If you wanted to give it a go, it's possible now. You'll find bugs here and there, but it'll be mostly audio glitches or stuttering. Game also crashed twice during 15 hours it took me to complete it, but that's it. Other than that - Sable is beautiful game, full of ideas, relaxing and charming. It's open world made right: you have only one main goal and you can finish it fairly quickly, but you'll want to wait, until you visit every area and talk to every NPC. It's all about your freedom and game will remind you this over and over again. After seeing trailers and gameplays I knew I will like Sable and just waited with buying it until it's fixed to a playable state. And IMO - the playable state is now, old man.
...its name would be Death's Door. The game is sweet, beautiful and fun. Also - easy and short and for me it's the best feature ever. Every criticism is fair - gameplay loop may be repetitive, and lack of map means you sometimes stroll clueless through the world for minutes (which is tiresome especially after ending, when you try to 100% it). But game never outstays its welcome, and fights are challenging enough, to keep you invested, and easy enough, to not keep you stuck for too long. Puzzles and secrets require mostly keen eye not sharp mind but looking for clues and interactive thingies was always fun for me. Music is beautiful, so is graphics or more broadly - artstyle. Plot is there, and does good enough job in sheparding you through 10 to 15 hours of playthrough. Characters are memorable and sweet, even if few of them is really fleshed out. Wonderful game if bought on promotion.
The good: main characters are written reasonably well and voice acted very well. Visuals can be charming. The bad: Plot is written and executed poorly, gameplay is what you would expect from walking simulator, world is a series of corridors, choices doesn't matter, and ending is meh. I wanted to like this game, even finished it twice to know it better, but it is painfully obvoius it's the first project of the studio. Maybe their next games will be better - I'll keep my fingers crossed for The valley of the Gods.
The best thing about Gris can be seen on screenshots above - it's beautiful, with interesting art style and atmosphere. But the spell is broken as soon as you get your hands on it - gameplay turns out to be slow and clunky, music forgettable, and world - rather boring. It's just doesn't work: movement is too slow, with locations rather empty and puzzles almost non-existent. Maybe this hollow feeling is what authors intended for the player to feel, but it's mixed with moments when the story tries to be emotional; and when music plays louder, and you're watching unskippable cutscene with your controller vibrating, this is the time when Gris is at its worst. All this seams cheap - simple plot, with "deep" meaning (grief, but you probably already knew that), stiff gameplay, locations that feel like they miss final touch or two, utter lack of novelty. For such gorgeous visuals and grim backstory, the game is shallow and drags, even though it's possible to finish it under three hours.
