nearby hill to find some freaky looking statues. I descend to find a group of chickens and as I chase them they exhibit flocking behaviour and produce sounds reminiscent of a child going wild on a glockenspiel.
As night-time comes, rain begins to fall. The overall sound of the game becomes minimal in contrast to the busy sounds during the day. There's not much to see, except an owl in the tree which catches my attention from the sound it makes.
Morning comes, it looks a bit more like autumn now. Leaves fall from the trees, wind rustles the trees, but soon stops.
I chase a rabbit/frog (it looks the same as a frog, but is brown), which eventually hops into the sea. I follow the nearby road and it leads to a shack, but no humans are found.
I chase a group of rabbits and night comes around again, the rain and wind is back, but soon passes. I see the moon clearly on the horizon. I notice a tree with a thick trunk surrounded by normal trees. Seems ominous and I begin to hear creaking sounds. Cricket sounds chirp in the background. Fireflies gather on the horizon, so that's my next destination.
As I get near, they begin circling and the visuals start to go a bit weird as the wind swirls. I step into the small circle they make and time seems to speed up.
When it stops, it is morning again. I see some bees landing on the nearby flowers. I move into their group and they begin to swarm. I move away and my character starts running! The bees stop chasing, but I keep moving the same direction to the beach. Crabs on the beach although they aren't up to much, so I move on.
I begin to climb the mountain and see the sun in the sky. I stare into it for several seconds and the screen begins to fade. The screen goes white. I look away. My vision returns. Moral of the story? Don't stare into the sun kids!
At the top of the mountain I see sparkling below, so go to investigate. It's a sparkling white frog. Wow, these guys can really jump. I head back to where I was and see fireflies. I use them to speed up time once more.
Morning again. Definitely looks like Autumn now. Leaves on the trees are brown, but there are some funky pink/purple ones too.
I go in search of new creatures. Find cricket looking bugs. They leap up vertically, but never move from their position. I see some fireflies, so wait with them until night-time.
They form a weird ball shape, so I walk into it. Large buildings seem to form in the distance. Trees have no leaves now. Must be an hallucination, because everything goes back to normal once I begin moving.
I keep moving to find some more fireflies. These are the ones I want. Winter now comes, low clouds form just above the creepy looking trees which now have no leaves. It is dark and I hear bells jingle.
After aimlessly wandering round and seeing nothing interesting, I am bored as I'm approaching an hour of game-time. I decide to return to the sea. Snow falls from low flying clouds. Music changes to a more vocal sound-scape. I keep moving for a long time, surely something should happen. Then I notice that either the clouds are in the sea, or I'm flying upwards. I can't tell. Soon the clouds disappear completely and it is just me, the stars and the moon. My character starts closing his eyes and it cuts to the main menu. Seems my journey is over.
Proteus is one of those "not-a-game" experiences. You are supposed to take in the sights, but the graphics are so basic, it's hard to appreciate it. You are also supposed to take in the music, and at times it seems like you are in some kids imagination with lots of plinky-plonky sounds with animals running around, or maybe in an hallucinogenic dream sequence. At other times, nothing is happening and night-time can really drag. In the game Dear Esther, the graphics were amazing to look at, and the music and dialog conjured up emotional responses which gave it a great experience. In Proteus, there's not much going for it other than the fact that it is randomised, but I don't think your experiences are actually going to differ. If there were more landmarks, more animals, in addition to some sort of exploration task to find them all, then I would have enjoyed it much more. As it stands, it just seems like a test demo.