Sable
Quiet, contemplative, and beautiful
I’m going to start coming across as a stuck record soon, but I believe that games are as valid an art form as films, books, and other media. Sable is the epitome of games as art – one glance and you can see that visually, it’s absolutely stunning. Very few games even come close to being so beautiful. This is distinct from anything that could be considered realistic, which is a beauty of its own, but Sable is art. The design is often described as being reminiscent of French artist Moebius and I can see that, but it’s also very much its own thing. I spent about eight hours playing but you could absolutely spend probably as many as 12 if you wanted to turn every stone.
It’s a coming-of-age story with interesting and unique elements. You play as the eponymous Sable, setting off on your Gliding. Taking the power of an airborne bubble from a temple and hopping on your hoverbike, off you go to find your identity and your calling. You can climb any surface and glide across gaps to reach basically every corner of the map, which is deeply rewarding.
There’s not really a main plot in Sable. You’re just told that when they reach a certain age, all Ibexii (your clan) embark on their Gliding. Some are gone for many years, others just a few months, and everyone comes back changed; not necessarily in a bad way, but in the way that no experience truly leaves us unaltered.
Your goal, such as it is, is to earn three matching badges for a profession. Doing this will allow you to forge the mask of that profession and set your life down a certain path. You can return to The Ewer after forging just one mask, or you can stay away much longer and craft several. I managed four out of I think seven, but one of the ones I found was a sort of secret one from a quest, so there could have been more of those out there that I missed. I could have earned a fifth mask, but the Merchant badge required money and I spent all mine on cool upgrades for my bike. No regrets.
Because of this structure, there isn’t really a single main quest to follow. You have to interact with the people you meet and explore the world, which is great because those two things are where the game really excels. The writing is genuinely excellent, and Sable has a distinct and engaging personality, as do many of the other characters you encounter.
It's a very contemplative game. You spend a lot of time riding around on your bike just looking for something that catches your eye – it really takes a lot of cues from Zelda: Breath of the Wild for its world exploration and navigation. I loved the feeling of riding around and then spotting a Cartographer’s Balloon and knowing I was just a bit of puzzle platforming away from getting a new map. At one point, I saw a big mountain thing and found the Chum Queen, who traded my Chum eggs for extra stamina. No one told me about it and no quest marker sent me there, I just saw something cool on my map or on the horizon and went there.
I adored how the game went to lengths to establish a connection – a bond, even – between Sable and her bike. It was painted as your only true companion as you explored the world and the low thrum of its engines approaching when I called it to me was always soothing. I didn’t feel alone – I had Simoon, my hoverbike.
There are a lot of games that explore the space of growing up and leaving home and comfort to embark on a journey of self-discovery, and I think Sable is an excellent part of that genre. You can engage with whichever quests you like, as long as at least one set of them appeals enough for you to gather the requisite three badges, you can finish the game. Many similar games fall into the trap of making the player go through the motions of experiencing all the possible options before eventually choosing one, but Sable’s stance of “if you don’t want to be a Beetle wrangler, you can just not go gathering Beetle poo for this badge, it’s fine” felt way more organic. I engaged with what appealed to me the most and the game was absolutely fine with it.
I do have two (minor!) gripes with Sable. The first is the fishing mini-game. While it’s initially enjoyably silly to be told to fish in the sand of the desert, I have quite limited “fishing minigame” patience. No matter where I went (or so it seemed) I was catching the same two fish over and over again and I ended up ignoring the quest and the system for the most part – I just don’t feel like it was necessary. The second gripe is a little more annoying and that’s the bugs and glitches I encountered. At one point, as I was exploring an (extremely cool) internal environment of a huge, sci-fi crashed hulking ship, I suddenly just… fell through the ground. It was a huge space and it had taken me time and effort to get to where I was so I couldn’t just walk back in, so I left. I’m gutted about this because the computer terminals I found in other similar vestiges of ancient technology seemed to be telling me the story of the world, but I never made it to the snippets of the story contained within. There were also a few occasions where I was climbing, tried to leap to the next surface, and had my character decide it was too slippery and not even attempt to grab hold. Some places took several attempts before I was able to progress – frustrating indeed, but not game-breaking.
Despite these two complaints, I would absolutely recommend Sable. In particular, if you want something quiet and contemplative, perhaps a gentle interlude between more chaotic games, it’s perfect for that. It’s also truly a gift for anyone interested in that intersection of games and art. On top of all that, the writing is genuinely impressively good. Play Sable, you won’t regret it.
Game: Sable
Developer: Shedworks
Publisher: Raw Fury
Platforms: PC, Xbox, PlayStation
I bought this a few years ago, but haven't gotten around to loading it yet. This might get be to finally do so!
Though pretty different, have you played Journey or Sky? Those aren't this open-ended, but they seem to have similarities to Sable.
Surprised I've not heard for Sable before, but really enjoyed this piece about it! I'll be picking it up when I can :D