Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon review

Like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, your time with Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon begins with your character confined to a prison cell. Having already determined their appearance and name, it’s here where choices are made that also define their class and background, setting you up for the journey ahead. Because, of course, you won’t be behind bars for long. You will need to fight your way through an underground area and experience some weird exposition before you’re let loose into the game’s open world, however.

Needless to say, fans of The Elder Scrolls should find their interest piqued by Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. Played from a first-person viewpoint (though there is an experimental third-person option), it offers a very similar experience, with a wide open world to explore where you can choose to pursue the game’s story or go off and entertain yourself, plundering dungeons and the like. It even has the beloved system where actually doing things improves your skills, and by resting, you can level up, spending any skill points you’ve earned on stat upgrades and skills spread across numerous trees.

Developing your own character is rewarding here, too. Whether you’re a spellcaster, a rogue who sticks to the shadows, or a hulking knight is up to you, but you can also delve into all the areas in between. On top of that, the story that underpins Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is also genuinely interesting. Basically, you find yourself harbouring a piece of the legendary King Arthur, gaining some of his power in the process. There are those in the world who would hate to see him return, but talking to him while resting by campfire light, he puts forward a good case for his revival. So, what will you do upon recovering more fragments of the King? The choice is yours, thanks to a branching story where your decisions have real impact.

With so many systems to play around with, and a wide-open world to explore, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is the type of game you can truly get lost in. Minutes turn to hours as you decide to explore numerous locations you’ve never been to before, or complete just one more quest before you turn it off. And there’s always some kind of reward for your time, whether it’s some new gear that you can equip, materials that might come in handy when cooking, crafting or performing alchemy, or simply valuable experience. Thanks to a range of difficulty settings, you’re able to effectively determine the level of challenge you face as well. Though be careful, as even on easier settings, you can easily wander into areas where death can come all too easily.

Playing Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon on PS5 Pro for review, prior to launch there were technical issues aplenty. Thankfully, a launch day patch improved the situation immensely, and more work has been done since to improve the experience even further. You’re free to change multiple graphical settings here, such as the resolution, the amount of vegetation, and whether or not V-Sync is enabled. The latter appears to be bugged somewhat, though, as even with it enabled, there can be some screen tearing. Still, as open-world games go, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is in a pretty good state now. You might encounter the odd bug or hiccup, but nothing that should cause you too much trouble or frustration.

If you’re into open-world action RPGs such as The Elder Scrolls series, it’s very easy to recommend Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. It might not be the best-looking open-world game available, and you might encounter the odd bug or hiccup as you play, but thanks to its engrossing gameplay and intriguing story that puts you in control, you’ll soon find yourself hooked and able to overlook its issues as you spend hours upon hours absorbed in what proves to be a thoroughly enjoyable adventure.