Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - Initial Thoughts
I first played The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in June 2013. This was over 18 months after the game’s initial release and the base game and DLC were bundled together in a “Legendary” edition. Although a seasoned gamer at the time, familiar with the RPG genre with such titles as Mass Effect and Grand Theft Auto IV, I had not played a game from this franchise before. It only took a few hours of gameplay to realise that this was a special title. The scope of the story, the art design and the size of the world were immediately notable. Tamriel was immersive in a way I had not experienced with other titles. Often simply traversing the terrain and watching the dawn break while the game soundtrack swelled, was sufficient to hold my attention. I instantly picked up on the voice acting of Christopher Plummer and Max Von Sydow. All of which indicated that this was a gaming landmark.
I spent 286 hours over the next 18 months playing through the game and its DLC. When I ran out of new content to play in the game, I spent hours experimenting with mods. During that time, I became familiar with the subtleties of the various in-game systems within Skyrim. It was a wrench to leave but eventually new titles lured me away. However, the game left a very strong impression upon me and continues to do so today. For me, it is what I immediately think of when someone mentions a fantasy based action RPG. As such, Skyrim is a hard act to follow. I’ve played other RPG’s since then, many of which have been good. But few have the same emotional impact, with the possible exception of Witcher III: Wild Hunt and Red Dead Redemption 2. However, I recently stumbled upon Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and the associated buzz around it. Is this game the spiritual successor to Skyrim?
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is an Indie fantasy based action RPG made by Questline and published by Awaken Realms. Played primarily in first person, although there is third person support, this game draws heavily from Bethesda games, especially Skyrim. Set on the island of Avalon, you undertake various quests in a decaying realm that is slowly being assimilated by the “Wyrdness”. You are aided by the spirit of Arthur Pendragon in your journey across three distinct zones. There are abilities and skills to level along with points to spend in skillstrees. Crafting comes in the form of cooking, smithing and alchemy. The game is also awash with loot. All in all, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon at first glance does strike as a shameless clone of Skyrim, yet there are subtle distinctions that give it an identity of its own. The more you play the more these become apparent.
Perhaps the most noticeable is the art design. The game has a striking aesthetic, drawing from both H. R. Giger and the Cthulhu Mythos. The ambient music and sound design are also very good, instantly creating an enigmatic atmosphere. At night when the threat level from the “Wyrdness” increases, the soundscape becomes especially disconcerting. NPCs are also quite engaging, often flying in the face of your expectations. Traditionally, vendors in RPGs are functional or expositional in nature. Here, they can be quite quirky and off beat. While exploring a minor crypt, I discovered an oddly friendly supernatural entity who was quite chatty. I was expecting a fight and instead I got an amusing quest that resulted in a permanent skill increase. So despite appearing generic, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon has subtle differences. This extends not only to the world and NPCs but to in-game systems as well.
An essential aspect of the RPG genre is character progression. In this game, while your overall level increases at quite a sedate pace, default skills grow upon use. Hence when out in the world, whenever you run, jump, sneak, craft, or fight with specific weapons or spells, these skills are levelling. Furthermore, there are no level restrictions imposed by your stats or due to the points you’ve spent in the various skills trees. You get better at crafting by making things and are not excluded due to a recipe level. Initially, when your crafting abilities are low, you may well fail to produce a top tier item but persistence remedies this. As for skills points themselves, they’re quite plentiful and so you can afford to be generous in how you spend them. Assigning one in a new tree can often lead to a useful set of improvements. For example, spending points in Practicality enhances crafting as well as increasing damage to enemy weak spots. It also reduces both stamina and mana costs.
Combat is challenging, once you move on from the story prologue. This is not a game where you stand your ground and key mash. Movement, parrying and blocking are essential for melee combat. If you prefer to use magic then it all comes down to mana management and finding the right combination of spells. You can equip two spells or weapons per weapon slots, of which you have four. You then hot swap between these according to your combat requirements. You can summon multiple AI companions if you like and attempt to rush enemies. For those who favour traditional weapons, swords have weight and as such take a time to swing. Combat is therefore about timing and the more satisfying as a result. Enemies can also vary greatly in power and often you have no idea how strong they are until you attack them. Therefore it pays to be cautious when exploring and is wise not to jump into a fight unnecessarily.
Over the course of future blog posts, I shall be exploring various aspects of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon in more detail. Mainly because this game has taken my fancy. It is doing something familiar but doing it in its own way and not always in a manner you would expect. To use an analogy, if Skyrim is Star Wars then Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is Battle Beyond the Stars. This game is inherently janky, although with each patch the jank is slowly being addressed. It is also very old school because the games it is emulating are themselves old school. But it has a charm and character of its own and I admire the ambition of the developers who are trying to do, with a small team, the same thing that a multimillion dollar mainstream studio has already done. And they’re putting their own stamp on the results. That is a rare quality these days. That and a game that is actually “fun”.
