Sable (Xbox, PC)

[Lebowski]

I gave Sable a real good go last night its an exploration based game with an amazing art-style and world to explore its closest relation is probably journey, though this is more open and far less linear. The intro area introduces you to the core concepts of the game, you start in a locked down canyon in a small village and after chatting to the locals you are immediately sent out to explore and given a few tasks to complete, The first gives you a core ability and has you exploring a pretty cool old abandoned temple, Your then tasked with scouting out three areas to find parts to build a hover-bike. Before you know it the area you are in is fully explored and feeling a lot smaller. It's at this point your tasked with revisiting a temple to begin your journey away from the canyon.

It's almost overwhelming when you step out of the first area and it feels like your about to embark on an epic journey and as i sped about on my hover bike with the music rising i thought yup this is a game i want to explore then things went a bit wrong The hover bike bizarrely feels very much like a bike that's very connected to the environment, like its on wheels, rather than smoothly gliding over the environment you bounce and wobble with every dip and with every rock, it sucks as it feels like a game that's all about movement and traversal and to not get this spot on really lets the experience down. i should of been able to weave and glide across the environment smoothly, but it all feels very odd the bike is very wobbly and bumpy experience and it just feels off.

Climbing and traversal feel scrappy too the character can very easily get entangled in the level dressing of more complex objects the unweildly camera gets in the way often and can obscure your view in the process. I also noticed a fair few graphical issues, with screen tearing and frame drops being the biggest one, for a game that really shouldn't be pushing my system it really dose feel like it kind of is just badly coded.

I'm gonna stick with it but i can see why others have come away unimpressed it really should of been something special but it just feels like its not quite their which is a real shame as the game world and art-style are amazing, If they just went back and fixed the hover bike it would massively elevate the experience, what it boils down to though is a game about the journey and the experience of exploring this amazing looking world, it needs to get out of its own way and the navigation and gliding across the environment should of been their main priority.

[Lebowski]

So ive had a few more hours with this and ive moved effortlessly form my PC to the Series X with all my progress intact, i feel like the worlds a lot smaller now but a lot more interesting. Ive kind of meandered around quite a bit and bought a few new speeder bikes, and got myself most of the maps, and looted a few ruins and crashed space ships and its just a lovely world to explore.

My top tip would be to save up and go to the top left of the map as the upgrades you can get here fix some of the issues with movement i mentioned before and make traversal with the bike a lot more enjoyable. i love exploring and the environments and art style are fantastic.

Whats not great though still is all the technical issues I'm still facing, I'm playing on a series X and its FPS regularly chugs, one particularly area it feels like it drops to single digits with no real rhyme or reason, Ive not had any crashes so far but had a few journeys cut short by my speeder bike. The speeder has a recall function but for the love of god don't use it, whistling it back to you can cause all sorts of issues rather than it magically appearing behind you it try's to path find from its current location to you and it gets stuck in the map often or just vanishes altogether, thankfully a fast travel back to a base will reset it to your side.

[fuse]

Whats not great though still is all the technical issues I'm still facing, I'm playing on a series X and its FPS regularly chugs, one particularly area it feels like it drops to single digits with no real rhyme or reason, Ive not had any crashes so far but had a few journeys cut short by my speeder bike. The speeder has a recall function but for the love of god don't use it, whistling it back to you can cause all sorts of issues rather than it magically appearing behind you it try's to path find from its current location to you and it gets stuck in the map often or just vanishes altogether, thankfully a fast travel back to a base will reset it to your side. Hopefully a performace patch is in the works as it really spoils what could be an amazing game.

This is one of the games that I'm particularly excited to get to play once I get a Steam Deck, and the above is a little concerning. I'm glad that you're still able to appreciate the game somewhat despite this though - I've seen a few folks really enjoy this and something a bit more about exploring and pottering about feels like a nice change of pace from most other things.

[Lebowski]

This is one of the games that I'm particularly excited to get to play once I get a Steam Deck, and the above is a little concerning. I'm glad that you're still able to appreciate the game somewhat despite this though - I've seen a few folks really enjoy this and something a bit more about exploring and pottering about feels like a nice change of pace from most other things.

Its no better on PC, even with the latest patches, the top review on steam sums it up perfectly

So peaceful. So explore. So buggy.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/757310

Fingers crossed fixing this is their no1 priority as if it ran well it really could be a 9 out of 10 game as the world is so fun to explore.

[wheelaa]

Just started this. (The lure of 500 reward points last month.)

Like it a lot so far. Very different from my usual diet of shooting things, punching things, blowing things up.

Peaceful, tranquil, sedate, fun.

[Lebowski]

Just started this. (The lure of 500 reward points last month.)

Like it a lot so far. Very different from my usual diet of shooting things, punching things, blowing things up.

Peaceful, tranquil, sedate, fun.

The game world and lore remind me of games like Ico or the last Guardian, just without the constant threat, it really is a laid back exploration game and sometimes this is just what you need, lazily exploring the landscape on your hover-bike heading towards the next interesting looking landmark.

The environmental story telling is pretty spot on too, exploring tomb like spaceships and finding out the secrets of what happened to the pilots and crew and how these ships came to be here sucked me in. I will be finishing this game off if the bugs don't stop me , The mix of tech and magic is really well presented in this world and if only the game engine was up to the task i think it would have scored a lot higher in its reviews.

Ive also got a new bug in my game too randomly i get the sound effect of a temple opening and rising from the ground, kind of spoils the atmosphere and the music (which is amazing) seriously look up the soundtrack its the best Ive heard in a game for a long time. I wonder if a new patch is inbound hopefully their still looking at this and trying to fix it.

[Lebowski]

Finished this off last night, loved the world the story and the style of the game, i finished all the quests, (bar the last part of the chum eggs quest) quite a sad ending it dose a really good job of making the world feel massive when you start but a lot smaller by the end of it. The quest to explore all the wrecks of the old spaceships was my fave part, its not a game with a massive amount of content though, i think with everything done bar one collec- a-thon quest your looking at 8-10 hours.

I'm still of the opinion that the optimization is awful and it really spoils whats could of been an amazing game, (I'm playing this on a series x and it runs like an early era 3d game) certain areas in the game are worse than others and this isn't an over-exaggeration on my part either, it drops to single figure fps in parts of the open world. It can completely stop at points too, The physics of the bike don't help either, you can be zooming across the landscape and everything just goes mental your bikes upside down 20 foot up in the air and your bouncing all over the place as the frame rate lurches to a compete stop.

I really do hope they keep working on it and fix the issues with the game as id love to come back and finish off the last quest but the headache inducing frame rate issues are kind of putting me off at the moment. Id not recommend anyone spend money on this game while its in such a poor state, as something included with gamepass though its well worth a look if you can get past its issues its a very chill game.

[wheelaa]

Finished this a couple of days ago. Even with the framerate, dodgy bike, random glide dives and so on, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am happy to give the devs some slack as it's a small team.

Didn't collect all chum eggs, but did collect enough to complete that quest. Was debating going for the full chum set, then the rage inducing glitches at

->Open Spoiler<-

Seven Sisters

...well...I put the controller down before I put it through the wall, and figured I was done.

Noticed there was an update yesterday. https://store.steampowered.com/news/...50959194184345

Keybinding has arrived....whoopdeeffingdo.

Some fixes too though. Temple glitch noise is gone, biking around the world is slightly better although there are still lots of framerate drops, and to my delight, the aforementioned controller killer spot is now by and large fixed. Maybe I will go for all

->Open Spoiler<-

165

chums nows.

[fuse]

I'd played a bit of this on the Deck and stopped, but decided to give it another shot on PS5. I'm further than I was before, but even with the intention to chase down all of your tasks and progress things, it still does feel a bit directionless and vague. Having what I assume is essentially the training area to be so large and open, and only giving you such a piece of ****, banged-up old vehicle to trek about it in is a bit of a bold choice too.

I don't often moan about performance issues (stop it) but they are very obvious in this, with it still jerking about quite frequently. This might say more about me and my being highly strung at present, but I'm not finding it particularly chilled out either, more just a bit frustrating. I've gone on to something else in the meantime but hopefully I'll find the right mood to go back to it with.

[BaronSqwelch]

Picked this up for a nice relaxed experience. Which it is...no combat, puzzles that aren't too taxing also.

But it's a technical nightmare...frame rate often chugs, glitching inside the scenery happens way too often. The controls often just don't work too...really annoying trying to fish as the cast button basically refuses to work!!

If they ever fix the technical issues this would be a big recommend from me. But until they do, i'd say wait.