Fights in Tight Spaces from developer Ground Shatter is a turn-based, tactical deck-building fighting game. This formula could be best described as Super Hot meets John Wick. You play as Agent 11. Your objective is to build a deck to go solo and get the missions done. How you do that is entirely up to you.
You start with the Balance deck, but quickly unlock other decks such as Counter-Strike, Aggressive, and Trickster as you progress. The tactical and strategy aspect of the game really shines, allowing you to take your time and think fights through.
If you lose all your health, you’ll need to start again from the beginning, but fights are short enough that it didn’t feel detrimental. The game succeeded in letting me figure out what I did wrong, or what I could have done better.
The fights are fun and satisfyingly difficult. The “replay” option at the end of each room allows you to watch the combat as it would unfold in real-time, which is a nice touch. The style, animation, and music are great! The music in each level has a very synth-like James Bond feel to it.
The combat is in tight spaces, but you’re able to rotate the camera for a better view. There are different paths you can take after defeating a room, but be careful with the path you choose. There was a time that I chose the wrong path and therefore wasn’t able to upgrade my cards.
I mentioned upgrading cards. This can be done at certain points between missions if you have enough money, which you’ll get by completing objectives within each scenario. The upgraded cards can change the damage output of the card, the block value, or make it cost nothing to play. At this time, the “Daily Play” option wasn’t available to me, but I’m sure it will be up and going very soon, which will help with replayability.
Fights in Tight Spaces was out of Early Access on 02/24/2021, and you can already tell the developers put a lot of time, effort, and care into bringing this experience to us. If you like deck-building fighting games and feeling like an elite badass in close-quarters combat, then pick this one up. You’ll really enjoy it!
