Developed by: Shedworks
Published by: Raw Fury

Platforms: PC (Windows), Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

"But though you go by yourself, you are not without friends. You are not without family. You are not without love.
These things you will always carry with you..."

- Jadi

‘Sable’ is the debut game of the London based indie dev team ‘Shedworks’. In the game you play as Sable, a young girl who is about to begin a rite of passage known as ‘Gliding’ in which the participant (called a ‘Glider’) leaves their home, family and clan behind in order to explore the world and discover what they want to do with their life. It’s a great premise that I think anyone will be able to relate to (especially so if you feel like you’re currently at a crossroads in your life).

It’s one of those rare games that you can enjoy without even ‘doing’ anything. By that I mean you can just explore the world and get a lot out of it and for me that’s the sign of an open world game with a really well-crafted world full of intriguing details. These details (such as the ruins of old space ships (which often contain boxes with ‘designed in London’ written on them) and the giant skeletal remains of some long forgotten creature) help set the scene whilst also leaving you with questions - questions that you’ll hope to answer by exploring.

Exploring is a big part of the game, so you’ll need something to help get around. In ‘Sable’ you’ll be riding your trusty customizable hoverbike. I really liked how the hoverbike is presented as a living being rather than a machine (Sable’s hoverbike, like the hoverbikes of other Gliders, even has a name. Hers is called ‘Simoon’) which makes it feel more like a horse rather than a bike. Simoon even makes noises when you whistle to it.
Your other mode of exploration is ‘gliding’ which, when activated, surrounds Sable in a bright red and yellow bubble and allows you to float (or should I say glide) through the air. It’s especially helpful for platforming.

I really love how the game looks. It uses a comic booky style that is very reminiscent of the work of Moebius and also reminds me of some of Studio Ghibli’s films (‘Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind’ in particular). Each of the seven regions in Midden has it’s own look and feel that is supported by different colour palettes and music (which was written and performed by the band ‘Japanese Breakfast’). As time moves on in the game the colours and of the environment change to match the time of day.

If I had to sum up the dialogue in this game with one word I would say the word ‘charming’ describes it pretty well. You get a real sense of personality from pretty much every character you interact with and I really liked how Sable narrates the goings-on of each conversation. It all feels like it’s been pulled from a really well written novel.

The game isn’t perfect though and whilst there a few annoying little issues (the main one for me being audio stuttering) I think it’s extremely an impressive first game - especially when you take into account that it’s only made by a couple of people. The devs seem to still be working on it so all the annoying little problems will hopefully be fixed in the future. I’ve put in about 17 hours into the game and still have much more to discover so I may update this review in the future.

Anyway, now that I’ve written this I need to do what will probably be the hardest part of making this review - deciding which of the many screenshots I took to use!

Play it if you like....	But don't play it if you ....
- Exploring	- Are scared of heights
- Hoverbikes	- Prefer hovercars
- Collecting bugs	- Hate reading
- Desecrating the remains of giant creatures by climbing on them	- Hate sand (and how it always seems to get everywhere)

Place 2 Play?

The game is available digitally on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG), Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
No physical releases at the moment,but the devs have said they'd like to in the future.

I played Sable on PC which worked fine for me.
If you have the luxury of choice I would recomend getting it on PC but from what I've heard and seen the Xbox versions seem fine.

If you enjoy this game, I recommend playing...

- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) - yeah yeah I know, everyone and their mother has compared these games with each other, but there are a lot of similarities.

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