As the dust begins to settle from the final day of E3 2018, there are several games I can't stop thinking about. One from an artistic perspective that now fully haunts my dreams is Sable from Shedworks—which is built by a small handful of folks headquartered in a shed in London, England.
Just look at this colorful line art. From the horns on the giant sable (eh!) antelope mask, to the desert pastel color palette, to the dusty tail tossed up by that battery-shaped hover bike. With its open-world exploration and silent, monolithic, post- space age architecture, Sable almost feels like it could be a Star Wars comic book prequel still starring Rey as a scavenger on Jakku. There's a naivete to the protagonist's movements, and there's even a human-like musculature in how the hover bike hugs the ground. You can feel the culture pouring out of every environment.
Sable is a coming-of-age tale of discovery through exploration across a strikingly rendered open world desert. Go on a deeply personal journey across an alien planet as the young Sable, exploring ancient monuments, ruined architecture, and ships fallen from the cosmos, all while learning the history of its inhabitants and discovering her place in the world.
Suffice it to say, I'm in love with its enormous loneliness and its desolate beauty. But it only looks lonely if you're dying to be in the crowd. And it only looks desolate if you ignore the city-sized towers and cliffs surrounding you.
Sable is coming to PC in 2019.
