By Gaming Mill
When we talk about procedural generation today, most thoughts tend to head towards Elite: Dangerous, or the beautiful looking, upcoming (and hopefully this year) No Man's Sky. There is however one game that, to me, is the epitome of beauty and it's not really a game. Its name? Proteus. It's not a video game really – I’d describe it as an interactive video experience.
My Smoking Brother (surprisingly that is not his real name) came round to my shed last year and saw me playing it. He thought I was doing it for a joke. It was only when he realised that I was genuinely enjoying it, that he proclaimed "That looks [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]!". The graphics do retain a palette and blockiness that seems like some weird hybrid of 80s graphics thrown in with the power of modern GPUs, which only adds to its charm. I'm yet to meet anyone that has criticised the look of Proteus and done the same to Minecraft.
So what is Proteus and why do I keep going back to it? I go back to it at least a couple of times a month, maybe for only about an hour or so but that's all I need for my fix. Proteus is a sumptuous adventure where no land is the same each time you venture there. Nothing is explained; it's for you to decide what is going on and every (and I mean every) time I visit there, I find something new, something undiscovered. You keep asking yourself questions - what are those trumpet flowers? Are they flowers? What do the Watchers mean? Who's that weird fella with wings, that hides in a giant tree and only at a certain time in the Autumn? There is so much more but I don't want to spoil it. Added to that is the wonderful soundtrack - a mix of divine melancholia background music with the world sound effects equally as odd as the landscape itself.
I urge you to buy Proteus - I doubt you'll regret it. You can find the Steam version for about UK£1 here [referral link from the author]: http://bit.ly/1FKUghM , it will be a place you'll visit a lot for so little.
Gaming Mill.
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Gaming Mill.
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