Tainted Grail: The Fall Of Avalon Wants to be Your Next Skyrim. It Might Yet Pull That Off

Why has no one just… made Skyrim again?

Apart from the obvious “it’s really hard and we aren’t Bethesda Game Studios” answers, it’s still surprising that there is a lack of this specific type of first person open world RPG on the market today. Developer Questline must have had the same thought, and decided to tackle that idea themselves in Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon.

Recently released into early access, the game already has all the trappings you expect for this specific niche. First person real time combat. A huge, fantastical land mass to explore. A passive level up system where you gain levels by doing. Bespoke dungeons that wrap back around on themselves. Lore galore. Swords and shields, bows and arrows, magic, sneaking, alchemy - a lock picking mini game where you turn the dial to the right spot, twist and hope the pick doesn’t snap. When we say Skyrim here, we mean it.

Of course that comes with the baggage too. A million items you can pick up and interact with, many of which are mostly useless. Janky-ass dance-like back and forth sword swinging. Skyrim-ing up steep inclines. Bountiful enemies to slay with terrible AI. A creaking world that feels like it could buckle under its own weight at any moment. It’s like the game stepped right out of 2011… and I kind of love it for that.

This world based loosely on the legend of King Authur quickly unspools to a land filled with all the dark fantasy trappings, from dangerous unknown magic to a madness inducing fog known as - and I’m not even kidding, it’s literally called this - the “wyrdness”. It’s so straight faced, serious grim dark that it’s very nearly too edgy, and some will find it all a little hokey, but it works well enough to get you into the vibe of the setting.

This couples with some legitimately gorgeous vistas and awe inspiring architecture. While a lot of the design feels fully plucked form the 360 era, there’s some excellent large structures, statues and the like built around some clever light work that hit that weird-fantasy pleasure centre in your brain in just the right way, piquing your curiosity.

Being in early access, there’s only a small(?) portion of the main map to explore and quest about in so far, reached after running through the obligatory tutorial island jail. Having spent 6 or so hours wandering mostly the southern portion of what’s available in this build, there’s plenty here to keep you engaged even at this early juncture. 

Diving through a couple of dungeons off the beaten path, there are plenty of bandits to slay and creepy looking monsters to run away from to be found. Taking on an ogre and nearly getting my ass handed to me, I worked out its (quite simple) attack patterns fairly quickly before taking it down after a long drawn out battle. The cave it was guarding was large and full of nasties, but rewarded me with the unique weapon Big Bonk - a giant club stuck in the sand, surrounded by torches in some form of crude shrine. Ah yes, that’s the stuff.

There’s plenty of baggage that comes along with this being an Early Access release, of course. Regardless of graphical settings, there’s a jittering that can dampen combat somewhat (particularly with more difficult fights). You’re liable to come across the odd bug, even if things are generally pretty good (and nothing that the generous multi auto-save won’t get you out of). There’s still a bit of fundamental work to be done, on animations and AI in particular. But there really is a very strong and intriguing core here; one that satiates a particular taste you very rarely will find elsewhere.

I could have spent another dozen hours wandering the lands, but I stopped myself before heading too further north - not because I wasn’t into it, but purely because I just want to lose myself in this world when it’s fully ready for me. There’s a lot to look forward to here, with plenty to keep you occupied should you need that Skyrim itch scratched in the meantime. It ticks the boxes you want it to tick, and given the strong work that’s already gone into it, feels like it can only get better from here.

Code for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon was provided for the purposes of this preview.