When I was reading compilations of Lieutenant Blueberry’s best comics as a child, I never questioned who had drawn that. Due to the line and style that I had seen in other works such as Corto Maltés, I imagined that he was a flashy European author, but it mattered little to me when I could look at the adventures created by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr.
The first time I saw Sable, I was instantly captivated. It may be a game that makes waters everywhere, but those works of art in movement make you stare at the screen. When you investigate where this visual art comes from, it is surprising to see that it is Moebius, the pseudonym Jean Giraud used for his science fiction works. Yes, the same one that illustrated the famous lieutenant.
Now, with the demo of the Shedworks artwork available to enjoy during the Xbox Summer Game Fest Demo, I have sailed through its dunes and explored every corner . Expectations were high and I have been fully reciprocated.
A beautiful landscape full of contrasts
Promotional images convey an idea to us from the beginning: exploration and travel . Those are the two words that will accompany Sable, our protagonist, throughout her journey. Your task is to complete your gliding initiation rite and for this you will have to visit huge landscapes and impressive wonders of all kinds.
The work combines two elements as antagonistic as they are attractive as a whole, the first being the ancient temples. From the very beginning, we appear inside one of these constructions, with Sable meditating and showing basic skills. This is where Shedworks shows how much it has learned from Breath of the Wild, being able to grip any surface and climb without problems.
The energy diamond tells us how we should take the next step, to avoid falling into the void, a fact that does not imply damage, since there is no life bar. Goodbye to other factors to take into account during the adventure, since we will not find fighting of any kind. Exploration, mystery and discovery are encouraged above all else.
Once we go outside, a brutal flash of light welcomes us. The sun, the desert, the heat and the sand surround the entire landscape , in a picture worthy of hanging on the living room wall. This first region is the one that we can visit in the demo and it is wide enough to show the main virtues of the game.
The nomadic settlement awaits us and that is where we will meet the locals, who will grant us missions. There are all kinds, although for now there are plenty of those in which we must act as a messenger . This is due to the very nature of the game and it is during the search for the object that we need that we find the fun.
Between dunes and accelerations
The other pillar mentioned above is that of spaceships. This technology from another planet is present everywhere, even in the characters themselves. Remains of galactic cruisers embedded in the sand, with the technology of their guts wide open and that feed the day to day of society.
So much so that we will find cyborgs, people who have metal arms, a hot air balloon in which there is a street vendor and yes, the famous hovercraft . It will be our main vehicle, the one that takes us everywhere even though we can also walk.
It does not matter if we activate the horizontal scrolling mode or we do it freely, it is a joy to see how the smoke comes out of the rear and how well it handles . The demo leaves us with honey on our lips after having obtained various pieces to improve it and finished the demo before we can get on the new one.
Those pieces will be hidden among masses of iron, machines that once provided power and cables of colossal sizes. It’s intriguing to think exactly what role all this technology will play in the plot , but we’ll have to wait to find out. Beyond all the space paraphernalia, we get a spyglass that allows us to mark landmarks in plain sight.
It is not necessary to access the menu, as is usually done. Sable will simply take the object and from the perspective that we have we can place all the beacons that we want . What’s more, to know where we have placed them in real time, all you have to do is press a button and a circle will appear around us, showing the direction of the locations.
An ability that we acquired during the demo is the ability to generate a magic orb around us, which will allow us to plan as with a certain parasail. One more step in this commitment to exploration, which I have seen complemented by a mission in which you have to make some fruits fall from a species of trees to attract insects. The possibilities of this path remain to be known, but the customization of Sable and the use of different objects throughout the game paint a promising horizon.
The Sable demo has only shown me that, a portion of everything the full title wants to offer. The map is really huge and I do not hesitate to want to lose myself among its dunes, not knowing what awaits me later. That feeling of adventure is an irreplaceable candy and that I intend to try to the rhythm of the music of Japanese Breakfast on September 23 on Xbox and PC.
