Sable Reviews
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.
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.
As designed, Sable is a freeform journey across gorgeous landscapes in pursuit self-discovery. Agency is at a premium and the player can go as far as their initiative can take them. As executed on an Xbox One, Sable is a devastating technical calamity unfit for basic service. It was a cruelty to observe the heights Sable was capable of reaching and yet not be able to experience them for myself.
Take away the technical issues, and Sable is a pretty good game. It's not great, because some fundamental design issues do hold it back, but it would still be worth checking out. As it stands, however, the game is a mess technically speaking, with frame rate drops, pop ins, crashes, hard locks, and long loading times. If there is a good game in here, it's really hard to get to, and it might be best to wait till after some of the technical issues have been ironed out.
Sable is a game about self-discovery that unfortunately, doesn't live up to its potential.
While the game attracts you well musically and visually to provide a relaxing structure, numerous technical problems, along with the inappropriate design of some riddles and missions, have made it impossible for the user to communicate with Sable as it should.
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There’s nothing wrong with a game about doing simple things, and enjoying a relaxing journey in between, but in Sable, we could never relax.
A stunning visual style can't hide the fact that Sable is not only uninterested in guiding its players but it doesn't really care about entertaining them either.
Though Sable may have a fantastic art style and a large open world, with a variety of environments, its lack of a strong narrative and underwhelming gameplay fail to impress. The game may seem intriguing at first, but ultimately, it will leave players disappointed.
Sable has good bones, and beautiful skin, but everything in between is broken and half formed. A few patches in, this game could easily become a cult classic. However, the issues in dialogue and quest design aren't likely to be patched away. Hopefully we'll see this concept tackled again, without all the bumps in the road launching it wildly off course.
Sable cannot be recommended at launch and requires numerous updates to help it run well on this system. Any potential Sable's lore and art design had is ruined by graphical issues.
Pick a direction and wander off to get the most out of this mesmerising game of exploration.
Stamina in games is something that I could complain about for days, but overall, it doesn’t completely detract from the game. It’s still a masterpiece of art and video game design. With a few less bugs and a couple of tweaks, this game could be absolutely perfect. I loved my playthrough and would suggest it to just about anyone who digs a chill game with a relaxing atmosphere.
The game reminded me that perfection isn’t a prerequisite for a work of art to be meaningful, or for a young person to be valued and supported. Sable, bugs and all, is the perfect example of that.
I love the weird beauty of Sable and its coming-of-age adventure story, but there are a lot of small irritants that pile up and - perhaps worst of all - your bike just isn't fun to drive.
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."