Fights in Tight Spaces
Clever turn-based fighter glorifies hand-to-hand combat.
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Fights in Tight Spaces
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this game.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Fights in Tight Spaces is a downloadable turn-based deck-building fighting game with brutal hand-to-hand combat for Xbox One, Xbox S/X, and Windows PCs. Players control a special agent tasked to take down a variety of criminal operations, from Italian mobsters to a terrorist organization. Selecting actions from a deck of cards, players strategically maneuver their agents around small rooms, punching, kicking, and grappling with enemies. Enemies fight back, punching and shooting as opportunity permits. Blood spatter effects (which can be turned off in the options menu) spray the ground, and enemies sprawl in rag-doll fashion once defeated. Various replay options provide a cinematic perspective, highlighting the viciousness of some attacks, such as smashing enemies' heads into walls. One of the gangs that players face runs an illegal drug operation, and some fights take place in bars.
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What’s It About?
FIGHTS IN TIGHT SPACES is a card-based fighting game that pauses time between movements so that players can string together a series of perfectly timed and executed attacks resulting in highly cinematic hand-to-hand combat choreography. Taking on the role of an agent fighting several different criminal gangs, players work through a series of missions each composed of multiple fight scenes. Each fight takes place in a small space, like a tattoo parlor or prison cell. A handful of enemies typically surround your agent, and you have to choose which of the randomly chosen attack and movement cards in your hand to play. You may, for example, dash towards an enemy, land a jab, then grapple and throw them to the side and out of range so they can't attack on the next turn. Once you've used up your allotted actions, enemies take their turn. This deliberately paced, strategic combat continues until either your agent or your enemies are defeated. As missions proceed, you'll get to choose rewards -- such as picking new fight cards for your deck, restoring your agent's health, or upgrading cards to make them more effective -- as well as making narrative choices about how to proceed, like deciding whether or not to try to take out a key target early or waiting to gather more information. A secondary mode called Daily Play allows players to draft a starting deck and play through a randomized mission, attempting to outscore other players around the world.
Is It Any Good?
This turn-based fighter relies a tad too much on the luck of the draw, but should still prove a winner among fans of strategic action. Fights in Tight Spaces doesn't concern itself much with character development or storytelling, instead relying on a strong visual style and measured combat to hold players' attention. The simple greyscale environments allow the black and white silhouetted characters -- most of whom have splashes of color to help you distinguish them from each other -- to take center stage as they engage in slick, James Bond-style fisticuffs. Each movement is smoothly animated, and at the end of a fight players have the option of replaying the entire thing in real time, which usually takes less than a minute. It's a visually satisfying reward for all of your tactical decision making.
And that decision making isn't easy. Each card costs action points, can improve your combo counter (which allows you to play some really powerful cards), and offers key strategic advantages. This allows you to do things like stun or knock down enemies to get a bit of breathing room, or sidestep around others to get out of their attack line and perhaps force another enemy to inadvertently shoot or hit one of their allies. Stringing together the right two or three cards from the handful that you're randomly dealt takes thought and foresight, and success is never a given. Turns in which you draw less useful cards hand can be pretty frustrating, but players have the option of reversing moves and restarting battles rather than resetting an entire mission, so it's not quite as punishing as it could be. Fights in Tight Spaces forces players to be a bit more calculated than in many other combat-oriented games, and may hit a sweet spot for thinking players.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about violence in media. Is the impact of the violence in Fights in Tight Spaces affected by the viciousness and strength of the attacks even with the slow pacing and black and white visuals of the gameplay? Do you think stylized choreography and creative visual presentation serve to diminish or augment the impact of violence in games and movies?
What do you think when you see criminal gangs organized around race or ethnicity? How do such gangs affect your view of the groups of people involved?
Game Details
- Platforms: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
- Pricing structure: Paid
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Mode 7
- Release date: December 2, 2021
- Genre: Strategy
- Topics: Sports and Martial Arts
- ESRB rating: M for Blood, Violence
- Last updated: December 13, 2021
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