Sable Reviews
With its striking art direction, haunting soundtrack and focus on exploration, Sable is a great journey about understanding yourself. Frequent stuttering and some bugs bring the experience down though.
Shedworks has created a gorgeous throwback of an adventure game that settles the player in for a leisurely, minimalist voyage of self-discovery.
Sadly, some of the joy of exploration is dampened by the stuttering framerate which frequently gets a bit choppy, especially when wandering through busier areas. You’re also likely to encounter bugs with things like merchants not having any stock for sale or your hoverbike disappearing. Reloading the game does seem to fix many issues, but these little niggles do begin to get irritating over time. It’s a shame as, apart from these issues, exploring Sable’s strange and mysterious land is an absolute delight.
Sable is an open-world game with a bold, atypical and successful art direction. In its best moments, Sable is a small bubble of relaxation that makes room for exploration. Unfortunately, these moments of grace are constantly marred by a cheap technical part and a too archaic structure that spoils the initial promise of the game.
Review in French | Read full review
Sable plays like a young person's diary, full of hope and apologies, staying grounded while reaching for stars. It trades in its combat for climbing puzzles instead, and isn't afraid to let you bunny hop across a mustard-yellow desert or stand perfectly still-with the encouraging words of people recounting their own wonder years.
Sable is a fascinating coming of age videogame with an incredible art direction inspired by the works of the late Jean Giraud.
Review in Italian | Read full review
I think that whether you enjoy Sable will very much depend on your mood and expectations. Some gamers will appreciate it for the chill, Zen-like, conflict-and-combat-free, emotionally resonant story that it absolutely is. Other gamers may grow impatient with its lack of real incident, and weary of the pace and absence of challenge. I tend to land in the latter camp. Sable is a beautiful game, but it needs to rev up the dramatic engine or raise the stakes for the player to keep fidgety gamers like me engaged.
Striking, peaceful, and wholly focused on exploring at your own pace, Sable is a joy to play. The optimization could use some serious work, but this is an extremely compelling game that offers a better open-world experience than many AAA developers have crafted.
There's no doubt in my mind that Sable is a game that will work best when experienced as a personal, non-thorough Gliding that comes to a natural end long before any rot has a chance to set in. But with so many incentives (both in and around the game) for trawling every sandy inch of the world in search of worms, badges, and whatever else, the mixed messages Sable sends are probably going to lead to a lot of people playing in a way that actually works to the game's detriment.
For those yearning to explore, Sable offers the chance to do it at your own speed, with your own goals, and without the need to exert violence or experience shocking twists. Sable is confident the world is interesting enough and is completely right in that regard.
From a visual standpoint, every line and every hue seems purposeful, in contrast to so many other games that heap color upon color and detail upon detail as if "more colors and visual effects equals better graphics."
In Sable, all parts intertwine in a perfect manner. Alone the technical deficiencies currently impair the experience.
Review in German | Read full review
In his most inspired moments, Sable can remember Link's climbs, Sam Porter Bridges' deliveries and Wander's wandering on Agro. There are many suggestions that the Shedworks team has managed to incorporate into its ambitious project, which on more than one occasion will only leave the player breathless. Unfortunately, however, the obvious flaws of Sable eliminate the possibility of presenting all these ideas in a coherent and engaging adventure from beginning to end.
Review in Italian | Read full review
And because the atmosphere encompasses so much of Sable’s appeal, the technical issues can be absolutely ruinous. When the bike disappears into the ground, when the menus break, or when Sable passes straight through an object that she should be able to land on, the illusion collapses and we’re left not with a vivid sense of place, but with a video game where the mechanics are all a bit of a chore. With its restrained approach toward collectibles and its rudimentary traversal, Sable attempts to depict exploration for the sake of exploration, but in doing so it only clarifies that such a concept is not necessarily as enticing as it sounds.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Sable and will definitely continue to play as well as recommend it to others. For me, there is definitely room for it to be replayed as the choices you make and missions you choose to embark on can reveal a different story each time. Also, the more (or less) that is explored will determine the mask at the end. It is the perfect indie game to relax, take a break, and simply get lost in an open world.
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 is not just an iteration on open-world design, but a true spiritual successor to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Sable will find an audience that truly adores its free-form exploration, stylistic visuals, engaging writing and chill soundtrack, but for me, these redeeming qualities were lost in a sandy sea of emptiness and repetition in its core mechanics. Its messages certainly resonated with me but its gameplay lacked the variety to truly keep me hooked for lengthier sessions. If you’re looking for a chill experience and can overlook any performance issues that aren’t quite resolved by the time you pick it up, then Sable will deliver. I just can’t help shake the feeling of missed potential here.
If Sable manages without difficulty to suck us into his universe quick to explore and meet thanks to a striking artistic direction and a soaring soundtrack of very high flight, the technical part beats so much of the wing that the caravan sometimes stalls to cross a simple bute. Quick to the most surprising collision bugs, Sable nevertheless offers a dreamlike and sensory adventure that invites you to take your time, to better let yourself be lulled by its charming but sometimes frustrating universe.
Review in French | Read full review