Fights in Tight Spaces is a turn-based recreation of those moments in spy films, or any kind of action film really, where the hero is suddenly surrounded in an enclosed area and there can’t possibly be any way out. Except there obviously is, through a carefully choreographed fight scene, in which we get to see just how hard our hero is. They swirl around, a blur of arms and elbows, and all of a sudden enemies are punching each other and looking very confused, and a gun goes off, and someone’s fighting with a towel for some reason, and then the scene ends in stillness as the hero stands triumphant amid bodies strewn around them. It’s textbook stuff.
Fights in Tight Spaces reviewDeveloper: Ground ShatterPublisher: Mode 7Platform: Played on PCAvailability: Version 1.0 releases today for Xbox consoles (£16.79) and PC (Steam, GOG, £19.49).
In Fights in Tight Spaces, you’re that hero, a smartly dressed agent working for some James Bond-like organisation trying to take down some criminal organisations. And you have an impressive array of moves up your sleeve. You can leap off walls to propel attacks, you can roll over enemies while acrobatically taking them down, and you can smash heads into scenery. You can even jump-kick enemies either side of you, which is something I’ve always wanted to be able to do but I always end up kicking the television.
Exactly what your agent can do depends on your deck, for this is a deck-building game. There are a couple of ways of approaching this: build your own, or choose a pre-made deck and add to it as you play, upgrading the cards or removing them as you see fit, at stops along the way. You move through a map while stopping to fight, tinker with cards, heal, and risk random events. These pre-made decks are good by the way, built around themes like Aggressive, which I really like (it has the Wall Punch) or Slasher, which plays on the Bleed debuff. Crucially, these premade decks don’t leave you short in really important areas like movement and defence, because it’s not all about attack.
Fights in Tight Spaces is easily as much about getting out of harm’s way as it is harming enemies. You don’t have much health and it doesn’t regenerate between fights, and you only have one life (on most of the difficulty levels – there are some easier modes with level-restart options). A good player conscientiously attacks while making sure they’re not going to be hit in return.