They say every journey starts with a single step, but in the case of Sable, the journey starts with the arduous task of assembling a motorbike. Sable is a game that looks gorgeous and occasionally does gorgeous things, but too often it's a drab and lifeless affair. It’s a game that knows exactly how it makes you want to feel, but it doesn’t quite have the gameplay to pull it off, and that means it’s constantly fighting with itself.

Sable took the unusual - these days, at least - decision to offer a free demo earlier this year, which included the aforementioned arduous motorbike assembly. Some players seemed enraptured by the earthy colour palette, Breath of the Wild inspired exploration, and commitment to freedom and the indefinable appeal of endless possibilities. It’s this feeling, the nomadic sense that everywhere and nowhere in the world is home, that Sable tries to tap into. There are a wide variety of masks to find, and you need three to ‘complete’ the game, although many more are on offer. You get one at the beginning, as part of the game’s major opening quest, then you are booted out the door and given freedom to roam.

Related: Kena: Bridge of Spirits Review - Smells Like Keen SpiritStretching this out across a larger map and offering even fewer directions, the full experience of Sable exacerbates the demo’s flaws - although if you never found those flaws to begin with, your mileage may vary.

Speaking of mileage, we should probably start with Sable's crowning jewel - the bike itself. Named Simoon, your bike (actually a hovercraft, but who's counting?) is not just your mode of transportation, it is your sole companion on your wistful journey alone through the sunkissed sands. There's a magic to Simoon, and though the controls aren't complex enough for you to drive with any personality, zipping across the desert while the lush red streak from your exhaust marks your progress is a relaxing comfort away from the finicky and try-hard nature of the rest of the experience. You'll spend a fair amount of time just flying around going nowhere in particular, but at least this part of the game never feels boring.

At least, that's the idea. Two masks in, I summoned Simoon, just as I had done all game. Obediently, it arrived. Disobediently, it crashed into my face. From that point on, it seems we fell out, and it was always a coin flip as to whether I was going to be able to climb aboard Simoon or have to run far enough until it was off screen, call Simoon, and try again. Even that wasn't always successful. I was torn between two ratings for Sable, but the fact the best thing in the game decided to break on me convinced me that the lower option was the best fit.

Sable is best summed up by its own day and night cycle. As you can see in the screenshots above, Sable is a beautiful game. There's rich oranges, vibrant reds, and textured hazels everywhere you look. It feels like walking through the concept art for The Breadwinner, and that's a huge part of why - pre-face crash - riding Simoon was the game's highlight. As you can see below though, when night falls, everything turns a similarly drab shade of grey. Playing Sable is a lot like this - sometimes it’s a soothing bath of adventurous colour, and sometimes it's grey.

Breath of the Wild's influence on the industry has been massive, but games are starting to pick up some bad habits from it. Sable is a game that offers you adventure. "YOU CAN GO ANYWHERE!" the game screams at you. The incentive for this? Absolutely none. Far too often you're drifting aimlessly, begging every NPC or rock you pass by to give you something to do. And when you are given a task, it quickly becomes convoluted. At one point, I had three separate and distinct tasks in my quest log. I hit a snag with one, but no matter, I'll move onto the next one. Suddenly, the quests merged. They both wanted me to pick up a bug I wasn't quite sure how to lure out. Fine. Third task it is. I find someone who has the machinery I'll want, and they'll trade me. What for? You guessed it! One of those bugs!

In the end, the quest was straightforward enough - a plant nearby had the required food - but it's irritating that a game that promises you the world sometimes leaves you with absolutely nothing to do, and sometimes gives you three different quests that are secretly all the same quest at once.

There are some interesting puzzles in Sable - none particularly challenging, but here the game's hands-off approach works - eventually, you figure it out, and there's some satisfaction in that. Too often though, these tasks are in service of a fetch quest. In one town, you need to solve the mystery of who turned off the power, and various key figures give you information and suspects, but it boils down to doing fetch quests for different people in order to get more information. I wasn't expecting a mini Paradise Killer experience, but for a game that presents its dialogue as literature - Sable talks to you, dear player, describing her responses the way a first person narrator in a Ruth Ozeki novel - it’s a surprisingly hollow attempt at a mystery.

When everything clicks, Sable is a great game. Once you've got your head around a quest, especially a longer one with a few moving parts, you can get lost in the world climbing buildings, finding secrets, unlocking puzzles, and gathering knick-knacks. Unfortunately, the game leaves you to your own devices far too often, and doesn't present an interesting enough world for you to want to get lost in it. I'd say at least I could enjoy flying around in it, but after my hovercraft conked out, I didn't even have that. It cares too much about how it wants to make you feel and not enough about how it's going to get you there.

Score: 3/5. A PC code was provided by the publisher.

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