Knights in Tight Spaces expands on every part of the Fights in Tight Spaces template, but an abundance of new ideas swamps the clarity the original game had.
I’m torn because in theory, I should love Knights in Tight Spaces. It’s got everything I like. The guts of the game are carried over from Fights in Tight Spaces – a turn-based, Roguelike, deck-building beat-’em-up about fighting in confined spaces and using clever movement and manipulation of enemy attacks to win. I was very fond of that game because it made me feel like Jason Bourne beating people up with a biro. Knights in Tight Spaces takes that template and moves it to medieval fantasy, a setting I’ve loved my whole life, and adds more to it – character classes, a larger party to control, side quests, an equipment system, more dialogue… In theory it’s a win-win. Except in play I’m struggling to love it, and I wonder if this is a case where less is actually more.
Knights in Tight Spaces reviewDeveloper: Ground ShatterPublisher: Raw FuryPlatform: Played on PCRelease date: Out now on PC (Steam)
A quick recap on how it works before I plunge into my argument. In Knights in Tight Spaces, you face scenarios where you’re surrounded by enemies on a gridded battlefield, usually themed around some small interior or exterior befitting of the setting – here, a drawbridge or a blacksmith’s forge or the ramparts of a castle, for example. Each round, you draw a handful of cards that relate to things you can do and spend ‘momentum’ (this game’s energy resource) to play them. Importantly, cards cover movement as well as attacks and defence, and moving around the battlefield is as important as thumping people.
Enemies telegraph where they’re going to attack at the end of the round, you see, so if you’re still standing in that space at the end of the round, you’ll get thumped. Like Into The Breach, then, the skill comes in worming your way out of danger, slipping around someone or leaping over them – and since their attacks are pre-determined, you’ll ideally want to move in such a way that leaves them attacking their friend rather than you. This is fundamental to success in the game. It’s a bit like chess in that it requires careful, calculated play. One well-placed move can change everything.
But whereas you were always a solo agent in Fights in Tight Spaces, outnumbered and outgunned, here in Knights you have help. You can now control up to three characters in a battle, all drawing from the same energy pool and deck of cards. And because there’s now a concept of groups, there’s also now a concept of varying types of character to fill those groups with. No longer is there only a default agent whose abilities are wholly represented by the deck you build while you play. Now, there are characters tied to distinct fantasy classes – like sorcerers and rogues and healers and fighters – each with pros and cons of their own.