Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon Review
Worth it now that it's out of early access?
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Title: Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
Release: May 23, 2025
Platform: PS5 PC Xbox X|S
Developer: Questline
Publisher: Awaken Realms
Genre: Open World RPG Adventure
ESRB: M
Reviewed on: PC
Time Played: 43 Hours
Intro:
Tainted Grail might look like another dark fantasy RPG at first, but there’s more going on under the hood. Between its heavy atmosphere, layered systems, and tough choices, it’s the kind of game that demands your attention. In this review, I’ll break down how it plays, what actually works, what still needs fixing, and whether it’s worth your time now that it’s out of early access.
Where it starts
A terrible illness known as the Red Death plagues the land of Avalon, harming its people. You play as one of the unfortunate souls infected, captured, and imprisoned because of it. After a quick character customization and a daring escape from your cell, you will venture out into the world, making new friends and enemies, gaining more strength and powers, and possibly saving the world or plunging it deeper into chaos; the decision is yours.
Making good choices
You will find so many different choices to make in Tainted Grail, from character creation to regular conversations. Now I won’t say every choice you make matters. However, a lot of them do seem to affect how things turn out, and you won’t know right away. And sometimes your choices will be decided on how your attributes are filled out, locking you out of what you may like to do.
Benefits from Every Action
Almost everything you do, from running, swinging a sword, and cooking, will provide a bit of experience in that craft. As you level those skills, your aptitude increases, and you gain a little more experience toward your character level. With this design, you can feel your character improving in everything you do as you progress, using less stamina while fighting and making your creations far more beneficial.
Attributes & Skills
Every character level rewards you with a point to put toward attributes and another point to assign to one of the many skill trees. Your attributes will be used to enhance your base stats and fulfill other world requirements. The skill trees are associated with the different attributes; you can also improve base stats there or discover great skills to utilize. Initially, the number of options available can seem overwhelming, but I found it best to concentrate on one aspect as I leveled up and branch out to other trees once I had a solid grasp of the game.
Selecting Armor
Early in your adventure, you will begin to find equipment that can significantly enhance your build. The first major obstacle with great gear is reaching the right attribute levels to actually use them. For example, needing eight perception to fully utilize the critical hit chance gained from a pair of pants. Generally, if you are leveling up the most beneficial attributes for your build, that shouldn’t be a problem when you find the perfect piece of gear. However, there were quite a few times I found something awesome, only to store the item until I gained a few more levels.
Your Best Offense
The weapons you find will function much like your gear, requiring minimum levels of attributes for proper use. From swords to magic, you need a certain level of efficiency. You can divvy out your attributes to handle multiple types of weapons, and there is a wheel available to switch to different weapons based on your situation. There is no limit to the possible configurations for how you can play this game, given you have enough points to place in the right attributes.
Crafting
Crafting items can play a significant role in your game. After finding the right materials and recipes, you can create armor, weapons, potions, and even meals for a healing-over-time effect. Each crafting activity will have a skill associated with it, and higher levels will increase your chances of creating better items. One of the fantastic mechanics of crafting is the ability to use items stored away rather than on your person. Carrying everything you need to make numerous meals would eventually weigh down even the strongest character.
Finding Work
It was easy to follow the main questline because you always had a marker or goal when looking at your quests. Most side quests, on the other hand, must be discovered by picking up special items or engaging in lengthy conversations with everyone you encounter. Some NPCs can chat your ear off before you get the chance to choose a response that initiates a quest, so it’s essential to talk to everyone you see, provided they aren’t trying to hurt you.
The Wyrdness
Along with the Red Death, Avalon is also suffering from the spreading Wyrdness. A dark, unknowable primordial fog causing all manner of problems. While you can find it at any time in certain areas, it always emerges at night. Enemy humans are transformed, and other entities come out to play when the Wyrdness is present. At that time, enemies will begin to drop ethereal cobwebs and unknown items. You can use the cobwebs to empower a fire for protection against the Wyrdness, as well as to unlock additional options, such as identifying the unknown items. Conditions can get tough in the Wyrdness, so be cautious when the sun goes down.
Can the kids watch
If the kids wanted to watch you play, there are quite a few things you’d want to watch out for. The language was a bit rough in some spots, and when fighting enemies, there was a lot of blood with each hit. Not to mention the terrifying looks of some creatures you run into. It’s set in a dark and gritty world that doesn’t hold back. You can even find multiple books with entertaining, but rather risqué stories within. Additionally, there were some points where you might induce some visions with the use of mushrooms or what have you.
Final Thoughts
I would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have about the game or my review, so leave me a message in the comments below. While you do that, let’s move on to my final thoughts and ratings.
As you may have noticed by now, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon shares many similarities with some very well-known games already on the market. If you like Elder Scrolls, odds are you’ll enjoy this game as well. The gameplay feels familiar, with some differences. I enjoy playing with a bow in a stealthy manner, and I found that in this game I had to focus on the right gear and attribute placement to deal good damage. I tried going all-in for a one-shot sneak build but ran into significant issues during boss fights that didn’t allow sneak attacks, so I had to use a special item to reallocate all of my points and find different gear for an alternative bow build. There were numerous options in character builds, allowing for various combinations to play as.
Tainted Grail was in early access for a while and recently got released as a full product. The stories are all there, and the gameplay works for the most part. I experienced a few issues, but nothing game-breaking; for now, there is still a button in the menu to “unstuck” my character if I find myself stuck in the ground. The devs are hard at work fixing problems within the game. There was a big patch recently that resolved many issues. There is an awesome dedication to this game, removing any worries I may have about its future.
The main story was fascinating throughout the game. It was fundamentally Arthurian, with Nordic influences woven in. While there were characters and weapons drawn from the lore of King Arthur, many creative liberties were taken, and mostly in the best ways. The world was dark and filled with a bloody history, immersing me in the middle of ancient conflicts that only I could resolve with my unique skills.
The number of choices available in the game results in a very high replayability rate. There are numerous different outcomes that various quests can lead to, offering unique stories or rewards. One playthrough of the game can take over fifty hours, but with all the different choices and possible builds, it’s definitely worth playing through more than once. The game is also so expansive that it would be challenging to discover everything in your first run.
With that, I’d like to convert thoughts into numbers and place this on one of my shelves.
The visuals were alright, a little buggy in some spots, and they could still use some work, that’s a 3.
The main story was great, and the plethora of smaller stories that accompanied the main added hours of entertainment, I’m giving it a 4.
The gameplay was amazing, between all the different options of gear and the expansive skill tree, there was a lot to play with, that’s a 5.
The replayability was quite high for this game. The choices you can make in the story and how your character is built create a big incentive to return and try again, that’s a 4
I had so much fun with this game, even with some of the oddities you can find in a large open world game, it worked great and the time flew by while I played, earning another 4
Giving Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon an average score of 4 out of 5. Placing it at the best possible position on my top shelf. It’s a fantastic game that draws obvious inspiration from other great games. Its gameplay is reminiscent of Elder Scrolls, presented in a dark and gritty world. I have no doubt if you enjoyed the likes of Oblivion or Skyrim, you’ll have a lot of fun with this one. And with the strongly dedicated development team behind it, this game has a bright future.