Sable

Glide on… Sable follows the titular character on a journey of spiritual discovery known as “the Gliding.” Those who embark on the journey, known also as “Gliders,” are given a compass, a speeder bike, and a wide, desert world to explore as they come to discover their place within it. The story of Sable is minimal, though the more you explore and interact with the world of the game (known as Midden) the more you will come to learn just what this place is. Sable’s story certainly has its moments, but it takes a decidedly light approach on an ages-old story: the journey of self-discovery. Perhaps this is because it’s such a tired trope that the game doesn’t feel the need to reinvent the wheel, but who knows? Admittedly, I didn’t expect Sable to be an open-world game, so when I completed the prologue and was given the aforementioned compass and speeder, I was surprised to see the world quite literally open up before me. The map itself is modestly sized and features several unique biomes and landmarks to explore, but much of it feels barren; I suppose that makes sense, given the desert setting, but much of my time speeding around was spent whipping the camera from left to right and back again to see if there was anything around me interesting enough to explore. But however empty the world might seem, Sable does a good job of drawing your attention of where to go. Littered throughout the world are various towers, encampments, and crashed spaceships for you to explore. Some of these locations are quite interesting and fun, including a massive spaceship aptly named “The Whale,” a bustling market town, and a calcified sandworm that you may or may not be able to stumble your way into… Many of these hide valuable artifacts, which are usually Cuts (the in-game currency), dyes for your speeder bike, and scrap metal that you can eventually sell. Your speeder bike will be your primary means of transportation around the map, and thankfully there are upgrades to its speed and overall performance. However, even after I upgraded my bike’s speed to the max, it still felt like I was going slower than I should be. Odd, but what can you do. There are some colour customization options as well, but I didn’t really bother with these. I also didn’t bother much with the clothing customization, apart from changing my headgear to complete one objective during one quest. Most of your time with Sable will be spent meeting and interacting with various NPCs, whose sole job is to espouse their thoughts and feelings on any given topic under the hot, desert sun, and give you quests to complete. Most of these are simple fetch quests but, like any good open-world game, they force you to explore the more hidden parts of the map and learn more about the world around you. I was also very, very surprised to find that Sable is yet another game that has an oddly-tacked-on fishing minigame! Fishing? In the desert!? Go figure! The minigame is remarkably simple, as you can cast your rod into just about any sandy surface and catch the little critters and creatures hidden beneath. So… reverse fishing. Speaking of, it got a good chuckle out of me the first time I curiously cast my rod into one of the game’s few bodies of water only to discover that no, you can’t fish there. There’s also a neat climbing mechanic where you can attach yourself to just about any vertical or sloped surface and climb your way up it so long as you have enough stamina, very Breath of the Wild-esque. I was constantly impressed by the game’s sense of scale and verticality, and climbing never got boring or old – just occasionally frustrating when you realize not every surface is scalable. There are also ways to upgrade your stamina, and I remember feeling overwhelming joy when I got my first upgrade, because all it meant to me was that I could climb higher! Now, my biggest problem with Sable is one that everyone seems to have: performance. Many times when I was coasting along on my speeder along the desert dunes the framerate would just take a massive hit out of nowhere. The game was good at correcting this, but the frequency of it was just something I couldn’t ignore. Also, several times when I interacted with vendors and tried to buy something, the Buy/Sell menu just wouldn’t work, or I had to sell something first to get it to work – this wasn’t told to me by a vendor, I just brute-forced it once and realized it was a quick fix. There were also a few moments where I had to leave an area and return because NPCs vital to my current quest couldn’t stop acting erratically, thereby blocking my progress. However, I wouldn’t say that any one bug or glitch were particularly “game breaking,” but they sure felt the part. Though a fair chunk of my time with Sable was plagued by performance issues and gameplay bugs, I still very much enjoyed this visually striking coming-of-age story.

I really loved this game, but there were a few minor issues I took with it. One being that I really don't like Japanese Breakfast, so I didn't vibe with the soundtrack sometimes. As far as a story goes, it's a bit disconnected and one you piece together very slowly if you do all of the content in the game. I did everything and there's still a lot I don't understand, but it doesn't really feel like the kind of game you play for a narrative anyway. It kind of scratched the BOTW itch for me just without the combat and on a smaller scale. Driving can be super janky as well as climbing. Unfortunately these are the things you do the most of. I never found it to be game-breaking, just annoying at times. There is a lot of space on the map with very little in it which can get boring kind of quickly. The art style is very unique but this can sometimes be to its detriment as it can look flat at times, especially at night. Overall, I did have a lot of fun playing Sable and I found myself wanting to do all of the quests and collect all of the masks and it felt worth it to do so. I think if you get it on sale or as part of a bundle, it's well worth playing. ♥ Plus, there's fishing :)

Sable would be a masterpiece if it wasn't so mechanically broken The game works half of the time, movement and camera are awful, most of the puzzles don't function as planned, some mechanics are straight-up broken and the whole thing runs like dogwater with audio cracks and frame skips. I've had to restart the game a few times to progress because something just decided to break: an NPC disappeared, a puzzle stopped working, something that was supposed to be moving, well, wasn't Giving it a positive for the gorgeous art and soundtrack, plus the fact that the experience and story were enjoyable, but hell was this frustrating. I was afraid the whole time of getting softlocked due to bugs

Technical issues, shallow gameplay, boring aesthetic, unrewarding exploration, no reason to care, no characters to hook into, there just isn't enough here to justify the full price. Maybe on sale and as an instructive journey on what gameplay decisions not to make.

Amazing game, I loved travelling the dunes with my hoverbike, there's a lot of customization and they are cool rewards for progression, quests are fun and unique and the world feels alive, you can fish and hunt beetles to sell and complete your collection, you can explore ruins for scraps. The artstyle pretty, I loved how they did lightning and wind, and the soundtrack has some really memorable tracks. Go out and explore, make your own path and play your own way, this game gives a lot of freedom.

I'm leaning toward a sideways thumb on this game so far, but I may have to keep playing to be sure. I'm just not sure if it's going to develop enough for me to stick with it. The vibes are immaculate. The music, art style, and lore are pretty darn cool. The gameplay is relatively enjoyable, and the more puzzle-like areas are some of the better gameplay here. It seems to me there's too much of these elements: Climbing: it's kind of fun, but feels like a Breath of the Wild ripoff. This has aged poorly in terms of feeling like a very unoriginal gameplay mechanic that was a trend of its time. Climbing BOTW style is the the bullet time of 2017. Gliding: Again, pretty much a Breath of the Wild ripoff. Driving/walking: I don't mind the driving mechanics and physics as much as other critical reviews, but I'm barely 3 hours in and it's already feeling a bit like a walking simulator/empty open world driving simulator. The distances you traverse with absolutely nothing interesting are too far. It seems to me that Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom basically contain 100% of the gameplay elements of this game but a whole lot more richness, detail, complexity, and overall activities to occupy your time. I question the wisdom of an indie studio deciding to go this ambitious as far as scale and scope. Game performance is butter-smooth for me at 4K native. Works perfectly in Linux.

growing up is bittersweet. i don't know what i want to be either sable!

Super recomendo Sable! Mas não pra todo mundo. Sable é aquele jogo massa pra quem gosta daquela experiência mais introspectiva de explorar um mundo, descobrir seus segredos e filosofar sobre questões da vida, e ele faz mto mto bem isso. É aquele formato sandbox onde as coisas só vão acontecendo conforme você vai explorando. Em menos de 1 hora de gameplay o jogo já te dá a opção de zerar, mas eu particularmente demorei 4 anos (não ironicamente), mais porque eu preferia jogar o game em períodos menos turbulentos da minha vida. As questões filosóficas que o jogo trata (a partir das quests, diálogos, etc...) me atormentam bastante, o que era potencializado pelo fato de que eu tinha acabado de começar meu período de faculdade quando eu joguei pela primeira vez: "o fato de que você pode escolher um caminho mas não pode escolher todos". Quando eu finalmente decidi que estava contente com a minha exploração do game, fui atrás de zerar, e pasme, o final do jogo me deu grande tapa na cara. Sable me ajudou a enxergar várias questões da vida com outros olhos, e a viver uma vida com menos medo. E que eu tenho que sair mais de casa kkkk. Finalizando, super recomendo, mas acho melhor esperar uma promoção de 50% ou mais (ta caro p crl). A, e a soundtrack é 10/10.

Exploration, collection, customization, and zen, without any combat. There is a destination, but this is much more about the journey itself. There is a dedicated "sit" button; climb up to a vista where you can drink in this game's strong distinct art style, and press it. That feeling you get when you allow yourself to just exist in a world like this is just...priceless.

Great vibes, phenomenal visual design, interesting world to explore. Worth a look for anyone looking for a relaxed exploration experience.