You've been stuck on this train for about 5 hours now. There are a few more rooms you'd like to explore but for some reason they're all locked and the places you can get to no longer have anything shiny or displaced from the background for you to click. Everyone who you can speak with has gone from interesting conversations to an endless loop of one liners which almost seem like they want you to progress elsewhere. Something is missing or else you would have advanced to the the next plot point by now. Perhaps another run around the dining car will jog your memory. As you storm down the last hallway before your destination the screen stops moving and the borders shrink into a forced widescreen mode. A familiar face fills the screen and text flows from their silent lips as you're reminded that this is indeed an Adventure Game and you must not have done things in the order the game wanted you to do them.

Even if some people find this tedium to be an incredible turnoff there is just something about this style of gameplay that I absolutely love. Or more specifically there is something about this theme that pulls me in and holds me tight. I am a "Limited Setting" fanatic, you see. What I mean by that is when a game either takes place in one (or very few) locations or has a section, in an otherwise open environment, where you're stranded, stuck, or forced to wait until other events unfold. It's that slow burn that I enjoy; where I take in my surroundings and see what the game's artists and storytellers have to offer.

When a developer does this they force themselves to be creative in finding ways to keep players interested. Unlike games with giant overworlds or a sprawling city to explore, where you could easily explain the addition of: bowling alleys, car chases, flight mechanics, or bars to waste time at, in a Limited Setting you're placed in a locked area until you meet certain requirements. That in and of itself doesn't grab me, it's what, or who, is in that room, train, military base, etc. with you that can be so enthralling. By the time you get out of that situation you'll probably have everything about it subconsciously memorized in your mind.

With progression comes familiarity; the art style and architecture of the world around you pops into your mind whenever you think of your next stopping point. Every place has a history and feels as if there is a meaning for everything. Creators who excel at this craft make sure that even the blandest of areas feel lived in and are purposely connected to the rest of the game's world. With people you start off naturally as strangers but as the game progresses you begin to form your own opinions of them. They come off naturally and are each there own individual. In contrast to an open world game with cookie cutter npc's that walk from one street corner to the next, the people you interact with in a Limited Setting are living their lives and you're a witness to those socially personal moments. If you need to speak to someone again later in the game very rarely do you have to take a step back from the screen and think, 'Okay who is this person? Have we spoken before? How are they important to this situation?' and because of that you stay within the game world and you advance without much thought. With a Limited Setting you allow your mind to stay focused on objectives, places, and people

With this familiarity comes the added bonus of recognizing when things are out of place. You've been in these areas before, you've spoken with the cast multiple times, but this time you notice a small twitch in that person's mannerisms or a hole in a wall that wasn't there before. Sometimes you don't know the reason behind these changes and a natural curiosity takes hold; you want to know why something is different than the norm the game has presented so far. This only pulls you deeper and deeper into the story. Other times however you do know the reasons behind the changes and this causes different emotions to come up: sorrow, accomplishment, anger, or even confusion in cases of things not unfolding the way you thought they would. Regardless of the outcome its the little things that truly matter in a Limited Setting.

There are some fantastic examples of this being use in otherwise open games as well. When one of these moments comes up, and it's done well, that usually becomes one of my favorite moments in that game. A prime example of this would be the train mystery in Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door. At this point in the game things seemed to be ramping up and initially this section almost acts like a bit of a breather before bigger stuff pops off further down the track. From my memory this game from out of no where; you're off to save the world and then all of a sudden you're put on this train on it's multiple day journey across the desert. It kinda puts the breaks on your progress when you're railroaded into a tight area in a seemingly unrelated scene from the rest of the story. In this section areas are slow to unlock, you have a small cast of interesting passengers to talk with, and there was an ever growing sense of tension as time continued press forward. I don't want to spoil all the quirks of this section but needless to say by the time it was all over you felt like you had done something worthwhile.

The next time you find yourself in a slow section a game, or in a naturally slow/linear game, take the time to look at what the creators have given you. You'll find that even the tedious stuff can be entertaining if done correctly. Even if a game is known for its fast paced action it's not punishment to be forced into a slower section, it can even give reason as to why you're doing what you're doing and can flesh out that world into something truly special. The Limited Setting has solidified several games into my personal favorites lists and I'm sure it can do the same for some of you.