Knights in Tight Spaces brings fantasy RPG trappings to a Roguelike core, and they make a significant difference

I liked Fights in Tight Spaces. It mashed together two things I’m fond of: Roguelike deck-builders and badass secret agents. FITS gave me a turn-based experience that made me feel like Jason Bourne, punching and kicking and weaving my way around enemies on cramped battlefields. I stepped around their punches and redirected them back at them. I slammed their heads into walls and tables. I dodged bullets – whoa. I even booted people off the wings of aeroplanes. I survived insurmountable odds. FITS did what it promised and fulfilled my hand-to-hand spy-fight fantasy. But where does the series go from here? Well, the answer is hundreds of years back in time, to medieval times, to Knights in Tight Spaces.

KITS swaps suits for suits of armour, guns for bows and arrows, and stark primary colours for a more wood-carved, tavern-table look. Underneath, though, the core is more or less the same. It’s still turn-based, still grid-based, and you’re still fighting in tight spaces and building a deck with card-based abilities. And it’s not just a reskin. KITS has changed the formula in ways that make a surprising difference.

The biggest difference is the game no longer revolves around one character – you are no longer the lone spy infiltrating an enemy base. Instead, and as in the grand tradition of fantasy role-playing games, you now do it with a party, which makes for a fundamental shift in gameplay. There are a few elements to this.

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