Very little scares me more when gaming than picking up a game everyone online seems to be praising. That probably says more about me and my trust issues than the quality of games that receive seemingly unanimous praise, but it is what it is. One of the games that I was scared away from ever picking up was Sable.
Now in my defence, the one thing almost everyone online was saying is that Sable was beautiful and also, in my defence, I was like, “No. No, it’s not”. And yea, that’s pretty much why I just avoided the game. I felt lied to straight out the bat and never gave it much thought again. However, for a good few weeks now, I’ve been on an Xbox Game Pass binge, trying to give all the games I never picked up a shot, and one of those games just happened to be Sable.
Now first things first, let me say one thing. Sable is BEAUTIFUL. Now look, if you’re me from like a year ago and you’re looking at the screenshots ready to start a fight, then just hear me out, okay? For some reason, and I can’t explain it, Sable is magnificent WHILE YOU’RE PLAYING IT. I’ve seen the pictures, I’ve seen the trailer, and there is just something about being in the game that brings the art to life, and unless you’re playing it, I can’t make it make sense. Just know, it’s gorgeous.
Sable is the first game from developer Shedworks and is, at its core, an open-world RPG. Now I’ve heard people compare the game to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and that could be a fair comparison if there was no combat and the story was less “save the world” and more “let’s find ourselves”.
You play the game as a young girl named Sable. In Sable’s culture, there is a rite of passage known as The Gliding. The Gliding is all about leaving your home and your family behind to go out into the world and take time to find out what and who you want to be before returning home to live out your newly adopted role in society. When you start your adventure with Sable, her gliding is approaching, and you’ll spend the rest of the game completing it.
When Sable heads out on her journey, she has two essential things: A gliding stone that lets her float for almost ever without taking damage, and her bike. Sable’s bike is more than just a mode of transportation, it’s an extension of herself, and while most of the game is spent traversing its vast deserts – Sable’s bike makes the trip a joy.
It’s hard to condense all that Sable is into a review because much of the game happens in blank spaces. In those times between quests and between areas, when it’s just Sable, her bike and your thoughts – that’s when the game comes to life.
