I’ve finished playing Sable on the Xbox Series S, and that’s one of fastest I’ve done for any game. I first encountered Sable several months ago when I noticed someone (I can’t recall who) previewed some of the gameplay along with the soundtrack on either Twitter or Instagram. The art style, inspired by the late Jean Giraud a.k.a Moebius, struck me as being really unique and the game was on my “to-play” list ever since.
Fast forward to October when I got the Series S as a birthday present. Sable was available on Game Pass so I decided to check it out. As mentioned in my first review of the game, it is heavily inspired by Breath of the Wild with a strong emphasis on exploration but at the same time, being totally combat-free.
The game is set on a desert planet which still managed to maintain some geological diversity other than sand dunes. The planet is however home to many space ship wrecks, some of which have to do with the present state of the planet itself and the people inhabiting it. Speaking of dunes, Sable even comes with its own Dune tribute.
Sticking around with Sable would mean that in the later part of the game, the player character, Sable, would have upgraded stamina courtesy of returning chum eggs to the Chum Queen to get a power-up. This will enable Sable to climb higher, turning previously inaccessible places into easy reaches (including that Dune tribute that I mentioned earlier).
Out of all the achievements on offer by the game, I didn’t manage to get 5 of them. One of the achievements involves ending the game so be sure to get them all before ending the game if you are a completist.
The fact that so few players actually make it to the end (a lot of the slightly harder achievements are in the single-digits in terms of player participation) is pretty disappointing. Sable is one heck of a game if you stick with it, which is something that I recommend you to do.
As for me, all good things will have to come to an end. I’m just happy to finish the overarching quests such as Historical Connection which required so many puzzles and Searching for Llhor which required plenty of tracking.
What’s next? The Xbox Game Pass is home to plenty of quirky indie titles. I’ve my eyes set on Unpacking at the moment.
