Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

This winter marks 14 years since the debut of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Although a new instalment in my beloved Zelda series was released at the same time, it was, somewhat unexpectedly, the epic role-playing game from Bethesda that took up all my time and became one of my favourites, ever. Fast forward through the years since then and we've enjoyed plenty of epic open-world adventures, but the next instalment in the Elder Scrolls series has been highly anticipated and conspicuously absent. Even though we know it's coming. This year alone, however, we've been able to adventure in similar ways in titles like Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Avowed, and more recently in Oblivion Remastered. But I think the developers at Questline, like so many of us, were longing for something that feels and looks like that epic adventure we got almost 14 years ago.

To call Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon anything other than something that drew huge amounts of inspiration from Bethesda's role-playing games - well, that would be a lie. But luckily, there's something of its own there, behind a surface that feels incredibly familiar in most ways. Just a few minutes into the adventure, the whole thing smells of both Elden Ring and The Witcher, too. It does take a while, but then you also begin to sense a very impressive and unique world building underneath an engine that does its best to hold together something slightly too ambitious for such a small development team. It is usually referred to as 'eurojank' - a perhaps overly ambitious concept that is dragged down a bit by the technicalities. Where the ambitions are simply above what you can achieve technically and in other ways. This is not a big game developed by a huge studio, all that stuff is noticeable. But fortunately, it is also fantastically entertaining and the ambition is also reflected in many well-made parts.

The unique world-building lies partly in the reliance on the King Arthur legend. But it's almost more about filling the world and the adventure with a darkness that makes it its own. Waking up in a dungeon and then escaping is of course something of a huge cliché, but when you reach Avalon's first region - Horns Of The South - and all the inspiration and its own concept become a strangely mesmerising mix - it's hard not to feel, much like you did when you arrived in Riverwood after the initial escape from a dragon in Skyrim.

Having escaped from the aforementioned dungeon, the story then gets underway. It is the soul of King Arthur himself that becomes one with your character and a quest for his sword, shield and helmet begins. But although the main quest revolves around all the mystery presented in the opening hour of the adventure, it is just as much everything else that Avalon offers that will steal your time. Maybe even more so than the main story itself.

Avalon is full of stories and side quests. Most characters have a lot to say. Considerably more than the classic one-liners we are used to and it is clear that they live in a world that has done more than just start to creak at the seams. The side quests are assigned organically as you explore, but it's the surprises of discovery and small encounters that appeal to me most. It can be finding a pessimistic poor man who does not want to leave his place under a bridge or a whole small village that would otherwise have been completely forgotten if you had not explored the coastal strip. Even in terms of the main story, there are branches and choices in how you do things and which side you end up on. The adventure takes you through a post-apocalyptic landscape where a plague is raging and where the nights offer unexpected dangers. It's like Fallout, but in a fantasy setting instead. Huge monuments rise in the distance. Although they are largely just backdrops, they tell a story of how Avalon was once a land that thrived far more than it does now. For those who stray from the path, and believe me you want to, there is always something to discover and experience.

As quickly as one is enchanted by the scope, however, one is just as quick to realise that the technology is not quite in line with the ambitions. The visuals are stunning in places, especially in terms of aesthetics and design. But the frame rate struggles far more than it should. The technical shortcomings are noticeable in terms of textures loading in front of you and there are some other things that break the illusion. Whilst I personally don't find it particularly spoiling, it is a bit buggy with some crashes happening from time to time. As for the visuals, there is also a tendency for a haze that prevents the whole thing from feeling as grand as it could be. One could also criticise that the whole thing feels a bit too desolate in towns and villages, while still fitting the tone and state of the world.

At the same time, the technical aspect is really the only small piece of the puzzle that prevents this from being something enormously grand. Because in all other respects it really succeeds. The environments feel fantastic to adventure through. The light that dresses the beautiful daytime vistas is magical, indoor environments feel very atmospheric and detailed, and many of the caves are properly creepy. We are also treated to some fine music with some unexpected elements and there is also an impressive range of voice actors.

This world is of course populated with all kinds of creatures. Monsters of many different kinds. Many want to kill you and you can face your adversaries in several ways. There are a variety of weapons at your disposal. From swords to axes and spears - or you can take a different route and cast magic or use a bow. It's nothing radically different from what we're used to. Complete with numbers telling you how much damage you do or your armour protects you from. Much of the weapons and equipment are tied to your skills. You can use them as soon as you find them but must meet their criteria in order for them to be fully utilised. Thus, you can equip yourself with anything or wield any weapon you want right away but if you haven't put skill points on the skills required then it is significantly weaker than it could be.

Here we come to the skills. Everything you do in the form of wielding a two-handed weapon, taking a beating, jumping around, cooking or picking locks increases the respective skill. Then, of course, you level up and gain points you can spend on things like strength, stamina and other classic skills. Alongside this, there is also a skill tree where you unlock more specific things. Everything is pretty simple, constructed in its most stripped down way and if there's anything I miss, it's a bit more skills that lean more towards the role-playing elements. There's no charisma here, no qualities of persuasion, charm or the like. However, such occasions do appear in conversations with characters but are then instead randomly tied to different attributes. That I should have good stamina or strength when I try to persuade someone seems strange.

There have also been times when I have had dialogues where a response from my side has meant that a side mission has not quite got the starting point I wanted or even failed. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't really matter, but the design of missions - both large and small - can sometimes be a bit oddly constructed.

However, I do appreciate simple things like the fact that there is still some freedom to adventure in your own way. Different factions in the world are at odds with each other where you can choose whose side you ultimately want to be on. You might be given a simple task to kill a certain character, but once you meet them, you start conversing instead and realise that you might rather take that person's side and kill the character who originally gave you the mission. It gives the whole thing a sense of proper role-playing in your own way rather than just being guided by the plot.

As for the combat, in my opinion it is perhaps the weakest point of the game. Basically it is very much a 'Hack and slash' with those classic problems I often find first person combat suffers from. While there is the option to make a short dash to avoid enemy attacks, it's basically just a matter of hacking away. The enemies' hit surfaces are also a bit poor with pretty crappy feedback to hit in addition to their life meter dropping. Fortunately, the battles give you plenty of experience points so you still go into them to get stronger.

The combat gets very tiring and repetitive over time. It also doesn't help that so much of the world wants me dead. Monsters and other creatures I understand - but basically every little collection of other characters in the world also want to pound the life out of you. There's only a lull when you get to larger settlements or places that have something to do with the story. Granted, many of these other characters are supposed to be bandits or cursed soldiers, but I would have preferred that in encounters with other people you were given a chance to resolve things peacefully. Since all the people who want to fight you also offer annoying battle cries, it becomes a constant running, unless you want to fight. The battles get pretty boring over time because many are not very fun.

When the atmosphere is at its best, Tainted Grail really achieves everything it sets out to do. The exploration leads you to places that feel both fascinating and frightening and it is precisely that mix that works so extremely well. That light and darkness coexist side by side. You might initially assume that this is a pure Skyrim clone. But the thing is, once you embark on this adventure, you don't have to dig very deep to find all the great things it offers. This becomes an immediate strength that makes you want to stick around and suddenly you're hooked.

Sure, the occasionally unstable image update and the fact that at times it looks like something from a couple of generations ago can be just the slightly superficial thing that you need to get past. If you can do that, there's an epic role-playing game and a fantastic world packed with content just waiting to be explored.