Sable Analysis
Imagine a lite version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but without enemies, battles, or health bars. There’s still climbing every hill in sight, exploring every cave to find hidden objects and discovering new locations. There are even dungeons in one level – areas that must be investigated to complete objectives or obtain items. That’s essentially Sable, a relaxing and engaging open-world adventure game developed by Raw Fury. Combining the zen-like serenity of titles like Alto’s Adventure with Team Ico’s characteristic ability to build atmosphere and mystery, Sable is a game for the player who likes to run to explore any feature that attracts attention to the landscape, enjoying the discovery of the whole. of the map, or feeling compelled to explore every nook and cranny just for the fun of it. The creation of Raw Fury provides a peaceful adventure, but nothing lacking in fun or depth. There are still quests to do, a story to discover, environmental puzzles to solve, but there is no risk to hinder progress. Players take on the role of the eponymous Sable, a girl who sets out on a coming-of-age journey called Gliding. On the planet Midden, all inhabitants wear masks that denote their chosen path in life, whether it be a merchant, watchman, painter, or machinist. But this choice represents more than a profession; it recognizes who the person is. The children wear indecipherable masks until they go Gliding, and a scared but excited Sable must leave her family for an indefinite period of time, encountering an array of characters in way He will venture into crashed spaceships, scale steep cliffs, and investigate mysterious ruins scattered across the land.
Sable herself is a likable protagonist, with a sometimes wry sense of humor and a generally kind heart. Through dialogues, which often reveal Sable’s inner thoughts, players learn about her hopes, fears, and insecurities. He is relatable and, like many of the people encountered throughout the game, begins to feel like more than a video game character spouting programmed lines. As she travels from village to village, monument to monument, Sable meets specialists who will award her badges upon successfully completing tasks for them. Once he gets three of a type of badge, he can exchange them for a Mask Caster, which will give him a mask for that specialty in return. This way, Sable gets to experience the different professions available to her, helping her decide what she wants to be after Gliding. He also gains the ability to drift in a sort of magical gravity-defying bubble which, along with his inhuman climbing skills, forms an integral part of the gameplay. On the day Sable sets out on her journey, she receives a hoverbike, which (sometimes) arrives on a whistle and serves as her primary form of transportation across the vast lands of the Midden. One of the highlights of this indie game is its customization. Not only are there different outfits and masks to earn or buy in the game, but there are also a lot of upgrades for Sable’s bike, and hunting them down is a great part of the game. While changing clothing has only a superficial effect, changing parts on the hoverbike affects its speed, acceleration, or handling.
After completing the prologue, Sable gets on his bike and the vast world of the game opens up before him in an emotional way that slightly echoes entering the sunlight at the beginning of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion or looking at the whole of Midgar for the first. time in Final Fantasy 7. The moment is accompanied by a moving track from indie rock band Japanese Breakfast, successfully transporting the player on what turns out to be a thoroughly enjoyable adventure. Playing Sable is like running through a graphic novel, and the visuals are easily one of the game’s strongest points. It’s a wonderful, albeit rather empty world players find themselves exploring. There are vast windswept sand dunes, deserts filled with cacti and exotic plants, and towering mesas and pillars. One thing to note is that the brightly colored game shown in many screenshots online is not a completely accurate reflection of how the game looks. There is a day and night cycle in Sable, and it seems to be a night phase about two-thirds of the time. Without sunlight, the game’s colors will be muted and grayed out, and most of the game will be played with a less vibrant color palette. Perhaps this is intentional, however, as it makes short interludes of bright colors more appreciated, and the Sable is truly pleasant to look at in the sun.
In addition to the game’s many positives, Sable unfortunately also suffers from some technical issues. Nothing major or game-breaking, but the bugs are so numerous and consistent that they inevitably hurt the overall impression the game leaves. Sable could benefit from another few weeks of bug fixing and polishing. There are too many issues to mention all of them and, while they don’t happen all the time, most are encountered more than once in just the first 10 hours of gameplay. Button prompts randomly stop showing so it’s not always visible when something can be interacted with. HUD elements like autosave and quest icons would stop appearing for a few minutes and then reappear for no apparent reason. The menus will freeze and no longer respond to inputs, either a controller or keyboard. Sometimes it will fix itself; had to exit the game twice to restore functionality. This is one of the few, probably related, issues involving the in-game menu.
And when summoned, Sable’s hoverbike got stuck underground or inside walls on multiple occasions. Once, it even got caught on a ridge and spun around on it for 20 seconds. That’s not even going into the lesser problems like texture flickering, people walking endlessly in place, the camera clipping walls and ceilings, objects not colliding, or Sable occasionally getting stuck as a result. And while not everyone will be bothered by typos or punctuation errors, those are seen often enough to distract players who notice that sort of thing. These issues are unfortunate because Sable is an awesome game that usually warrants a higher rating. But problems, though minor for most, are encountered with such regularity that they cannot be overlooked. Hopefully, Raw Fury will fix these hiccups quickly because, without those flaws, Sable is truly a beautiful and minimalist journey through an open world that is a joy to explore. Sable is available on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Today Technology was provided a Steam code for this review. MORE: Xbox Game Pass: Sable Explained