3.5/5 ★ – geekreate's review of Sable.
If you like games like Outer Wilds & if your favorite parts of Breath of the Wild were the open world puzzles, shrines, and discovering secrets, this is the game for you.
PROS:
• (as of writing) it's on Xbox Game Pass*
• neat art style
• intriguing writing and world building
• outfit & bike customization
• large, open world to explore
• Secrets of the Past/Ancient Civilization story that hooks me
• minimal HUD
• fast travel system available to make the vast distances easy to get around in
CONS:
• as nice as the art style is, it occasionally interferes with visibility in the game
• controls can be clunky in many places to being outright infuriating in a select few instances
• open world can feel empty/too large despite many biomes within different regions
Overall, I'd recommend this game to fans of exploration-puzzle lovers with GamePass*. Can't hurt to give it a shot, at least. Though if someone found themselves putting it down after said shot, I wouldn't blame them either.
*update (Oct 9, 2022): Sable is marked as "leaving soon" on GamePass. That statement of the review will be no longer applicable soon.