Video games have subverted Arthurian legend before, butTainted Grail: The Fall of Avalonis shaping up to be one of the best examples. Developed by Questline and published by Awaken Realms, this new open-world first-person action RPG summons immediate comparisons to theElder Scrollsgames butmeasurably one-upssome of Bethesda’s signature output. Imaginatively scripted with varied combat options and creative quest design,Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s journey from Early Access is a wild success, even in light of some remaining bugs, glitches, and visible budgetary constraints.
It’s also a follow-up to the studio’sTainted Grail: Conquest, awell-regardedand inventive roguelite deckbuilder from 2021. There’s no requirement to have played that game first. However, its fans will find a few visual and narrative touchstones, even returning characters and enemies, so it’s definitely fun to experience these head-on in the newer game.
I’ve sank 40+ hours intoTainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s post-EA version, which has brought me to the third (and presumably final) biome of the game, and it’s been a captivating journey. Questline has taken wise lessons from Bethesda’s strengths, mistakes, and forged tropes in this genre, stacking more-ish elements throughout the experience that secure my confidence in their dark fantasy vision.
Amnesiac Demigods, Encroaching Corruption, and The Madness of the Church
A somewhat classic intro setting finds you captive in the Island Asylum, a harrowing prison hospital for Avalon residents infected with the Red Plague, a condition coincidentally treated by the Red Priests. After being freed by a mysterious ally, you’ll comb through a surprisingly vast fortress environment while learning the game’s basics, come to terms with its physics and timing, and sneakily rummage for items and lore.Oh, and also, King Arthur’s soul climbs into your consciousness' passenger seat at some point, a cool quirk which sadly isn’t leveraged more often in dialogue.
There are many starter classes to choose from but, like similar games, you’re mostly left to your own devices to draft and craft your avatar’s build. Stealthing around the Island Asylum reveals scores of doomed patients, aggro jailers, mad scientists, psychotic torturers, and generally establishesTainted Grail’s dark fantasy and horror themes.
Avalon is fighting a losing battle against a corrupting fog that’s crept over the land, a misunderstood magical aura which infects all life with a mysterious mutating energy known as the Wyrdness. The deity-like King Arthur himself may have once tried his best to stop it, but his death left the task to his lieutenants Royal Knights, with the populace – including nobles, highlanders, peasants, druids, and everyone in between – mostly dissatisfied, hopeless, and revolution-ready.
There’s a lot of table-setting to establishTainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s unique culture, even with the potentially familiar Arthurian ingredients in the mix. It draws deeply from those established myths and archetypes, but its ideas, politics, magical rules, and main quest drama come off as convincingly original and richly diverse, imparting a healthy balance of soulfulness and humor.
Combat Options Aplenty In Tainted Grail
Swinging Swords, Summoning Skellies, Scorching with Fire, Stabbing Fools in the Back
There’s plentiful combat inTainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, so I’d warn against anyone seeking out an open-world RPG which can largely be tackled via diplomacy. The action is responsive and well-managed, with stamina bars, replenishing mana, and that classic on-the-fly health cheat which often accompanies this style of game, allowing you to gorge on meat pies and instantly quaff potions while goblins are slicing at your throat.
Each biome transition prompts a DPS check, but putting points into agility skills and attributes allows even the squishiest wizard to stick and move like Bruce Lee.I’ve been crafting a fairly broad spellsword type of build, which has proven suitable for most creatures and boss encounters, even if it doesn’t feel meticulously managed. There’s no native respec option, but a few rare items do allow it, and I haven’t felt noticeably hampered by misspent XP thus far.
Combat here is simplified overall but reactive and satisfying, with spells, attacks, and blocks utilizing short-press or long-press actions. There’s unlimited stamina outside a fight, so feel free to sprint and leap at will, even though the lack of a mantling ability can turn a chest-high wall into a firm dead end. Sneak attacks (and even sneak-spells) can prompt insane one-shot damage, special melee weapons and bows trigger status effects or synergize with other gear, andthere’s usually another viable gear setup when you get bored with what you have.
Note thatTainted Grail: The Fall of Avalondoes lean into sunk cost fallacies somewhat, so you’ll want to target your favorite weapon to focus resources on before long. My primary Arcane Sword is now wildly OP compared to anything else I’ve found from the midway point of the game.
Gear is fun to collect, trade, and upgrade, with two relic slots attachable to anything in the game, though relics themselves are a significantly rare drop. Spells are treated as non-upgradable gear, equipped like any other weapon in either the left or right hand.Dependent on certain stats, spells are powerful and can be quite odd– there’s a fascinating example that can turn living things into cheese –but most feel straightforward and limited by design. It’s mainly stuff like fireballs, lightning bolts, and creature summons, unless I just haven’t found the OP scrolls yet.
The Grail Tale’s The Thing
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Has A Superb Story Emphasized by its Quest Design
More than anything else, strong storytelling is why I’d strongly recommend this ornery beast of an RPG.Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalonis absolutely steeped in intricate moral dilemmas, secretive lore, and macabre reveals. Some content is spelled right out to you, with finer details bound to pages found in dungeons and drawers, while others manifest in staged quests starring characters whose motivations are a thrill to decipher and clarify.
With that in mind, the rolling hills and nightmarish statuary of Avalon contain fewer surprise encounters than I would like. Most important hotspots are directly uncovered via quests, a scant few can be revealed in passing, but there’s never a random run-in on the road with an NPC, which saps some sense of chaotic discovery from exploration. Typically, if you find it moving along the path, it’s something or someone to kill.
I do appreciate how fast travel is lightly gated in the game, utilizing a one-off burn of special resources or restricting you to teleport towers conservatively scattered around the map. This helps support a sense of healthy wanderlust, which is often how you’ll unearth a surprise treasure, stumble into a hermit’s hut, or note a new dungeon.
Final Thoughts on Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - For Now
I’m completely swept up in the dark fantasy drama ofTainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. Its limitations do manifest in the occasional nondestructive (thus far) bug or glitch, a few muddier lower-rez textures, and other pockets that prove out a successfully sizable yet still-independent studio. Rarely, if ever, have these examples acted as an obstacle to the pure joy of expanding the story, strengthening NPC relationships, and journeying to unique locales and alternate planes of reality.
For those who love dungeon-diving and grow weary of the cut-and-paste approach in these types of games, worry not, as all the interiors here have a noticeable maker’s mark. The massive legacy dungeons like Sagremor’s Keep are ostentatious centerpiece adventures, but even the many smaller caves and outposts bear their own quirks, surprises, and unique characters.
Playing a massive open-world RPG that values its players’ time investment is gratifying. I never roll my eyes at a cliché inTainted Grail: The Fall of Avalonbecause it so frequently subverts them outright, nor do I ever fret over some daft resource-gathering distraction or unnecessary spot of padding. Even 40 hours in, it’s been primarily killer over filler, so let’s see what’s yet to come in its endgame.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avaloncomes out of Early Access on June 23, 2025, for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.
