From its opening moments, Sable exudes style in its world and the story it has to tell. Developer Shedworks takes elements of what made Shadow of the Colossus, Journey, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild such memorable and beloved games and puts them together into a package that feels wholly unique. While there are still several bugs to be worked out and an unfortunate hiccup after the credits rolled, the overall experience of playing Sable remains a remarkable one.
Like Journey, the central story of Sable is more of a guiding light than it is the objective of the game. Sable is a young girl that belongs to the nomadic Ibexii tribe, who is about to embark on the desert world's coming of age ritual, known as "The Gliding." This ritual requires its participants to build their bike and set out on their own to explore the world before ultimately deciding who they want to be by donning one of the game’s many masks. While this is the start and end to Sable's journey, the real story is meeting everyone that calls the world home, exploring ancient ruins, and discovering the secrets within the remains of long-abandoned space crafts.
Fitting with Sable's focus on adventure and exploration, there is no combat whatsoever. The gameplay is comprised of speeding across sand dunes, exploring ruins, and solving various puzzles. While it doesn't necessarily sound engrossing on paper, Sable presents its world through the eyes of a young adult who is seeing how big it really is for the first time, and effectively transfers that feeling to the player with its design choices. Whether it's helping an innkeeper by collecting “beetle poo” for manure, helping solve a city-wide conspiracy, or collecting Chum Eggs (Sable's version of BOTW's Korok seeds), each story is filled with heart and personality in a way that makes it hard to walk away from before hearing all it has to say.
After completing these small quests, Sable will earn a badge relative to the quest giver. If she helps a Machinist, who are the techno-mystics of this world, then she will get a Machinist Badge; when three are obtained, Sable can take them to a Mask Maker and acquire their mask. Some of these quests begin to reveal Sable's second story, which is the mystery surrounding the world itself. Sable inevitably stumbles upon the remnants of space crafts and highly advanced ruins that paint an intriguing picture of just how old life is on this world and why no one ever left.
Sable is far from perfect though, as there are numerous bugs to be found - such as certain sound cues happening when they're clearly not supposed to. For example, Sable will be speeding across the desert with the accompaniment of the game’s beautiful soundtrack, only for the loud sounds of a rising temple to take over and then dissipate just as quickly. The camera is also difficult to adjust to, and has a bad habit of resetting its position, which can become pretty disorienting at times. After the credits rolled and the desire to keep exploring the game's beautiful world inevitably welled up again, this sensation was met with the realization that no new save data was made during all the ending cinematics; the end result loaded a save that was made two hours prior to finishing the story, so players will want to be aware of this heading into the game's narrative.
While this left a sour taste in that moment, it just serves as a warning to save the game frequently, because the devs are actively fixing many of these issues for launch and these hiccups shouldn't get in the way of playing Sable. It has a beautiful story to tell about the ups and downs of growing up and leaving home for the first time, with plenty of lovable characters and unique moments to experience along the way. With its beautiful design, surprisingly deep lore, and comforting soundtrack, Sable provides a joyful and inspiring escape that would be a shame to miss out on.
Sable releases September 23 for Xbox One & Series X/S, and PC. Screen Rant was provided with a Steam Key for the purpose of this review.
Sable
- Released
- September 23, 2021
