Preview | Sable

Made by the appropriately named Shedworks - a two-person development team literally born in a shed - Sable stands out not only as one of the highlights of Steam’s set of ‘Next Fest’ demos but also as one of the most eye-catching titles of the many games shown at this year’s E3.  Whilst the game doesn’t officially launch until September 23rd later this year, the demo gives an excellent taste of what might be to come in a couple of months.

You could say this game has the outline of something great…. I’ll leave now.

Clocking in at around 70 mins the demo tasks player-character Sable with (amongst other things) finding the parts to mend her bike as she prepares to leave her tribe.  There isn’t necessarily a lot to ‘do’: you can talk to your fellow tribe members, explore the world on foot or bike, and collect the various parts for fixing up your craft, but there exists just a wonderful feeling of belonging in the world that makes all of these relatively mundane tasks a joy to perform.  

Conversations feel effortlessly natural, avoiding the awkwardness of introductions (or lack thereof) by dropping you into the middle of the adventure, and those who inhabit the Ibex camp already feel intimately connected to Sable’s (and my) journey.  I felt a warmth with every scrolling text box of wordless conversation, where I am encouraged to express my emotions to others and craft the type of relationship usually not seen from characters that give you what are essentially just fetch quests.  I am given the choice between expressing nervousness or excitement, being truthful or misleading, and rude or polite. Whatever I choose to say, it genuinely feels as if I’m shaping Sable and still being true to the character.

On the edge of the upper camp area is a woman who - after speaking to her - you learn is looking out for her daughter on the horizon.  Can you find her daughter on your travels?  Is she like you?  And why does the woman want her daughter back?  Simple conversations and moments like this grace the world an emotional scale beyond what sight can behold, asking questions that don’t obviously have an answer, but also situate the surrounding characters outside of my own narrative adventure. The world feels more expansive than the very real limits of what a two-person team could have coded.  As far as I can tell this woman has nothing to give me in a way traditional to video games.  If by chance I did encounter her daughter I wouldn’t expect there to be any ‘reward’, but it is just one of many ways Sable crafts a space that feels as if it exists outside of what I am playing.

What will immediately strike you when playing Sable is the very distinctive visual design, both from the perspective of its saturated, film-grained, cel-shaded aesthetic, and also the fact that the game is locked at 30fps while character models move at an even lower framerate .  I will have to say that as a self-professed framerate freak the prospect of a game being locked at 30fps terrifies me, but Sable’s integration of this limit into its visual design works excellently.  Usually, I roll my eyes when people claim that lower framerates make games look more ‘cinematic’ and enhance the overall experience but there is very much something to the capped performance in Sable that - alongside the main character’s jittery stop motion-esque animation - contribute to the feeling of childhood adventure one might find in an animated film.  Shedworks have added the option to raise the limit to a locked 60 frames per second, but it feels compromising, a smoothness that should not exist when making your way through this world.  The framerate cap feels impressionistic by design, abandoning detail and clarity in favour of lines and motion that focus your eyes forward as you determinedly move towards your next destination.

I just hope it doesn’t start raining because we all know how that ends in Zelda.

And move forward you must, with a bike that appears to be very much the focus of the game’s traversal systems; I don’t think it is any coincidence that the demo centres itself entirely around building your own bike to depart unto the world, as you are also loaned a slightly dangerous bike from the camp’s resident mechanic to keep you going in the meantime.  It is a wonderful feeling riding the bike; skating over the endless sand like a bubble floating through the wind, gracefully slaloming through the canyons of cliffs and ancient structures.  Of course, one cannot ignore the clear Breath of the Wild shaped influence on Sable, you literally have a stylised stamina bar that floats by your head and depletes when you run and climb, and you are also given the ability to glide (using an orangish bubble aura instead of a winglider!) However, this is far from a criticism.  If there is any game to lean towards when charting an exploration-based adventure it would be Breath of the Wild. Almost any surface is scalable and by borrowing these movement mechanics the player is liberated to go wherever their own bodily limits let them.  It gives Sable a rare sense of discovery and for that feeling, it is critical to feel as if it is your body - not the game - that is stopping your adventure, and the integration of these mechanics are vital to achieving that feat.

Another design choice Sable finds itself partnering with the latest mainline Zelda outing on is something I wish lots of games (especially adventure ones like this) would do more: abandoning traditional objective structures.  By this, I mean the rejection of strict, hand-holding objective markers, quest outlines and waypoints, instead leaving it to the player to carve their own path and build their own mind-journal (or physical journal if you are into that) of activities outside of a rigid quest log. 

NO! These aren’t plumes of smoke spouting from this rickety hoverbike. They’re ‘safety clouds’!

When Sizo - an outclanner atop a watchpoint - beckons you to collect the pieces that make up your new bike, they point you in the general direction towards three landmarks that hold within them the treasure that you seek.  These landmarks are not highlighted on a map, directions to them are not plotted with a line, nor are they detailed in a log to the side of the screen, instead it is up to you to vaguely mark on your compass and remember these sights once you are back on the ground.  Achieving your goals and finding your way is all about using your eyes and ears, hearing the suggestions that people make and mapping the world through the sights in front of you. This leaves you infinitely more focussed on what is at your feet, leaving you to explore what catches your eye instead of pre-existing ‘points of interest’ that are already dotted on a map.  Truly the recipe for a great adventure.

One last thing that stood out to me from the demo was how lovely and comforting all of the ambient interactive sounds were, and how they contribute to making the world feel alive.  It reminded me a lot of Fez, where scattered between the exceptional Disasterpeace soundtrack were small murmurs of a breathing world: the crashing of waves, the airy breeze, and birdsong.  It doesn’t necessarily feel pivotal to the formulation of the land surrounding you, but it does a tremendous job at immersing you into every action that you make.  Riding the bike feels even better once you imagine the wind flowing over your skin, and the world feels so much more relaxing when you can hear all the little sounds that are hidden in holes and crevices. These whispers become friends in the lonely wilderness, accompanying you throughout your travels and always staying at your side. It is also a plus that what soundtrack there is (however sparse) is fantastic - composed entirely by Japanese Breakfast who we saw perform ‘Glider’ alongside the trailer at Summer Games Fest recently.  It makes you cherish the small moments when music does appear, feeling more affecting and deliberate than an omnipresent score.

Haven’t seen sand-sliding this satisfying since Journey.

That was just a glimpse at what is in store with Sable before it comes out later this year. It remains to be seen if this fantastic vertical slice can be sustained through the rest of the game, however long it may be in the end. But already I feel myself woven into this world after only a short time, and I don’t know about you but I cannot wait to get lost in its plains, letting my eyes guide me on my bike-bound adventure.  Unfortunately, the time has passed for you to play the demo if you haven’t yet already, but soon we shall all be able to fully embark upon our travels and unfold the secrets of this sand-covered land.

Sable releases on the 23rd of September on Steam, Windows, Xbox One and Series S|X and will be available day one on Game Pass.