In the wake of Slay the Spire in 2019, countless studios have tried their hand at similar deck-builder roguelikes, expanding upon many of the foundations laid by Mega Crit’s seminal strategy darling. Of these games, Ground Shatter’s Fights in Tight Spaces is among the most unique and meaningfully iterative, and with Knights in Tight Spaces, the developer is attempting to build its formula into a larger series.
It’s a formula that deck-builder and roguelike fans are no doubt familiar with: players proceed through a number of encounters, collecting specific cards along the way, and deploying these cards to achieve victory in the most efficient manner possible. But while Knights in Tight Spaces shares a lot of DNA with its deck-building and roguelike contemporaries, with an overarching progression and framing system remarkably similar to Slay the Spire‘s, its focus on positioning and movement is a portal into a new dimension of gameplay. Indeed, Knights in Tight Spaces can’t be accused of not being inventive.
At least, not when compared to other IP within its niche. Measuring it against Fights in Tight Spaces, it’s notably less original, often feeling more like an expansion than a full-fledged sequel. If you haven’t played Fights in Tight Spaces, and you’re drawn to the medieval fantasy setting more so than the action-blockbuster one, then Knights in Tight Spaces could be right up your alley. But for those who’ve experienced Ground Shatter’s original tactical deck-builder, this follow-up may feel disappointingly derivative and safe, not doing enough to establish its own gameplay identity.
Knights in Tight Spaces’ Strategic Gameplay Is Phenomenal
Setting aside its broader franchise context for a moment, it’s worth examining Knights in Tight Spaces‘ gameplay, which is undeniably exceptional. The game is perhaps the perfect example of taking a formula that works (the deck-building of games like Slay the Spire) and adding a unique layer to it, transforming it in the process. Though battles function in much the same way as in other deck-builders, their framing within a traversable grid makes for a far deeper strategic sandbox.
Movement cards are added to the predictable array of attack, defense, support, and buff abilities, encouraging players to get out of harm’s way or close in on an enemy. This informs how you engage with the resource economy, as you can choose to spend different values, mainly Momentum and Combo action points, to either attack, defend or maneuver to a more advantageous position. Ground Shatter’s greatest stroke of genius with this system is how enemies are susceptible to their allies’ attacks: you can manipulate one enemy’s position so that they are within the attack range of another, and if this other plans to attack, the damage that was initially intended for you will be dealt to the repositioned enemy instead.
You can also push enemies out of the battle arena, resulting in an instant kill. But beware: they can do the same to you.
This dynamic, position-based combat system is easy to get the hang of, but that won’t stop you from feeling like a genius pulling off convoluted strategies, watching enemies fall like dominoes, either by your hand or their allies’. There’s a wonderful feeling of freedom evoked by Knights in Tight Spaces that helps it outshine more pedestrian deck-builders, and the fact that this freedom comes by way of just one major design pillar, that being movement, makes the overall experience so much more elegant and frictionless. Put another way, Knights and Tight Spaces is fundamentally more complex than most of its ilk, but it doesn’t feel that way after the first few hours: it feels intuitive, malleable, and expressive despite its multilayered mechanics.
Knights and Tight Spaces Is a Respectable but Conservative Sequel
Knights in Tight Spaces has been marketed as a sequel to Fights in Tight Spaces, but whether it earns that distinction is debatable. Make no mistake, Ground Shatter has introduced noticeable changes, but they feel supplementary rather than transformative.
Perhaps the greatest new addition is Knights in Tight Spaces‘ party system: throughout a given run, you can acquire up to two additional characters to fight alongside you. This adds a nice layer to the game’s short-and long-term decision-making, as you can choose to diversify with different classes or double-down on one playstyle by recruiting party members of the same class. Since the entire party shares action points and cards, this system never feels like it trivializes the game. More than anything, party members serve as tools to broaden your strategic horizons, extending your control over key positions and assisting with support attacks if they are within range.
But my party members could sometimes feel like more of a liability than a fun addition to my runs. Managing health is crucial for success, and having other avatars with their own health bars made for a more cumbersome experience, as they represented a bevy of new variables to keep track of. You do have more options with party members, but they can also undermine the simple, intuitive beauty of the core Tight Spaces gameplay. I can hardly call their inclusion bad, especially since they are entirely optional, but they do come across as somewhat ham-fisted and more trouble than they’re worth, in my experience.
In other words, party members are somewhat underwhelming and not as smoothly implemented as they could be, which is disappointing because of how similar Knights in Tight Spaces is to its predecessor otherwise. The central mechanics of the game, outlined in the above section, were all introduced in Fights in Tight Spaces, and while Knights in Tight Spaces builds upon them, these are incremental steps forward rather than fundamental ones. The game even has many of the exact same cards as Fights. On the one hand, if it’s not broken, there’s no need to fix it, but on the other hand, some deeper changes would have been nice, as it doesn’t take long for Knights to feel like it’s retreading old ground, even as you play around with new additions like gear and side quests.
The visual style of Knights in Tight Spaces is refreshing and distinct from its predecessor’s, though the UI can get extremely messy during battles, overlapping with itself and obfuscating key information.
Knights in Tight Spaces is in an interesting limbo space. It is an evolution from Fights in Tight Spaces, but if you’ve already played that game to completion, this sequel might feel a bit too familiar. If that’s what you’re looking for, then this is an easy purchase, as it retains the signature recipe of Fights while adding new ingredients and shaking up its presentation. And with such relentlessly fun gameplay, it’s hard to be too mad at its relative lack of innovation.
Knights in Tight Spaces
Reviewed on PC
Turn-Based Strategy
Digital Card Game
- Developer(s)
-
Ground Shatter
- Immensely satisfying strategy gameplay
- Strong roguelike fundamentals
- Nice art and soundtrack
- Derivative of Fights in Tight Spaces
- Minor UI issues
- Awkwardly integrated party combat
Knights in Tight Spaces is currently available on PC. Game Rant was provided a Steam code for the purposes of this review.