Fights In Tight Spaces review: a unique twist on the deckbuilding genre that pulls in too many punches

Fight in tight spaces is about a particular trick that all the spy movies I’ve seen love to use: our protagonists get into a part of the story where they can relax a bit, for sure. caught off guard and there was a sign that a mysterious assassin had emerged from the shadows to take advantage of the opportunity. The hero has nothing but their strength to get through, but then, what a surprise! They actually use the brain instead. No one saw it coming. However, watching those movies, we all know the main character Actually dying. I mean, it’s called the Bourne Identity. There wouldn’t be a movie without Bourne! (Jeremy Renner people don’t count.)

Instead of fast action and frantic non-stop, Fights In Tight Spaces takes a different approach and splits those same action sequences into a turn-based battle. Instead of a scene being a staged stunt and the camera ending in seconds, it’s a roguelike decker that puts the player in charge of the minute-by-minute decisions an action hero will have to make. out in one of those situations. Meaning, if the untouchable protagonist dies at any moment, that’s because of what you did. Most of the time, no matter what.

In Fights In Tight Spaces, you will play as an anonymous spy known only as Agent 11, who is hired by an equally mysterious spy organization. Your handler gives you various profiles of criminal combinations for you to take down, which in turn become procedurally generated levels that you work your way through. You participate in wars, you improve your deck, and eventually face a boss. It is very Slay The Spire-y.

But Fights In Tight Spaces is in the business of magic and swordsmanship with a single punch right in the face of a guy. It’s not completely different from John Wick Hex, but all your attacks are in the form of cards. As a juvenile, every attack you want in a game like this is here. And all of them have been wonderfully realized through some identical but introspective animated cartoons. You can headbutt enemies, throw them against walls, and even counterattack as they come towards you. Even Guile from Street Fighter’s Flash Kick is here. Also, for the deadly hits you land, the game cuts to a close-up to give you a hand-crafted front-row seat. It’s fun to kick an enemy across a room, then watch their bodies crumple and crumbling on the floor.

What’s different is that each battle takes place in a tiny closed 3D isobaric plane, instead of a 2D plane, so managing your position and the space around you is just as important as building skills. Build your deck. As with attack and defense based cards, you have to think about including movement cards, and there are also combinations of the two available, such as jumping towards enemies to punch them right away. into the chest. Then some areas mix this up by having a semi-open environment, such as an open door tram or a railing blocking you instead of a wall. If you can find a way to push, kick, or throw enemies off the map, that’s an instant end.

Most of the time, though, using your movements creatively is just as satisfying, if not more, than normal combat. That’s because the game gives you a preview of what attacks the enemy will take on their next turn, as well as showing you exactly where they’ll hit, as in Into The Breach. So if you’re (quite literally) playing your cards, you could end up tricking two enemies into shooting each other, while you’ve already passed them and are busy dealing with a third. This is a great idea, and I’ve done it that way more than hitting the enemy directly. Every fight is like picking a half-finished chess game and trying to finish it. I strongly recommend saying “why are you hitting yourself?” in an overly sarcastic and whiny voice when you do.

Fights In Tight Spaces’ visual style immediately catches the eye. It seems to be inspired by the CGI intro to Casino Royale (or perhaps Super hot, if we compare it with other games) and so minimalistic, it never gets boring. You battle through countless unique locations, like a motor club, a prison staircase, even a pub, and all with surprisingly clear identities. It’s also aided by excellent lighting work, which adds a welcoming layer of depth to the game’s look and feel.

There’s such a great core to Fights In Tight Spaces, really unlike anything else I’ve come across, but unfortunately it’s directly related to one of the game’s biggest flaws: there is hardly any replayability to it. To be fair, you’ll unlock beginner decks as you progress through the game, as well as a card summary for you to fill out, both of which are obtained through the XP system. They’re pretty pointless, though, because you’ve got access to each card in the game from the start, as they come in as rewards from battles, so nothing really changes between the cards. run times.

Other deck players I’ve played with, like Slay The Spire or Monster Train, often force me to dramatically change the way I think about the game depending on the playstyle I’ve chosen. In Fights In Tight Spaces, it feels like if I try to play in any way beyond the initial balanced attack and defense deck, I’ll be at a disadvantage. If I pick a deck that causes enemies to bleed and take damage over time, I’ll miss the bonus targets to end the teamfight quickly. If I play with an aggressive deck, I will instantly die in future boss battles, as their massive HP bars reduce my attacks. In the end, I felt it was pretty pointless to experiment with different deck archetypes, because whenever I did, the game ironically turned against me for it.

There’s a daily challenge to encourage you to keep playing, but all it made me realize is that I don’t think procedural generation benefits this game that much. After a couple of hours, the battles started to blend together for me, and the random enemy encounters weren’t enough to keep it feeling fresh. There are only so many ways you can place a bunch of enemies in a self-contained minimap. I beat the game, such as my sixth run (admittedly it took me a few hours), and then I pretty much saw what it delivered. There are no branching levels to explore and there aren’t any characters with new gameplay either.

However, Fights In Tight Spaces has multiple difficulty settings, and they ultimately solved this problem for me, as they were designed to fundamentally change the way the game works. The “Classic Plus” mode adds the ability to retry the room if you die, and you are allowed to undo up to three moves per encounter. This turned the whole thing into a puzzle game, and I enjoyed it more as a head scratcher, than planning around death.

Oddly enough, the thing that feels the most underdeveloped is the context. As an integral part of the game, there isn’t really a story, and outside of the brief humorous conversations between levels, Agent 11 is dumbfounded. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a silent protagonist in the right game, but I associate this type of action spy movie more with twists, confusing characters, and direct dialogue. – at least, if not more than the action sequences in it. I’m not asking for the game to be an adaptation of Austin Powers but toppling an entire family of criminals without saying a word to their leader is downright weird.

Still as negative as I used to be, though, I would wholeheartedly recommend Fights In Tight Spaces, because the action at the heart of it is truly astounding. When everything goes right, it makes my brain hurt like I’m doing a particularly difficult sudoku. The problem is that there’s not much other than that going on. The whole game felt like it had to be one of the best I’ve played this year, but somehow I turned it down and just said “okay.”