Coined by
the Escapist’s Yahtzee Crowshaw (best known for his
Zero Punctuation series) is a 3rd person, single player, narratively driven story game that aggressively railroads the player through set pieces that move through the
ebb and flow of “Queue” (the player is usually walking or
platforming through a section dedicated to low times and story narration, during this time collectibles are found in deviations from the set path), “Thrill” (breaks Queue’s calm by inserting “tense, action-filled” glorified cutscenes that will ask you to either hold the stick in a certain direction for a certain amount of time, press some QTEs, or avoid obstacles in a set route.), and finally the “Gift Shop” (post Thrill, occasionally post Queue sections usually some sort of combat area, most likely arena focused where the player must kill all the baddies in a set area before the doors open to the next area, usually paired with a upgrade tree to not only tick a box, but to give you a grain of spice in your combat soufflé, never largely changing the core combat system)