After the first 10 or 20 minutes of frustration, i feel strangely relaxing, and that's exactly what has hooked me at first. But no buttons, tools, task bars or hints, just your first person presence to meditate or something.

But then i discovered little constants that leaded me to found the simple environment interactions, just activated by presence. Sounds, lights and movements, nothing more.

The surprises really start to came when i began another world - procedurally generated, so they're never the same - and at the first night i heard a loud and strange sound, and then an owl flying from a tree to another. Curiosity catches me, and i found me exploring this an other worlds.

And they reveal secrets, beautiful, but sometimes kind scary or supernatural.
But to reach them you have to find how, because they're not random and as you discover it you can make it over and over as your wish and event conditions.

It have a meaning - a naive and predictable one - and even a story with the same previous attributes, but you'll have to discover how to reach it. Like any other game, you'll learn the mechanics that led you till the end, doesn't matter how boring or stupid it sounds to me or you.

Finally, to me Proteus - very personally saying it - has being an overwhelming experience, even after discovered all secrets. Now i use it to relax, making me - sometimes - feel me like a child pursuing birds, but in a "3d-like" 8bit magical world, with a deeply relaxing soundtrack that you, somewhat step in.