Ground Shatter are the developers behind this title before which they created the RICO titles which are first person shooter RPGs where we control a police officer who works on RICO cases. The gameplay of the RICO games were similar to Trepang2 but lacked the visual flare and creativity that Trepang2 has.
However in 2021 they released an excellent deck builder, action strategy title called ‘Fights In Tight Spaces’ which got them a BAFTA Nominee and thus it is natural for them to iterate over that formula and bring out ‘Knights In Tight Spaces’. It is set to release on the March 4th of this year on PC only.
Deck Building And Tactics
Just like their previous title, this one is also set to follow the same standard of a turn based combat system but the developers have revised the system in new and interesting ways from Fights In Tight Spaces. Knights In Tight Spaces focuses more on positioning their party while Fights In Tight Spaces focuses on solo play against enemies.
As it is following the tactical turn-based combat system, in each space we have to place our party members in strategic positions that both compliment their combat style and also makes it so that everyone can cover each other for a strong combo potential.
There are over 300 cards available to the player and helps in making each class standout if cards unique to them are used in combat. This amount of cards also allow players to truly discover their own playstyle and craft their own strategies to see how well they fare.
The battle spaces themselves are bounded and extremely close quarters thus ‘tight spaces’ mean that getting good at the combat means to understand good positioning. If any player or enemy ends up outside the bounds whether accidentally or not will face instant death, thus players should focus on tactics that make use of this mechanic.
The Gameplay Loop
There are 8 classes to choose from when creating a party of 3 to take on missions, each of them have their own unique advantages and disadvantages for example, the Rogue class cannot block attacks but can use a bow for ranged damage and gains coins on every kill.
Another good example would be the Cleric class who can use magic attacks and does extra damage against Supernatural foes. As we start to complete encounters we will get rewarded with either new companions, new cards or weapons.
A progression of each encounter is also shown on the map, which also has branching paths, this allows us to choose whether to go for the next encounter or go to a shop for buying new weapons or such. The map gives a very clear idea of which paths are part of the main quest and which paths are the side quests.
Conclusion
Knights In Tight Spaces is a fabulous iteration over Ground Shatter’s previous ‘Fights In Tight Spaces’ it promises strategic gameplay with a beautiful artstyle, engaging music and fun, quirky dialogue. The game delivers on all these fronts flawlessly, it even has a brilliant tutorial for those who are coming in blind to get them up and running on how to play this game.
The game also has multiple difficulty levels to allow anyone to join in regardless of their skill level at the game. Another worthwhile mention is the ‘Endless’ mode that is available where players can see how levels they can complete in one go without dying.
The combat system is easily accessible but hard to master as there are a multitude of different types of spaces the game presents, each battle playing out like an intense chess match. Overall it is a must have for those wanting to experience a beautiful combination of modern decking building titles and those old Fire emblem games from the NDS era which demanded tactical play of the highest decree.
