Knights in Tight Spaces
Steam/PC
4/4/25
Ground Shatter/Raw Fury
From the noble King Arthur to the daring Lancelot, knights have always captured my imagination. Fantasy has been my passion since childhood; castles, armor, and epic battles have always fueled the nerd within me. Naturally, this love of all things medieval left me eagerly anticipating this review. Surely grand battlefields await, right? But no—the knights in "Knights in Tight Spaces" don’t resolve their conflicts on expansive battlegrounds. I suppose I should have figured that out from the title. Instead, this turn-based tactical deck builder unfolds on battlegrounds tighter than my grandmother’s attic. So with that in mind, is this game a knightly addition to your gaming library, or did the walls close in on me all too fast? Let’s find out in our full review!
"Knights in Tight Spaces" hails from Ground Shatter, the talented team behind 2021’s "Fights in Tight Spaces." As you might expect, this title shares some similarities, with a delightful knightly twist. In this game, you’ll face a variety of foes in turn-based fashion across various cramped battlefields. Using a card-based system, your actions are determined by the cards you draw and select. The environment plays a crucial role in battles, allowing you to bash enemies' heads against walls or kick them off the screen entirely, among other tactics.
The game is single-player only and offers a full story mode that provides around 4-8 hours of gameplay, depending on your skill and success rate. There’s also a daily play mode and an endless mode, meaning there are potentially endless hours of gameplay to be enjoyed—more determined by how much you’re loving the experience.
Beginning with the story mode, players can choose from a variety of difficulty levels: Honorable, Noble, Brave, Hardy, Heroic, and even a custom option where you can tailor settings to your preference. Some of the easier difficulties will allow you to retry battles should you fail, while others, well, it’s “RUN AND DONE!” Heh, I’ve been waiting ages to say that!
After selecting a difficulty level, you'll begin by choosing from three different fighter types: Brawler, Fighter, and Rogue. As you progress, you’ll unlock additional classes such as the Mage. Each character has a distinct feel, and while cards are shared among your party of up to three characters, certain cards can only be activated by specific characters. This adds an extra layer of strategy, turning each battle into a delicate dance of tactics and skill. In story mode, you’ll start with just a single character and must earn more by hiring them as you progress.
From here, whether you choose to tackle the game's handy tutorial (highly recommended) or dive straight in, you’ll find yourself on the campaign map. This is where you’ll select your next battle location and unlock new paths with each victory. It's crucial to pay attention to the direction of the path, as some will lead you to shops where you can purchase new equipment and upgrades, while others will guide you to taverns where you can hire mercenaries to join your party using the gold collected from previous encounters.
Throughout your journey, you'll encounter brief story segments where you may need to make choices. These decisions can earn you rewards that aid you on each run and may even unlock side quests that offer additional rewards. This adds a bit of an open-ended nature to the game, although the story itself may not be particularly compelling.
Narrative shortcomings aside, where "Knights in Tight Spaces" truly shines is in its turn-based combat system, which is unquestionably the star of the show. While the game shares similarities with many tactical role-playing games, the unique environments and card mechanics keep things feeling fresh. There’s plenty of depth here, but rather than overwhelming you with everything in a single tutorial, the developers wisely introduce new mechanics as you progress. For the basics, you can easily rotate the map, cycle through cards to select the ones you want to use, and target enemies just as you would expect. Certain cards can be cast at no cost, but the majority will require points, referred to as “momentum.” Run out of momentum, and you’re potentially out of luck, so it’s vital to choose your actions wisely. There are cards that can help you gain additional momentum, but when I say it's crucial, I mean it—even down to being able to move.
As with any good strategy game, you’ll need to keep a close eye on your foes, anticipate their next moves, and stay within striking distance. There’s plenty to consider, but the gameplay is intuitive enough that even my 12-year-old daughter could pick it up easily, while still being deep enough to offer a satisfying challenge that isn’t easily mastered. The primary goal is usually to clear out all the enemies in an area, but some levels have unique objectives, such as demolishing pillars. Generally speaking, though, defeat the baddies, and you’re good to go.
Your foes are not easily toppled, depending on the difficulty you choose. On what basically amounts to the normal setting, the game packs quite a punch and punishes you for your mistakes. But hey, I’m not complaining—I deserved to be punished for them! It's not like the game doesn’t give you chances; it even provides warnings of where and when your next foe may arrive on the map. And yes, reinforcements do come, and they come often. Luckily, you can display their health with the click of a button to know who to target first. If you feel swarmed, there are cards that allow you to push or kick enemies back a few spaces, hopefully giving you a bit of breathing room.
Complicating matters further is the variety of different enemies. For example, archers can strike you from a distance, so you’ll need to be aware of the trajectory of their arrows, which the game does a brilliant job of showcasing.
And then there are the environments I mentioned earlier. Get close to a wall or an edge, and you can use your surroundings to your advantage, although your foes can do the same. Plan things well enough, and you can even maneuver enemies into striking one another, making them do the dirty work for you. It may sound like a lot, and it is, but that's the essence of strategy games. Even if I wasn't necessarily amazing at playing it, I never felt overwhelmed by "Knights in Tight Spaces." More importantly, I was always having a damn good time.
There are countless card combinations to experiment with, offering numerous strategic possibilities. I haven’t even mentioned controlling a party yet! Your party members share cards, and you can switch between characters on the fly at any time during your turn. This adds an extra layer of strategy to the game—in a good way. Keep in mind, your characters can die, and depending on your chosen difficulty, they may not be able to return, which raises the stakes significantly. There’s more to learn, such as team-up attacks, but I won’t bore you with every detail; this isn’t a tutorial, after all.
What I will say is that "Knights in Tight Spaces" is a remarkably well-designed game. Its classic turn-based combat seamlessly integrates with card-based gameplay, creating a compelling gameplay experience. The light RPG mechanics are enjoyable, adding depth without overwhelming the player. And even better, apart from a single crash I encountered, it performs exceptionally well on PC and looks stunning, with a visual style that's truly unique.
The developers aimed for an action movie feel with this game, and it definitely shows, especially in the physics. Although the environments are small, they are meticulously detailed, and the unique colors distinguishing enemies from heroes work effectively. The game resembles an extremely polished sketch drawing come to life, with stunning animation and physics, and a surprisingly hard-hitting electronic soundtrack that had my subwoofer bumping. The music is so good in this game that you might honestly want to consider grabbing the OST. It’s a shame, though, that the sound effects took a more minimalist approach and are rather unremarkable in comparison.
Hoping to play on your Steam Deck? I've got mostly good news for you. The game does appear a bit blurrier on Valve’s handheld, making some cards a bit difficult to read, but it’s perfectly playable despite some framerate drops not present on my PC counterpart. While you wouldn’t expect it to run as smoothly as it does on a 4070 GPU, you won’t have to feel bad about playing it in handheld mode either, as it certainly gets the job done—or at least, it did during the brief time I spent playing that way.
With a stellar combat engine, procedurally generated maps for endless replayability, over 300 different cards to collect, and a diverse array of characters, "Knights in Tight Spaces" is a strategy lover's dream come true. While it may be a bit lacking in narrative depth, does that really matter when everything else is so impeccably polished? I was continually impressed by how enjoyable this game was to play, with its captivating soundtrack and stunning visual design adding the perfect finishing touch. If you're a fan of strategy titles and enjoy the idea of combining card mechanics with battles in tight corridors, "Knights in Tight Spaces" delivers an exceptional gaming experience.
ESSENTIAL
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