fights in tight spaces does a very good (or at least interesting?) job of translating the mechanics of cinematic fighting into the Digital Realm, but fails at capturing the emotional satisfaction which makes such fighting so captivating. it's no surprise that video games like this & sifu would try to recreate john wick style shit, just look at how many other movies are ripping it off right now. the problem is, how do you translate thousands of hours of training and careful choreography designed to look effortlessly skilled into something that a player without any training or choreography can immediately pick up on? the approach here is to break it down into turns, each punch and kick and grapple is an individual card you can deploy and you're unbound by the temporal realm, so you've essentially replaced instinct with unlimited time to think. this is a very solid approach and it works well in a lot of places, especially in the early game where the difficulty is reasonable and you have some freedom to experiment with your approach. this is far from the first game to try something like this (i mean, even xcom basically does this stuff), but it's the first i've played to use it as a means of expressing cinematic combat, and for that i do think it's a worthwhile experiment.

the game fails in two big ways however - for one, and as many others have pointed out, the difficulty curve is just insane. by the second or third stage you're being bombarded with overwhelming numbers of enemies in incredibly crowded spaces which all have varied attacks that you simply can't deal with. i'm sure some of this is due to my own lack of skill, but i'm seeing similar complaints from steam reviewers with hundreds of hours so idk lol.
this is such a big problem for me because of the second big way this game fails - this difficulty curve brings out the inherent problems in using roguelike mechanics to represent this type of fighting. you ultimately are beholden to the luck of the draw, and if you get into a particularly dicey situation, you can very easily find yourself in a situation where you know exactly what moves are necessary to win the fight but simply do not have access to them. that's pretty normal for roguelikes, but it feels very bad when i'm supposed to be a rama style badass!! there's a tangible difference between dying and having to restart at a checkpoint in an action game because you took a bad punch vs. losing a roguelike because you made a bad decision an hour and a half ago, and it is a difference which does not lend itself well to a genre full of instinct and prowess and that Effortlessness i mentioned earlier. so yeah give this one a try maybe but play something else if you're looking for the Sick Movie Kung Fu In Gaming which i described above

I love deckbuilding roguelikes. I'm the guy with the deckbuilding roguelike shaped neck. I'm the dog with a napkin wrapped around their neck ordering more deckbuilding roguelikes. I'm the angry birds rolling two deckbuilding roguelikes on my dice. I'm Lebron screaming when asked about deckbuilding roguelikes. And I finally figured why I don't like this game.

It took me unlocking the grappler deck to realise this game tries to be two types of games at once, but performs neither at equal quality to others of it's genre. If you're looking for 2D roguelike grid-based and turn-based strategy combat just play Into the Breach. If you're looking for a deckbuilding roguelike with unfocused deck archetypes and occasional non-combat encounters just play Slay the Spire. This game doesn't just try to have both cakes, but then it tries to eat them both at the same time and ends up passed out on the floor still holding both forks.

I appreciate the attempt, really. Movement cards being so valuable adds an interesting twist to the game, the gun mechanic is very interesting despite it's dlc paywall, the vibe and setting is surpringly well done, and the animations and camera movements are locked down to a science. However a list of redeemable qualities simply obfuscate the underlying problem, this game contains the problems in design of both games it emulates and thus suffers in quality of the good elements from both games. I'm sure there's a way you could make it work that doesn't leave your game as just... 'eh', but you won't find that construction in this game

A decent core system is let down in a few key ways, and I'm starting to feel like a broken record with these entries.

This is not a review I'm going to put any finesse into (which I suppose is a bit ironic, considering the game at hand). Here are the problems:
- Horribly optimized & chugs battery on my Steam Deck. How is it even possible to get a deckbuilder to manage loading times this long? I also encounter semifrequent crashes (which are reduced by unlocking my deck's framerate).

- While enemy moves and modifiers are (largely) communicated well, only the most token of efforts is put into ensuring these are actually readable at a glance. I am continually having to hover over each new enemy to remind myself how they work. Some enemy behaviors (like push) are not communicated at all, and some mechanics are underexplained, to be understood through a little trial an error. None of these are cardinal sins, especially when your first run includes a limited use turn-rewind feature, but they are all annoying.

- There is far too little variety in what your character can actually do, and as a result the gameplay can quickly become stale. The main saving grace here is that the game is at least hard, maybe excepting the first area.

I'm having enough fun and the fights are interesting, but I can tell my time with it is limited.

Pros:
+ fitting, clean art style
+ animations are fluid and stylish
+ camera never gets in the way of the action
+ enemies are easily distinguishable and color-coded
+ high level of enemy variety that demand a lot of attention
+ decks are balanced and offer wildly different approaches
+ shops offer a lot of options to improve your deck
+ most missions offer secondary objectives
+ the final level is smartly designed...

Cons:
- but also frustratingly difficult
- difficulty options are very unbalanced
- repeating missions or a turn is limited to only the easiest difficulties
- extra minion enemies can spawn indefinitely
- Bar Tender enemies in particular are far too tough
- runs always feel the same and take place in the same few rooms
- little variety between level architecture and level objectives
- some objectives like getting a suitcase are practically impossible
- card draws are not actually randomized but pre-rolled
- events are too rare and can make or break a run
- story is pratically non-existant

Playtime: 23 hours, four out of six decks unlocked, one playthrough on Classic Plus difficulty finished.

Magic Moment: Coming up with a distinct strategy that pushes an enemy off the screen for the first time.
Blagic Moment: Restarting a fight and realizing that the deck is literally pre-rolled and stacked against you.

Best Deck: Counter Deck. Hitting with counter attacks twice in a row is very satisfying
Best Card: Wall Jump Punch. Combine it with Steel Self to kill everything in one hit.

Verdict:
Fights in Tight Spaces is a good game that could have been great. With more variety in the level designs and objectives, more fluid difficulty options that let players decide if they want to repeat turns or entire missions, and a more involving story, this could have been a modern classic. While the distinguishing features like the smartly designed action, memorable art style, and heaps of combat options cannot be understated, Fights in Tight Spaces does not offer enough to really stand out in the deluge of contemporary roguelites.

Take a look at the demo to see if it's enough to hook you. Everyone else should probably skip this.