Knights in Tight Spaces

It often feels like a bit of a double standard to criticise certain games for not focusing enough on all the surrounding elements that exist around a rock-solid gameplay loop, and then turn around and level similar criticism at other games for neglecting that loop in favour of too much extraneous talk. As with everything, it's a balancing act, and while we all had a feeling that Ground Shatter's follow-up to the well-liked Fights in Tight Spaces would nail the aforementioned "core loop", it's everything around it that ends up disappointing.

Knights in Tight Spaces is the name of the sequel, and as the title quite clearly indicates, it swaps out the "James Bond/John Wick man-in-a-suit-fisticuffs-action" (self-invented genre description may apply) for a more traditional medieval setting. But beyond that, a long, long list of systems are lifted pretty much directly from its predecessor.

So, what exactly is this? Well, it's a diorama-style (slightly isometric) turn-based RPG experience where your moves are cards drawn from a deck. That in itself isn't particularly innovative, and both AAA titles like Marvel's Midnight Suns and smaller successes like Inscyption and Slay the Spire use cards as a more varied, intense way to dictate what options you have in combat. Combine that with a grid-based battlefield where you use your cards to position, attack, and defend against enemy troops and you have a pretty accurate idea of what Knights in Tight Spaces is.

Around this core is initially a framework that resembles a typical roguelite, where you complete the story by moving through different "cells" on a map, with each cell representing either a battle, an opportunity to trim your deck, upgrade cards, or hire mercenaries as companions on the battlefield. But you don't lose anything by losing, so it's not exactly roguelite, but the game's "overworld" is modelled on the popular genre.

In practical terms, the combat system and all the elements we expect from it are rock solid. And even then, Knights in Tight Spaces will win a small medal from fans of this rather specific sub-genre. The maps allow for enormous tactical scope and personal expression, where especially maps that allow you to either place enemies in your own crossfire or kick them out of the arena for an instant kill never cease to satisfy. This time, as mentioned, it's also possible to hire new characters, and although all the ones you have use the same deck of cards and the limited energy you have available each round, it does allow two characters to work together from two different directions.

The act of continuously upgrading cards, trimming your deck of poor cards and seeing what new enemy types the game keeps coming up with is a delight for the most part, and even though the whole setup starts out simple and stays simple all the way to the end, there is no lack of tactical depth here, quite the opposite. However, it should be said that we are now beginning to move easily and elegantly out of and into the outer layer that exists around this solid core. At the same time, I would ask you dear reader to keep in mind that I recommend this game to genre fans for the sole reason that the game's central loop is so satisfying.

Knights in Tight Spaces may change the setting and play with the general framework here and there, but this is a surprisingly pragmatic product in many ways, and that's not a compliment as such. The story being told, aside from the voice acting, is so goofy that you tune it out pretty quickly. You're a merry adventurer who becomes part of a secret brotherhood that aims to... to... well, fight another secret brotherhood, and if you're not on the trail of "The Monk", or "The Politician", then you'll be served up boring exposition about the distribution of power in this caricature of a medieval society. It's not a focus, so it's passable, but it's a shame that there isn't more effort put into just making the dialogue palatable.

The same can be said for music, real sound, UI design, and general aesthetics. What's here is functional, but it's neither minimalist enough to have character on its own, nor expressive enough to make any kind of impression on the player. I was convinced for a long time that there was no real audio glued to the central movements of attack and defence in the games themselves, only to discover that it's mixed so far down in the audio soup that you don't even notice it.

And then we're back to the point at the top, which is that it is commendable that developer Ground Shatter has focused on the game's central form of expression, namely exciting combat scenarios fought with great strategic freedom and versatile systems. The problem only becomes apparent after a few hours, because the game never ever plays with that framework, or offers anything that is markedly different, and without immersive storytelling, support systems or... well, just something that offers something different to the player, even this solid set-up runs out of steam pretty quickly in my opinion.

It's quite possible that Knights in Tight Spaces will be praised by the same kind of reviewers who gave Fights in Tight Spaces an 80 on OpenCritic, because developer Ground Shatter delivers more of a remix of the same elements here, rather than a reinterpretation of them. But for me, there's just not quite "enough" here to call this an ambitious sequel, and the lack of distractions from the otherwise solid loop made the loop a bit monotonous in the long run.