When you’re a kid, you don’t really understand what’s actually possible in a video game. Can you secretly play as Luigi in “Mario 64?” What if you printed out entire threads from GameFAQs, and tried to find some sort of mythical tri-force in “Ocarina of Time?” The magic is still alive, and video games have no barriers when your voice has barely cracked.

Of course, as you age and learn about things like dev tools, budgets, and gameplay loops, the sparkle fades. The infinite potential collapses to a somewhat grim reality, and many people end up falling out of love completely.

All of that is to say that “Sable” made me feel like a kid again, and brought back that feeling of mystery around each and every corner. It was easily my favorite game of 2021, and I want to encourage you to jump in now if you haven’t tried it yet.

The premise is simple: You’re a young woman who leaves her tribe on a hoverbike in a sort of coming-of-age event, and you explore a vast map at your own pace to figure out what you want to do with yourself as an adult.

Some of the most profound moments are wordless as you find something shocking tucked away in a half-buried building or a broken space ship, but there’s some truly excellent writing as well.

Sable, the main character, is on her own, sure, but as the hours pass, you’ll find that her tribe has her back. There are shooters in these streets, and they all have Sable’s best interest at heart.

Visually, it’s cribbing from Moebius for sure, but there is a stop-motion-adjacent effect that really gives it that ’70s alt-animation feeling too. Add in a moody soundtrack from Japanese Breakfast, and you’ve got yourself some true A/V splendor.

The one caveat I have to give is that performance has always been a problem. There are moments where the whole game feels like it’s on the brink of collapse, but it usually works itself out before a crash actually occurs. Just don’t be surprised when things start to chug.

But putting the obvious inspirations and technical nitty gritty aside, what makes “Sable” so special is how novel it feels while delivering something so nostalgic. There are numerous wild revelations dotting the map, but there is no real “twist” to be found. We get to better understand Sable’s world, and that rules, but there simply isn’t a rug to pull. The game is honest in a way. It wants to give you an authentic experience in a world that doesn’t actually exist, and I buy it completely nonetheless.

There’s so much mystery looming the entire time, and the small team at Shedworks understands the power they’re wielding. It’s not just that the questions are more satisfying than the answers, but there’s an unwillingness to let any answer close off possibilities for either Sable herself or the story at large.

It feels like anything can happen.

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“Sable” is available on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Image credit: “Sable,” Shedworks