Sable’s New Photo Mode Makes The Landscape Come Alive Again

thegamer.com:

The sand rolls away before you as you crest a particularly large dune. Suddenly, you’re faced with a gargantuan skeleton of some long-extinct creature. It probably had claws twice as big as a human and a foul temper, but now it’s nothing more than a crumbling rib cage that protects a small town of nomads who have taken up residence where its lungs used to be.

For some reason, you look past this mammoth structure and stare at the horizon. Is that… Smoke? The skeleton town will have to wait, there’s something new that’s piqued my interest.

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In many ways, Sable is the only game that has nailed the Breath of the Wild-style open world since the Zelda game’s release. It understands that what makes these worlds so special is the personality and interest of every unique location or point of interest. Every broken down spacecraft or ancient structure is a joy to explore and, crucially, no two places feel the same.

I once spent an entire day sitting at the base of two enormous dueling statues because I just felt that the setting sun glinting between their clashing swords would open the locked vault in front of me. It did, and I got some great pants as a result. They don’t offer me a buff or make my character any better, but they look cool. And they will always remind me of the time I spent sitting there, soaking in the atmosphere of this dilapidated monument to forgotten warriors. They too, I had glimpsed on the horizon on my travels.

Sable’s lack of a pesky checklist or urgent missions helps your exploration of Midden feel so good. So too do the Navigators in their hot air balloons who will offer vague directions to something that sounds eerie and interesting in equal