YMMV / Fights in Tight Spaces

• Aluminum Christmas Trees: It's easy to assume "the biker gang wars of the 90s" are just a tongue-in-cheek Noodle Incident to flavor the Death's Head gang, but it was a very real three-year period of conflict between heavily-armed^* (some skirmishes involved anti-tank missile launchers) biker gangs in Scandinavia.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Whenever the reward is available, everyone would want to go for extra Momentum limit when having 4 or less momentum. Having 5 momentum is usually enough to play all the necessary cards.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • Enemies that Counter force you to either redirect other enemies into attacking them or attack in such a way as to not be within their attack range afterwards (such as attacks that push). Unlike Auto-Attack which is often sported by weak enemies (up until the end-game) Counter maintains plenty of damage.
  • Any enemy that can advance whenever the player character uses a movement card becomes this as it makes positioning far trickier, and if you don't have an Emergency Move card (which is counted as a special card and not a movement card) or a way to move them around it becomes difficult to avoid their attacks.
  • Enemies that apply injuries only need to hit you once without enough Block to prevent the damage to force you to play with a debilitating card for the rest of the fight, which can range from cards that only exist to occupy your deck to cards that increase Momentum costs for certain types of cards.
  • I Completi is the point where the game stops pulling any punches:
    • The common Gangster can Counter, which makes beating them somewhat more complicated.
    • The Batter not only turns around depending on your movement and inflicts injuries but also increases the damage of every enemy every turn, and since they're not minibosses there can be 2 to 3 of them in a mission.
    • The Rifleman is a ranged enemy that can auto-attack THREE TIMES and can also turn around to target the player character, on top of spawning with some Block and having a lot of health.
    • The Hatchet-Man can advance two tiles every time a movement card is used and has a range 2 attack, which makes it eerily easy for him to catch a player.
    • The Assassin deals a lot of damage and bleeding, can Counter, has a range 2 attack AND has a big health pool comparable to that of lieutenants, but are treated as an uncommon enemy.
    • The I Completi Boss can be even harder than the final boss. Not only can he NOT be pushed, but he also has more than 100 health, can also advance every time a movement card is used, and spawns with 2 Assassins.
• Fridge Brilliance: The game spells out that The Insiders and Jade Staff rely on human messengers for communication, but doesn't give explanations for i Completi or the Death's Head biker gang. How the former communicate secretly is anyone's guess, but it's much clearer how the latter can do it: by motorbike messengers, of course!
• Game-Breaker:
  • Damage modifier gives an equivalent amount of damage to every attack card, even ones that do 0 damage. Most have this as a temporary modifier but some such as Palm Strike don't, which allows the latter to stack for the rest of the fight, making it more and more valuable in drawn-out fights such as against bosses.
  • Stun. It's a rare effect but if the conditions are right (which most often involves the target not having any block) the enemy is unable to strike for as long as it lasts, and it can be used to shut down any characters with Auto-Attack or Counter. It also works on bosses!
  • Any healing method such as healing cards (all of them can only be used once per fight each) as well as the Fast Heal enhancement (heal 6 health after every fight) can save you a trip to the Clinic.
  • Apprenticeship (reward cards are automatically upgraded) and Fast Learner (purchased cards are automatically upgraded) are tremendous money savers that can augment your deck a lot over time.
  • Bonus Move. This enhancement grants you a free two-tile movement card at the beginning of every turn on the condition that it's used first or it won't be available until the next turn.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Events where long-term injury is an option. It is usually wise to not pick those options as some long-term injury cards (such as ones that increase the cost of movement or attacks) can be game-losing. Not only that but removing a long-term injury usually costs money (outside certain events). In later game, long-term injury also takes up an enhancement slot.
• Special Effects Failure: The main complaint about Weapon of Choice is how the player's gun sounds rather wimpy despite being a Desert Eagle. It's made especially bad by the enemy pistols already having an intimidating sound.
• Spiritual Successor: The game is often described by players and audiences as "Metal Gear Ac!d without the guns".