Mr Viral
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Review
I am a huge fan of anything Arthurian. I’ve even taken multiple pilgrimages to Great Britain to scope out the legendary sites. I’ve also followed Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s long development as it made its way to full release. The final product is still a work in progress with more than its share of flaws, but they’re worth at least tolerating for the ambitious game underneath.
Return to Kamelot (yes, with a “K”)
In a nutshell, here’s the story: Arthur’s beloved island of Avalon was once beset by an evil force called the Wyrdness. With Merlin’s help, Arthur drove the monsters away, but now they have returned several hundred years later. With Arthur’s voice in your head, your task is to face the corrupting Wyrdness once again. Whether the spectral Arthur is friend or foe remains to be seen. He’s not universally beloved.
There’s a lot more to both the game’s narrative and the Tainted Grail world. Previously, a tabletop game and a deck builder video game have explored the Tainted Grail mythos. The Fall of Avalon is an action RPG very much — I mean, very much — in the mold of Bethesda’s classics like Oblivion and Skyrim. Coming on the heels of the much-lauded Oblivion remake, it’s easy to see where Tainted Grail apes its obvious inspiration. But it forges its own path, too.
Immortal Combat
As in most action/adventure fantasy RPGs, the player explores and fights across the landscape, using melee, magic, and ranged weapons. There’s streamlined crafting, a metric crap-ton of loot to collect, and lots of voiced NPCs to assign tasks and enlarge the narrative. We can safely skip ahead to what’s different about The Fall of Avalon, the rest is standard-issue ARPG. For a relatively modestly-funded game, the writing, voice-acting, and NPCs are generally entertaining and interesting.
The most noticeable difference between Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and, say, Oblivion, is that combat is punchier and more nuanced. You’re not going to mistake it for Dark Souls, but there are totally functional dodges, blocks, and parries. Magic spells snap and crackle. Stealth actually works well. While there are several skill trees to add power and upgrades, most basic abilities improve simply by using them. I always appreciate when this totally logical background system is in place. Practice makes perfect. I really like that players can place healing bonfires at will. It takes some of the frustration out of some very challenging areas.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon was conceived as a first-person game. A third-person mode was added late in development, mostly for accessibility. It’s functional but extremely buggy, especially in combat. Hopefully, it will continue to be refined as the game is patched and developed further.
Bring In the Bug Bombs
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is an extremely ambitious RPG produced on a AA budget. In case you’re unfamiliar with the euphemism, this is code for a game that’s full of jank and technical issues. Physics can be extremely wonky, there are some bugged quests, crashes, and very rough edges all around. Graphically, nothing in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon looks really up to current standards. Textures lack detail, and character models are frankly unimpressive. As a fantasy world goes, Avalon sticks pretty close to the template used by Oblivion, Skyrim, and a dozen other games.
While most of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s faults are technical, I had some quibbles with a few mechanics. Although crafting is wonderfully simplified, the inventory and encumbrance systems are old-school annoying. The control scheme was just wonky enough to get in the way on occasion in battle or tense situations.
Sound and music fare a little better. Voice work is generally good, and combat and spell audio effects are quite effective and appropriate. The musical score by Andrzej Janicki is impressively varied. It alternates choral, medieval, Celtic, and Middle Eastern-accented textures– sometimes in one track — with more brutal and demonic-sounding cues.
Something Magical
Despite its lack of refinement, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is entertaining and addictive. It has a sprawling story and world to explore with dozens of hours of content. Its combat is more effective and engaging than you might expect. It’s a bit messy to be sure, but fans of classic RPGs are almost certain to enjoy Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon’s take on Arthurian mythology and old-school roleplaying games.
The Good
Ambitious and entertaining
Enjoyable combat
Interesting setting and story
Old school RPG vibes
80
The Bad
Very janky
Some annoying mechanics
Some generic environments
Dated graphics
