It’s been over two years since Questline’s Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon went into Early Access and so much of it has improved over that time. This is a traditional RPG with not only a means of creating a character that best suits your playstyle, but also a story that revolves around every decision and action that’s taken. While the game came out at a less than opportune time given the remake of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was shadow dropped a month prior to its release, Tainted Grail offers a new type of experience that’s reminiscent of old Bethesda.
King Arthur the Conqueror
The story of Tainted Grail is one of the more compelling aspects, as it features a dark rendition of King Arthur and Merlin. While most media and tales tend to focus on King Arthur as this rags-to-riches story, in this timeline, King Arthur, while a symbol for his people, is a questionable figure for his conquests and wartime actions. Here, after a disease spread throughout his land of Kamalot, he brought his people to Avalon in hopes of a better tomorrow. Unfortunately, he was met with resistance from the inhabitants of Avalon and a mysterious new entity called Wyrdness.
The main story itself will probably run anywhere between 30 and 40 hours, with the majority of the side content doubling the playtime. Unfortunately, a lot of the side quests are less than compelling adventures. While there’s some very strong side content in the later parts of the campaign, the majority fail to impress.
We do appreciate how the side quests are structured, though. Most of the side content can be obtained by simply talking to NPCs you normally wouldn’t interact with. Sometimes even the most unsuspecting individual will have a quest for you and Tainted Grail rarely holds your hand in that regard. While it does guide you through the side quest itself with markers, actually coming upon these quests is a lot more open-ended.
On top of that, there’s a large emphasis on player choice and agency. Tainted Grail has a strong number of alternate paths and means of finishing a quest. While there will be the obvious ones that will play out roughly the same, or there might be an illusion of choice where the side quests are only slightly different with a different faction, there are many side quests that will go through drastically different outcomes based on your actions. With that said, a lot of the changes to the world never truly felt like they made a significant difference to how we played, having mostly minor effects in the grand scheme of things.
The Elder Grail
If you’re familiar with fantasy-based first-person action games, specifically out of Bethesda’s catalog, then you’ll feel right at home with Tainted Grail. The world itself is segmented into acts and different sectors of the world, but for the most part, you’ll still be either hacking and slashing or utilizing the various magic in the world to dispatch your foes like you’re used to. There are multiple dungeons, a lot of which are hidden in little nooks of the world, that reveal dark and dreary side content.
Combat in general isn’t super fluid, with dodging, stealth and ranged combat in particular being finicky, but there’s a significant variety when it comes to customizing your build. There’s a massive skill tree that accommodates all forms of players, be it sword and shield builds, fast dual-handed builds, magic-oriented builds and more. No matter what kind of playstyle you are, Tainted Grail accommodates everyone.
This isn’t an easy game to jump immediately into, either, unless the difficulty is set to easy. This is because there are limited sources of health potions and if you’re facing more than one enemy at a time, things will quickly get hectic. Being able to dodge or wield a shield properly will be something that everyone needs to invest in, because there’s no combat scenario that doesn’t require either. Thankfully, there are quite a few scenarios where you can avoid combat all together, provided it’s tied to a certain quest. This is because, like other games in the genre, speech and persuasion are key components of the experience, as dialogue interactions will drastically deviate from a situation.
If you’re familiar with fantasy-based first-person action games, specifically out of Bethesda’s catalog, then you’ll feel right at home with Tainted Grail.
A Striking Presentation
One of the more compelling aspects of Tainted Grail is its visual aesthetic. From lakes of blood to a grueling world on fire, if there’s one thing Tainted Grail has, it’s a grungy metal style. While the game itself tends to look drab in most areas, and even the castles and ancient structures can be dull, it’s the moments where you witness demonic or even ritualistic sites that inspire. On top of that, some of the later monsters and enemies have a unique and traditional dark fantasy design to them, making this a slow burn when you get to the good stuff.
The music is also something to gush over, as right from the get-go you hear the atmospheric and dark tones that really set the pace of what you can expect. The voice acting is also surprisingly well done, with quite a few unique NPCs to interact with.
Closing Comments:
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is a solid, albeit flawed RPG. It features a robust skill tree system, an engaging story and half-decent combat. Unfortunately, a lot of the side quests leave much to be desired and certain components, such as stealth and athletics, aren’t as finely tuned as the rest. Having this revolve around King Arthur is an entertaining concept, but you’ll tend to forget he’s part of the plot most times. The world is tuned with a grungy, almost heavy metal aesthetic, but this striking visual art style is marred by most of the open world being on the dull side. Regardless, players who are fans of games such as The Elder Scrolls or Kingdom Come: Deliverance will get a kick out of Tainted Grail.
