Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

[KnightoftheWind]

Finally decided to give this one a try, and I gotta say I like it so far. I like that it's trying to compete with Skyrim and attempts to fill that niche for people who may be disillusioned with Bethesda's current direction and where the sixth game is almost certainly headed (KANGguards). However, where I feel it falls flat is in it's world design and tone. It really is trying to be just another Dark Souls with yet another grimdark, edgy world. Why is it so rare to see a genuine piece of high fantasy with an actual color palette?, why does everything have to be a glob of grey and brown?. Set in some nihilistic realm where everything is going to hell?.

I think this game would be better off it was turned into "Normal Grail: The Rise of Avalon". Give me everything, give me Tolkien elves, dwarves, red fire-breathing dragons and evil necromancers to have righteous anger towards. Have a legendary character like King Arthur actually 'be' King Arthur. Let him stand tall with gold-plated armor, a full beard, and fight for truth, justice and honor in a massive castle full of loyal knights. Have a quest-line where you strive to rise through the ranks of his court, and join him at the round table. No more of this "ho-hum, oy-vey, woe-is-me" stuff.

The generic ugly setting and awful boring minimalist UI really hurt this game a lot for me. Whenever I see gameplay of it my eyes glaze over with just how uninspired it all looks. It's like it's copying all of the worst parts of Skyrim's world ignoring that it's so popular because it exists in a universe that's infinitely more interesting.

I stopped playing due to the visuals. It made me quite motion sick after a while, and I think it's due to the excessive blur they seemed to have added artificially.

[WaterMage]

NEw update :

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 1414509359

[Magick]

NEw update :

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 1414509359

Fire slash looks cool!

[WaterMage]

Instead of Avowed, people should look to this amazing game.

[Katler3]

Man, I didn't think this game would ever get to be released, even if it's in EA.

However, the price is something to be desired for an EA title.

[Katler3]

Man, I didn't think this game would ever get to be released, even if it's in EA.

However, the price is something to be desired for an EA title. Anyway you can already pre-order gaming boosting services https://askboosters.com/ to this game which is fun.

[WaterMage]

They added a lot of stuff since 2022.

[WaterMage]

April development update.


https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 1398957870

Seems like saves will be wiped and that theyt will offer presets.

[WaterMage]

"Patch 0.7 Cuanacht Rebellion, our biggest patch EVER, is finally up and ready! Experience Tainted Grail in a whole new quality and an extra region with 10-20 hours of additional gameplay."

[media]https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... 5203155990[/media]

_________________

[1998]

Another update, lots of pics but honestly nothing too interesting. According to their original prediction we are right around their estimated release window, doesn't look like they even close to it though.

June & July development update!



Hello, travelers!

Let’s start with an apology - sorry we haven’t been active on our Steam page for a while. Rest assured, the reason is that we’re working hard on new content while fixing and polishing the existing one. Just your casual “lost track of time” situation!

We’re all very happy about your warm reception of the recent Cuanacht Rebellion update. Thank you for the support, including all the feedback and bug reports provided. We read and analyze every piece, even if we can’t respond to everyone. So keep the comments going!

We know you want more of The Fall of Avalon, so without further ado, take a peek at what we’ve been cooking for you this time! Keep in mind this is a work-in-progress footage, so everything you see is subject to change.

Starting off with a big one: a first look at the Forlorn Swords, an upcoming snow-themed land. Yes, this one will be for you to explore.



One of the Dál Riata tribes, Theud, is a clan of mages, mystics and alchemists (actually, you’ve already had the chance to meet one of them in the game). Well-acquainted with the Wyrdness. They believe magic is a gift sent to them by Mathair. The Theud refer to themselves in the third person, believing that the name they have acquired is worth uttering as often as possible.



The Frostbitten Warriors - they come from the Oighreata tribe, which disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The warriors come in two forms: a slower, zombie-like one and a more dangerous version with ice crystals.



A few of the other Forlorn Swords enemies you can encounter.







Apart from all the brand-new stuff, we’re constantly upgrading the already-existing content! You can expect various quality-of-life improvements (not to mention the all-around bug fixing), as well as full-fledged additions. Below are some examples.

Some folks will receive new attack patterns. Treat with caution, fire-resistant gloves are advised!



In Cuanacht, you will have the chance to stumble upon a new lantern-wielding NPC. What’s his role? What does he do? Look for him in the game and find out!





A dark fantasy RPG wouldn’t be complete without… plague doctors!



Some say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Yet, we decided it’s about time to take our fellow hostile NPCs for training and polish their movement - all to make the gameplay smoother and add extra depth to combat. We’re now focusing on two things:

1. getting enemies to walk on uneven ground (this is important mainly for regular monsters, but if the system works, we will apply the rules to bigger enemies too);



2. teaching enemies to dodge your attacks (they’re already pretty agile, as seen below).



That wraps it up for this dev update! We really hope you enjoyed this pack of teasers. We’re now getting back to creating new content and ironing out what’s already present. As always, all opinions and comments are welcome. Let us know what you think about the Forlorn Swords sneak peeks!

Stay safe travelers, and await the next updates!

[WaterMage]

New UPDATE > https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... ?l=english

And the best part. They implemented SPEARS!!!

[Valter]

Please no early access hell

[Finarfin]

Please no early access hell

it's coming out Q2 2025

[Valter]

Please no early access hell

it's coming out Q2 2025

So Q4 2025, got it. (game devs' release predictions have inflicted grave trust issues upon me)

[maidenhaver]

I don't care if it has mod support. I'm sick of needing mods, just want a game.

[WaterMage]

The devs are a small polish studio, not incompetent diversity hires, so I expect they to deliver in the good result.

BTW, I was playing 7d2d. That game spent literally a decade in EA

[Vergil]

The devs are a small polish studio

Interest immediately crushed

[WaterMage]

[Xenich]

Looks good, though I dislike the purple faggotry with some of the screens. Colors should be toned down, with a more "darker" and natural look to the world (in some areas).

[Xenich]

I don't care if it has mod support. I'm sick of needing mods, just want a game.

With a game like this, I would say it is a must.

With mod support, it means the game can have a longer run over time.

What we needed was a company to make a solid product at its core, with the base game being honest (ie not woke chasing) and a good toolset to allow the community to add on to the game.

I am thinking "new content" possibilities like the Elder scrolls games, not simply "change my toons appearance".

If they achieve that, they become the leader in the industry.

[WaterMage]

[maidenhaver]

I don't care if it has mod support. I'm sick of needing mods, just want a game.

With a game like this, I would say it is a must.

With mod support, it means the game can have a longer run over time.

What we needed was a company to make a solid product at its core, with the base game being honest (ie not woke chasing) and a good toolset to allow the community to add on to the game.

I am thinking "new content" possibilities like the Elder scrolls games, not simply "change my toons appearance".

If they achieve that, they become the leader in the industry.

I don't want new content, I want a game I can treat like a ***** and forget about.

[Xenich]

I don't care if it has mod support. I'm sick of needing mods, just want a game.

With a game like this, I would say it is a must.

With mod support, it means the game can have a longer run over time.

What we needed was a company to make a solid product at its core, with the base game being honest (ie not woke chasing) and a good toolset to allow the community to add on to the game.

I am thinking "new content" possibilities like the Elder scrolls games, not simply "change my toons appearance".

If they achieve that, they become the leader in the industry.

I don't want new content, I want a game I can treat like a ***** and forget about.

Then go through years of long dry spells of absolute garbage?

[maidenhaver]

With a game like this, I would say it is a must.

With mod support, it means the game can have a longer run over time.

What we needed was a company to make a solid product at its core, with the base game being honest (ie not woke chasing) and a good toolset to allow the community to add on to the game.

I am thinking "new content" possibilities like the Elder scrolls games, not simply "change my toons appearance".

If they achieve that, they become the leader in the industry.

I don't want new content, I want a game I can treat like a ***** and forget about.

Then go through years of long dry spells of absolute garbage?

How many dungeon mods for Morrowind have you played?

[Xenich]

I don't want new content, I want a game I can treat like a ***** and forget about.

Then go through years of long dry spells of absolute garbage?

How many dungeon mods for Morrowind have you played?

Well, it has been years since I played Morrowind modded, so I don't remember anything specific. I know when it took off, I played a ton of crap, as well as Oblivion with FCOM and the like till I got so sick of it I didn't touch it for years. Point is, I played the game quite a lot more past its "initial" release content.

[Brother Chad]

Here's my review of the first 15 hours.

I'll save you the suspense and say I like it up front, which is why I bothered writing all this.

The Skyrim We Have at Home

Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon is a loveletter to Bethesda's long-running TES series and it shows in every fundamental part of the game. What we have here is an indie budget version of Skyrim, although it is different enough to make the comparison perhaps only skin deep.

If you are looking for an open-world, first-person spell-and-slash, then this is basically the only game in the arena right now (-looks at Avowed with contempt-). Let's take a look at what Tainted Grail has and how it executes on it.

Combat

The game offers you what appears to be a variety of builds ranging from two-handed , sword and shield, dual-weilding, bowman, thief with sneak attacks, mage, and gish options with no formal classes. I chose a hybrid one-hander and spell gish type deal, so I can't really attest to the other options.

Combat is very similiar to TES offerings with the exception that encounters do tend to be dangerous and you can't potionspam quite as much as to trivialize the entire game. I found myself mostly doing the King's Field/Dark Souls cheese of luring enemies away and then ganking them individually. Enemies will drink a seemingly infinite supply of health potions once they are de-aggro'ed, so you have to make sure to finish fights when you start them. The 2 boss fights I've experienced are the most anti-climatic and mind-boggling easy that I have seen in quite some time.

I'm on normal difficulty, and I'm not sure what exactly the higher difficulties modes offer but I don't want to deal with HP bloated enemies. As it is, the game is very easy with a spellcaster. Enemies have no real way of dealing with the old "run backwards and shoot" strategy, so everything dies unless you're in a small enclosed fight. I did find the raven blinding spell which does trivialize the entire game as it costs so little mana you can constantly cast it (it confuses enemies) and just hack at them until they're dead. I do go down in 1-2 hits though, being a squishy wizard, so I have to worry about positioning.

Fighting is enjoyable enough, and enemies respawn sporadically so you can treat them as fleshbags of exp. Weapon/spell loadouts are pretty easy to switch on the fly so you can do cool things like shoot poison at a dude, throw a bird at him to peck out his eyes, flamethrower him down and then stab him in the ****. Brutal.

Story, writing and characters

The gist of the story is that you are some random prisoner (did I mention TES inspirations?) destined for greatness, and you escape to find the island of Avalon in great peril. Everything's ****, there's a plague, and the Once and Future King Arthur is supposed to return to make things right... at some point.

The story and lore is actually semi-interesting, even if it's pretty standard dark camelot fare at this point. The writing is servicable but without any style or flare. The high point is that there are few offensive things, especially to a RPGHQ audience. NPCs do speak in a fairly modern vernacular but I haven't come across anything too eye-rolling, and there are few "modernisms for a modern audience."

You're in the dung ages of medieval fantasy England and that's all there is to it. Pre-medieval actually, as one cool detail is all the roman gear that Kamelotians are carrying around.

Characters and NPCs are just kind of there, like most TES games. There's no standout characters and I don't remember anybody's names.

Exploration and RPG systems

There are two large areas, one of which was only recently released and not finished, so I won't cover that one much. The first map is essentially a theme park region in a TES game with a moderate amount of little secrets, locations, NPCs and quests scattered throughout. The game says it'll take 10-20 hours to complete. Fast travel's also in.

You can start quests by talking with questgivers or you just come across them in the wild. At night, "Wyrdnight" occurs, which means that the sky gets all spooky and different monsters come out, in addition to making daytime enemies behave differently. They start acting more like zombies and walk slower, which generally makes them easier for my build.

Skills and stats are either increased by doing them, which means you'll be toggling run all the time and dashing/jumping around like an idiot, or need to be leveled up at a campfire. I found the skill trees intuitive and meaningful enough, although it sounds like they'll be redoing them soon.

Itemization

99% of all crates and barrels in the world, no matter where they are, have fresh food in them. Otherwise itemization is... okay. Like TES, enemies will drop everything they have on them, which means you'll soon stop picking up bandit armor because there's nothing really worth buying (...because the game is super easy). At some point you'll stop picking up raw chicken legs too because you'll have like 100 of them.

You will get significant upgrades to your gear, unless you're a spellcaster, then you're stuck with the one single set of wizard armor I found in my entire 15-hour run.

Quests and C&C

There's nothing much to write about. The quests here are bog standard and so is the c&c, with the only caveat of there not being too much c&c and all the quets I did were at least slightly boring.

Another negative is that dialogue options are sometimes very railroady, with you often being allowed only one option, sometimes in a way that opposes how the conversation started. There are dialogue skill checks but I think they may be bugged for me.

Graphics

Awful. Like it makes my eyes bleed bad. Sometimes the lighting engine really kicks in and gives you an astounding view, but that just showcases how low detail everything is. If I was a guessing man, I would assume they "optimized" the hell out of the graphics because of the huge level/world cells/whatever they were working with, but it made the game look like it came straight out of 2015.

Sometimes the art design saves it, but this is rare. There's only been a few moments in the game I was wow'ed by how something looked. Also my video settings keep reverting and I don't know why it does that.

Music and VO

Once again, nothing stands out to me. The music choice is respectable enough but relatively generic. The VO is adequate but won't win awards.

Technical and polish

The game chugs. I'm running this on a very good rig and it still doesn't work as smoothly as you think it would. Plus, there is a large amount of bugs and otherwise jank. I keep having to double tap my unholster button, dialogue with NPCs is sometimes just nothing, floating characters and objects, etc.

Unfortunately, I would say this is pretty expected. If Bethesda can't get it right, I can hardly expect some indie studio to.

Conclusion

If you go into this game with rock bottom expectations, you'll have a lot of fun. It's pretty good for what it is, just don't expect it to be something it's not. I do expect that with a lot more polish and content, Tainted Grail will have a very good chance at hitting above their league.

A small indie studio challenging Bethesda on their home turf, when even other AAA studios think better of it, shows balls. And for that, if nothing else, I wish them a lot of success.

[rusty_shackleford]

No third person & no companions = -5/10

[Brother Chad]

No third person & no companions = -5/10

I forgot to add that summons suck because friendly AI sucks, so companions would've made me kill them and bury them in a ditch.

[Tweed]

I already have Skyrim.

[WaterMage]