If you told me in 2021 that Questline and Awaken Realms would translate the dark fantasy setting of Tainted Grail: Conquest into a full-fledged open-world action RPG comparable to The Elder Scrolls, I wouldn’t believe you. Very few titles have been able to compare to the sheer scale of Bethesda’s work, much less the quality of its best, never mind a small, relatively unknown studio of about 50 developers. Nevertheless, it’s 2025, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is out of early access, and it’s garnering positive impressions from critics and players alike.
The timing is all the more incredible because it’s following The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, which introduced a whole new generation to one of Bethesda’s premier titles and reminded many why it still holds up so well (warts and all). But with how notable Oblivion is and the sheer value of its deal – since it includes all expansions and DLC – what makes Tainted Grail worth checking out and in some ways, even better?
The story begins in usual dire circumstances but not how you’d expect. A plague called the Red Death swept the world, forcing King Arthur to move his people to the island of Avalon to survive. This required battling the Fore-Dwellers and contending with a mysterious phenomenon known as the Wyrdness, which twisted and mutated living creatures. However, thanks to the power of the Menhirs and Merlin, the Wyrdness was repelled, and Arthur created Kamelot to rule until his death.
Beyond this point, all you know is that the Red Death has returned, and a mysterious Order is doing everything to devise a solution. That includes taking prisoners in an asylum and experimenting on them. Cue your start sans any hope for the future. Suddenly, someone assassinates your guard and gives you the keys to escape.
Yes, it’s very Oblivion-esque, but I won’t spoil the rest. Suffice it to say that things take multiple unexpected dark turns (that part about shaping King Arthur’s legacy is much more…literal than you’d think). It’s enough motivation to explore Avalon, starting with the Horns of the South and solving the core mystery. Or you could wander around, learning more about the inhabitants, their troubles and what can be done to help them.
Maybe you’ll unravel more about the land, its past heroes and your goals, but just like Oblivion, this isn’t a story about some chosen one setting out to fulfil their destiny. You’re capable of great things, but that first requires surviving in this weird land.
And really, you can do that however you’d like. The starting playstyles afford some pretty notable bonuses that could slot into a specific class like archer, battle mage, warrior etc., which is further reinforced by skill trees for Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, and whatnot. But the relative freedom is truly liberating – as long as you have the stats, any equipment is usable, regardless of your starting bonuses.
Even if you’re keen on sticking to a straightforward playstyle, the options in other skill trees are often too good to pass off. It also doesn’t hurt that there are over 400 unique weapons and more than 55 spells (not including Soul Cubes) to diversify your playing style. Want to harness the power to lifesteal in one hand or both? Bash enemies with a sketchbook in between stabbing them with a pen? Turn your summon into cheese and cook that cheese into a Cheese Ball of Doom to level up your cooking. Why not?
As for the world design, Avalon itself isn’t going to dwarf Skyrim anytime soon, but the sheer density of content is pretty exciting. Exploring an unassuming location could lead you to partake in a limited-time hunt for some reward. Diving into a blood lake could lead to a cave where a powerful foe awaits. Even talking to different characters and choosing certain dialogue is enough to influence the story in the short and long term, sometimes to devastating effect. And that’s before really diving into the dozens of hand-crafted dungeons or the sheer multitude of side quests.
Perhaps the best thing about Tainted Grail is how dangerous its world feels (that is if you pump up the difficulty enough). Since there’s no level scaling for regular daytime mobs, you’ll level up, grow stronger and effectively curb stomp foes in earlier areas without much effort. However, this goes both ways, as you might encounter an overwhelmingly powerful threat and quickly die. So, while the urge to explore and see what’s around every corner is strong, there’s an innate thrill in the risk.
Danger can manifest in other ways, like nighttime when the Wyrdness infects and strengthens living beings. You’re encouraged to turn in at your campfire but there is a risk vs. reward element involved, since slaying Wyrd-infected enemies grants Ethereal Cobwebs used to fast travel, identify items, and even ensure a peaceful rest. It’s an ingenuous mechanic and reinforces the fact that you can’t escape the Wyrdness.
However, there are plenty of other things to love, like setting multiple loadouts for your hands and seamlessly swapping between a spell and melee weapon in one slot to a bow and arrow in another. Or the crafting system, which has a chance to reward better consumables if you invest more materials. Or the ability to kill vital NPCs, potentially locking off any quests. Even the armor weight system is a welcome bit of nuance, rewarding you beyond faster stamina regeneration for choosing to fight Light.
Now, it’s not perfect, if it rarely ever can be. Stutters and frame drops can occur pretty regularly, though this seems to be a CPU bottleneck on my end (as always, your mileage will vary). The third-person perspective was implemented shortly before launch, with Questline admitting it’s still experimental. There are still numerous bugs like quests not progressing, and iffy summon AI – heck, some have revealed that the in-game bug reporting feature doesn’t even work.
However, as with The Elder Scrolls, Fallout or any Bethesda Games Studios title in the last two decades, the question is whether the experience is currently worth tolerating these issues. More polish is needed, and for its part, the development team will launch several patches in the coming weeks to alleviate them (which should be a faster clip than Bethesda is usually known for). But all that aside, I think it is.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon imitates the gameplay from Oblivion and Skyrim in various ways, but its execution and unique mechanics win the day. That, and the absolutely fantastic world-building. Even after everything I knew from Tainted Grail: Conquest, Avalon felt distinctly new yet alive (timing of its events notwithstanding). It didn’t feel like a backdrop for random NPCs to blather about but a living, breathing world bearing complex situations that encourage different choices. Maybe you’ll make the right choice. Maybe you won’t. But there’s excitement in seeing what happens next.
And while there is a fair bit of role-playing involved, especially when optimizing your build – which strikes a balance between managing your stats, skills and equipment – it offers enough flexibility to experiment. The atmosphere is unique, and the overarching story is fantastic, with multiple endings to unlock. Questline estimated about 50 to 70 hours for the main quest and some side quests, but there’s plenty more to discover.
Even if Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon has a ways to go before it’s completely polished, the fact that an Elder Scrolls-like title such as this can exist and resonate so well is nothing but good news. Where it goes next remains to be seen, and even if Bethesda may not be losing any sleep over the competition, it certainly has its work cut out with The Elder Scrolls 6.
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.
