Lightfingers is a party heist game with a wonderful sense of physicality
by Amr (@siegarettes)
- Lightfingers
- Developer- Nuzimatic
- Publisher- Nuzimatic
- Nintendo Switch
Modeled in the style of a board game, Lightfingers is a party heist game that plays out like a living diorama. Players take turns rolling dice, moving around a board, and strategically playing cards on their way to be the first to get away with four bags of loot. As they perform heists they draw unwanted attention from guards and will have to duck them or stash it away before their inevitable capture to avoid losing it.
What’s striking is how well the materials of the game are well realized. There’s a physicality to the board and all the playing pieces. Characters feel like living miniatures, and a wonderful little mechanical action precedes movement as a tiny arm lifts, moves, and flips tiles of the board as they’re uncovered. When the game moves from its turn based back and forth to the heist action sequences, everyone comes together to interact with its playset style environments. The attacking player controls their character, while everyone else pulls and turns plungers and cranks to operate the deathtraps of each secure location.
The chunky 3D art, flat colored illustrations, tilt shift, and stylish UI really sell the charm of Lightfingers, and gives the sense of tiny mechanical world to play in. Which makes it unfortunate when that machine begins to creak. The UI sometimes is a bit clunky and performance wise the frame rate and resolution don’t feel consistent. It feels fuzzy and sluggish at times, in contrast with its snappy presentation.
And maybe I’m spoiled by the excellent dice physics of games like Children of Zodiarcs, but the dice physics in Lightfingers are a missed opportunity. Despite the suggestion of control, letting you throw dice with both motion controls and by flicking the stick, there’s no way to control the direction or force of the dice, nor any use of the Switch’s HD Rumble to give you the feeling of holding them. More often than not I accidentally moved my Joycon and they fell limply onto the board. Gameplay-wise it doesn’t make a huge difference, but in a game so dedicated to giving that physicality in other areas it stands out.
The dynamics of the board game turns out a bit better, thankfully. The board is randomized each time, and not knowing what’s within each space makes exploration exciting. Stumbling upon a new location is a joy, not only because you might be able to pick up new cards to turn the game to your advantage, but because they often can also be robbed to advance you towards the game winning total of loot. Of course, you might also end up stumbling into a guard post around the corner that throws you into jail, losing you your turn and all your treasure.
There’s a fun back and forth to it, with players approach and falling away from victory as they get caught by guards, or by traps set by the other players. Like other party games, how frantic games get is going to be defined by the group you bring to it. Let’s just say that the more someone gets into their role as a deceitful thief, the more interesting it becomes. The opposite is true as well. If everyone plays nice, Lightfingers is almost uneventful. The game still sways back and forth, but not with the same frequency. And without the built in vendettas and temporary alliances that these social situations bring, there’s nothing but a little bit of quiet theft going on in the night.
So I guess what I’m saying is, bring your friends over for a game of Lightfingers, just be prepared to lose them by the end of the game.