Fights in Tight Spaces is a deck builder roguelite from developers Ground Shatter that takes the Hitman concept and puts it through Slay The Spire’s mechanics, resulting in an odd yet fun combination.

You play as Agent 11 of Section Eleven looking to take on different criminal organizations from street gangs to the Mafia’s upper echelon. You’re one man versus an army of henchmen and gang bosses, and if you play your cards right you’ll fight your way to the top.

Fights in Tight Spaces is quite interesting to say the least, and whether you’re on Game Pass or not, there’s a free trial for that game you can try out. If you like the game, you can pre-order it for $19.99 USD. After trying the game out for two hours, I gotta say, I’m really tempted to buy the game.

You start out with a quick tutorial to give you the broad strokes of how the game plays. Fights in Tight Spaces moves in an isometric board by way of classic strategy RPGs with your actions determined by the game cards that you draw. You start with your starter deck, regenerating 3 momentum points per turn, and your wits about you as you try not to get killed.

As you progress with every map by taking out enemies in your path, Fights in Tight Spaces really give you everything you need by way of the name. The fights are in really small corners where every movement and action really determine your success or failure in every turn. Each map is randomized, starting from your briefing all the way to the Boss Battle.

The roguelite aspect of the game lets you traverse through all the missions with one life bar and your deck. When you die, you start from scratch and all your immediate bonuses are gone, but you do get to keep some starter decks and some choice map cards. The more you level up, you receive better decks that can suit your playstyle such as Counter Decks or Combo decks.

Every round gives you three momentum points and seven cards. You may end the turn whenever, but during the turn: you can use your momentum points to deal damage, move throughout the map, or build defense. When your turn ends, your enemies will attack you and when your life drops to zero, you start anew. When you clear the area of enemies, you move on to the next area of the map or choose an event, medic, or gym to acquire/upgrade cards, heal, or earn money to purchase healing or cards.

While it may feel overwhelming at first, the more you learn about the game and make the right moves, you realize you can play your cards depending on the situation. You can use push cards to set up a chain reaction that allows the environment or other enemies to damage each other. You can also build up your combo meter to unleash more powerful cards or stack combo damage to clear the board.

The two hours of preview that I received from the game allowed me to tackle the tutorial, the first mission, and the start of the second mission, along with unlocking a few starter decks to play with. While every playthrough has different ways of changing up the gameplay, Fights in Tight Spaces is certainly not easy. There will be different types of enemies that can go against your deck synergy if you’re not careful so planning and really recognizing synergies between cards is equally as important.

Fights in Tight Spaces is simply designed, but is a lot of fun. The full version is inexpensive enough to warrant a pre-order, and I can’t wait to try out deck combos while running through different levels and events. There are challenge levels to try out and you don’t have to let the roguelite aspect of it intimidate you, it actually works out that it’s all up to trial and error.

Fights in Tight Spaces is available for the Xbox and PC via a free trial.