Sable must have been the right game at the right time for me. I would honestly hesitate to recommend it to anyone, at least in its current state, because right now it's not only broken but also feels unfinished in places. You can easily see the masterpiece the developers intended to make shine through, but that game only half-exists in Sable right now.
And yet, I saw nearly every single thing Sable has to offer. I rode my bike across the entire world map and I explored every region. I talked to every character, found almost every treasure, and leapt off every cliff.
Sable captivated me long after most games would have lost my attention or caused me to rage quit after another bug sent me falling through the ground or broken the fast travel system. Somehow, I kept returning and I followed Sable's journey all the way to the bittersweet end.
A lot of this is naturally owed to Breath of the Wild, from which Sable borrows most of its core gameplay loop. Sable is essentially Zelda pared down to its absolute basics. It's Zelda without the combat, without the world-saving, without the survival mechanics. Instead, Sable is all about the act of exploration and traversing the world, without distractions like death or danger.
In this regard, Sable totally works! It's a phenomenally gorgeous game with an equally haunting soundtrack, which makes the simple act of travelling joyous, almost spiritual. After all, Sable's journey - her "gliding" - is a spiritual quest to find her path in life among the dunes. Climbing, gliding, and seeing the world from every possible perspective is meant to make her understand her place in it, so she can finally choose her path, which is symbolised by picking a mask that she will wear for the rest of her life.
I think this is ultimately what drove me to carry on despite all my misgivings with the game. Having myself been stuck in an extended period of aimlessness, with no clear goals or path ahead, there's something magical about how Sable visualised this journey of self-realisation.
It's hard not to get swept away in her forward momentum, the many quiet moments of reflection as you and your bike glide across the panoramic landscapes. Occasionally spotting something new and exciting in the distance and knowing that there is nothing stopping me from taking a detour to explore it. It's a quiet power fantasy. A fantasy that there is all the time in the world, and that you are in control of your destiny.
It's also a realisation that even with all the restrictions of modern comfort and adult life, there is still value in taking time to search for your own path. It's so easy to resign yourself to the idea that you're stuck on the tracks you started on, but after playing Sable I can't help but feel a sense of rejuvenated hope that there's still time to search, to explore, and to find something new that excited and inspires.
As I said, there are a lot of reasons to not play Sable and its meditative pace will certainly not be for everybody. However, right here and right now it was - warts and all - exactly the experience I needed.
And yet, I saw nearly every single thing Sable has to offer. I rode my bike across the entire world map and I explored every region. I talked to every character, found almost every treasure, and leapt off every cliff.
Sable captivated me long after most games would have lost my attention or caused me to rage quit after another bug sent me falling through the ground or broken the fast travel system. Somehow, I kept returning and I followed Sable's journey all the way to the bittersweet end.
A lot of this is naturally owed to Breath of the Wild, from which Sable borrows most of its core gameplay loop. Sable is essentially Zelda pared down to its absolute basics. It's Zelda without the combat, without the world-saving, without the survival mechanics. Instead, Sable is all about the act of exploration and traversing the world, without distractions like death or danger.
In this regard, Sable totally works! It's a phenomenally gorgeous game with an equally haunting soundtrack, which makes the simple act of travelling joyous, almost spiritual. After all, Sable's journey - her "gliding" - is a spiritual quest to find her path in life among the dunes. Climbing, gliding, and seeing the world from every possible perspective is meant to make her understand her place in it, so she can finally choose her path, which is symbolised by picking a mask that she will wear for the rest of her life.
I think this is ultimately what drove me to carry on despite all my misgivings with the game. Having myself been stuck in an extended period of aimlessness, with no clear goals or path ahead, there's something magical about how Sable visualised this journey of self-realisation.
It's hard not to get swept away in her forward momentum, the many quiet moments of reflection as you and your bike glide across the panoramic landscapes. Occasionally spotting something new and exciting in the distance and knowing that there is nothing stopping me from taking a detour to explore it. It's a quiet power fantasy. A fantasy that there is all the time in the world, and that you are in control of your destiny.
It's also a realisation that even with all the restrictions of modern comfort and adult life, there is still value in taking time to search for your own path. It's so easy to resign yourself to the idea that you're stuck on the tracks you started on, but after playing Sable I can't help but feel a sense of rejuvenated hope that there's still time to search, to explore, and to find something new that excited and inspires.
As I said, there are a lot of reasons to not play Sable and its meditative pace will certainly not be for everybody. However, right here and right now it was - warts and all - exactly the experience I needed.