Release Date: 23/09/2021
Played On: XBO
Available On: Win / XBO / XBSX
Time Played: 16h 51m
Progress: Completed
Developer: Shedworks
Publisher: Raw Fury
Ever grown up in a small town, only to leave it and explore the world once you come of age? Ever leave your safe little bubble in favour of the unknown dangers and risks that lead to greater rewards and ultimate awareness? No? Me neither; but I feel like I was able to have my own little Rumspringa vicariously through the adventure of Sable exploring the surreal and beautiful world around them.
Perhaps I'm imagining too much of a detailed picture for a game that actually ends up being fairly straight forward and minimalist in its execution. However, it's just that same minimalism that allows for such wonderful depth and contemplative growth, which is central to the glorious tale of Sable. Hyperbole be damned, I loved almost every moment of this game and its fast become one of the main standouts for me from the last few years. This is a special experience, and a destination that is undoubtedly worth the journey.
We play as Sable, a young member of the Ibex tribe, or clan, or whatever, as we've just reached the age where youngsters like us are sent out into the world to undertake "The Gliding". This may be the first time we ever set foot outside our home camp, but we're encouraged to ride out into the world on our very own hoverbike and discover all that there is to find in the strange lands beyond the safety of home. It might sound like a simple premise that we've all seen before, but I can't express quite how much that initial sentiment manages to seep into every other aspect of this game. No matter what else happens along the way, that sense of exploration and wonderment is never abandoned in favour of flashy gimmicks.
The point of The Gliding is to learn about the other inhabitants of the world and what kind of lives they lead. By helping others and enquiring about their purpose, we are tasked with deciding on a vocation that will occupy the rest of our lives. In this world everyone wears a mask that indicates their role in society, but those masks must be earned by assisting others in the same profession. For example, to become a machinist working on hoverbikes and gadgets that keep settlements running, we must succeed in helping a few machinists in the world who will reward us with their discipline's badge. Once we gather three badges they can be exchanged for a machinist mask, which can then be used to indicate our vocation when we wear it for all to see.
It might seem weird that there are only a limited number of masks that can be earned and thus, only a finite number of professions to enter into. Thankfully though, this is perhaps the most game-like aspect of the world, as it would be impossible to allow for every possible option, so a limited choice actually helps to keep things moving. After all, to complete The Gliding and the entire game, all you need to do is earn a single mask and then head back home where you can choose it as the mask you will wear forever.
So the game can be completed fairly quickly, but you'd be missing out on all of the wonderful environments, people, and alien experiences that are out there in the world waiting to be discovered. Although, I kind of like that we're given the option to end the game whenever we feel like it, because it fits the narrative of Sable's journey in a way that any kind of forced ending might have ruined. This is truly a game about discovery and growth, so it stands to reason that the game itself will bend to the needs of the player, and only pull the final curtain once we've discovered all we want to discover. Just as with the characters we meet around the world, it's entirely up to us to decide how much or how little we engage with the options that have been opened to us.
What I really ended up loving about Sable's gameplay loop, is that there's only a few minor paths that had to be followed, while everything else was left to my own preferences. Most of the game is spent exploring the open world that consists of about six or seven drastically different biomes. Within each biome can be found a couple of settlements where people live, work, and trade; but your first stop is going to be the local cartographer's balloon to purchase a map of the area. I suppose they kind of act like radio towers in Ubisoft games, but each cartographer in Sable has positioned themselves high up in a fairly inaccessible location where they are able to survey the area. Getting to them usually requires some type of platforming puzzle, but once they have been reached and their map has been acquired, the world is ripe for exploration.
Getting the map for each area really was an important part of the process, as the map revealed certain areas of interest that would otherwise be difficult to locate. Turns out that within each biome there are a number of structures and natural formations that can be identified on the map, and chances are there's something interesting to find at each of those standout locations. Mind you, it's worth visiting the local settlement after climbing up to the cartographer's balloon, as many inhabitants will have quests for you to pick up, all of which will lead you to the other points of interest in the area.
However, I can't stress enough that you don't have to do any of this if you don’t want to, as the world is completely open to anyone who stumbles into any nook and cranny. In fact, the only limitation presented by anything in the world is directly tied to how much stamina Sable has to climb surfaces and reach more out-of-the-way places. The system seems a lot like that in Breath Of The Wild, where we can just about climb anything we find, but our stamina limits how far we can go. Thankfully we're able to gain more stamina from one of the ongoing collectibles quests that we find right at the start of the game, which sets the stage for some of the weirder aspects of the world.
Scattered around each biome are small worm-like creatures, hanging out and minding their own business. When approached, we can interact with them and collect what are known as "Chum Eggs". Meanwhile, in a lair found in a rundown temple, the Queen Chum waits for us to bring her Chum Eggs as we find them. Whenever we end up with twenty eggs in our pockets, we can visit the queen and exchange those eggs for another level of stamina. It might seem a bit abstract and strange, but it oddly feels like something that works in the context of this alien world, and before too long I found myself jumping at the chance to collect more eggs as I went about my adventure.
Collecting eggs might not sound like the most fun thing to do, but thankfully you'll find plenty if you keep your eyes open while doing everything else. I never went far out of my way to find more eggs, and by the time I completed the game I was roughly 38 eggs away from attaining the maximum stamina level. Considering that I'd already brought the queen about 60 eggs and had enough stamina to go anywhere I wanted to go, I felt like this collect-a-thon was well balanced and never got in the way of anything else.
Speaking of stamina and getting around, one of the main features of The Gliding, is that we are given a gliding stone to help us on our journey. The stone allows us to float through the air softly and gently in order to get around easier and save us from high falls. After all, the world feels like it's as high as it is wide, so being able to float over chasms and reach higher peaks through clever stamina use and gliding, becomes an essential part of travelling. In fact, there are so many locations and interesting people to find in areas that can be difficult to reach, that mastering these traversal mechanics is essential to getting the most out of the game. Without any combat, or any real conflict to keep you on edge, climbing and floating around really becomes the best source of stressful moment to moment gameplay available in this world.
The best part about how the world is designed, is that there isn't always a clear path to follow in order to get where you want to go. Sure, in some areas there are obvious steps and routes that don't try to hide, but some of the most satisfying moments in the game are when you've had to scrounge a path up the side of a cliff that offered no indication of how to conquer the challenge. Plus, as I already mentioned, succeeding at this kind of creative exploration almost always ends in some kind of discovery to be made at the top, or at least a few collectibles to make the climb worthwhile. There's even a climber's mask that can be earned if you really want to take on some of the more challenging vertical locations on the map.
Discovering the world is not just all about traversal and finding hidden camps or abandoned temples. In fact, there's a greater narrative that can be uncovered via some of the more lengthy quests that lead you through every biome and area available in the world. I'm not going to even hint at spoilers for these discoveries, suffice to say that it's nice that there's a deeper meta-narrative going on that can be found easily enough, so long as you're willing to scratch the surface a little and persist with some challenges along the way.
Otherwise the whole game could end up being a grind of finding settlements, picking up quests, finding locations to complete quests, before finally turning them in again. Having this meta-narrative thread to pull on as we cruise around goes a long way towards making the world seem larger than it is, which is welcomed and plays right into the main themes of The Gliding.
Sable is coming of age and the world is new to them, so the constant feeling of surprise and discovery really fits the whole vibe of the game. Right up until I decided to call it a day and finish off The Gliding, I was finding new things to intrigue me, and fresh characters to talk to. By the time I was finished I had completed every quest in the game, other than the Chum Egg collect-a-thon, so as I made the journey back home, I was overwhelmed by a content feeling of familiar wonder and knowing. Not only had I explored the world and gotten to know its inhabitants, but I had discovered some key elements that answered some of those 'bigger' questions we all tend to ask ourselves during times of growth.
I had ridden back and forth across the land upon my trusty hover-bike, which had fast become my lifeline and sturdy companion, as getting around on foot takes far too long. By the end, I had traded for parts and upgraded my bike to a bigger, better version than when I'd started. I commanded the desert dunes and nothing seemed too far away; indeed, the entire world had shrunk the more time I had spent in it.
I'm sure we can all remember that feeling as a child when everything seemed larger and more complex than we could ever comprehend. The older kids in school always seemed more grown than they ever really were, while the outside world felt far too large to ever be known. Now, as adults who have grown and seen more of life, everything seems a lot smaller than it did back when we were too young to take care of ourselves. Perhaps part of growing up is learning that nothing is quite as vast as it seems, while paradoxically being eternally unknowable and mysterious.
This was the essence that Sable captured for me as I eagerly explored as much as I could, and not least thanks to its superb presentation. I think anyone who has heard of this game has already some idea about the stylised cell-shaded graphics, along with the beautifully ambient sound design and score. Even for someone like me, who was starting to grow weary of the typical cell-shading that we see in so many games these days, I was a complete fan within minutes of playing. It's the kind of art that works best in motion, but hopefully some of the screenshots on this page manage to do the game a little bit of justice, as I'm so thankful to play a title that has made aesthetic choices purposefully and implemented them expertly.
I'm a little annoyed that the only thing I didn't like about Sable, was that I encountered constant framerate drops as I played. On one hand I'm not surprised, as I played it on my Xbox One X, so it's never going to get a super smooth 60 frames per second thanks to its limited hardware, but I would have at least preferred a solid 30 frames that never dropped. Unfortunately I often got into trouble and messed up some platforming jumps and precarious traversal, as something as simple as turning the camera to get a better view would make the frames dip as low as about 10 frames per second. While it didn't render the game unplayable, I definitely rage quit a few times after spending an hour climbing up some elaborate structure, only to plummet to the ground again after missing a jump thanks to a frame drop. If you have the option, play this on PC where you can probably ensure a much smoother experience.
The up side of the game not being properly optimised for the hardware I played on, is that there wasn't anything else wrong with the game. I did have a couple of crashes along the way, but again it was obviously a hardware problem and only happened when I got myself stuck on terrain that trapped me in an inescapable situation. Yes, I wish the game were better optimised to be played on my Xbox, but I kind of expect that level of poor performance from any console, so I kind of don't mind. It's not ideal, but I sort of knew what I was getting into when I installed it in the first place.
I suppose I also put up with these performance issues because the rest of the game is so very good in every other way. It says a lot about the overall Sable experience if I was able to put up with poor performance through the entire game, especially when I was able to end it almost as soon as possible. Maybe I'll play it again sometime on a better machine, but for now I'm still happy with the game that I played and I had a fantastic time either way.
What really makes Sable special is the way it has been designed to allow you as much freedom as possible. Being able to tackle any quest and any location in just about any order creates an elegant balance of tone between narrative and gameplay. Everything you do in the game ends up fitting perfectly into the continuing plot, which ends up feeling like it has been shaped by the actions you chose to take. It's this sense of freedom that left me feeling like I had actually gone through a coming of age journey, as if The Gliding was a tangible experience that I had happily immersed myself in. By the time the credits rolled and I had completed my adventure, I honestly felt like I had grown and developed as a person.
I've played exploration games before; even ones that I would consider excellent and brilliantly put together; but I can't recall any game that left me feeling quite how Sable left me. It's nice to have a satisfying moment of closure after a long journey of discovery and exploration, as I find that I'm too often left wondering what's next, or what I missed along the way. There's something satisfying about a game like Sable that manages to offer a strong sense of freedom, while still tying everything up in a nice little bow at the end. I honestly can't fault it for anything other than the technical issues, so I commend it for proving to be the exact game that it set out to be.
We may have seen similar open world games before that contain similar mechanics and ideas, but Sable is the complete package. It so expertly blends mechanics with storytelling that you really feel like you're controlling the pace and direction of every single moment. I feel like it's a hard balance to master, so when a game comes along that consistently delivers without any hiccups along the way, it's something special. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Sable and my Gliding ended up changing me both in game and out.