Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

[Metroid66]

Finally bought a new game for my PC. Sure, it was 37 quid and looks like Skyrim, but that's neither here nor there.

 

I think everyone knows it's a bit of a TES clone, down to most of the controls (at least on Xbox pad) being in the same configuration - Y for jump etc.

 

I'm expecting, over the course of the next 50 hours, to be questing, lock picking, alchemy-ing and, most importantly, collecting flora and fauna for the cooking of.

 

My build will be one handed with shield for parrying, and a side line in conjuration. So, pretty much my favourite TES build. 

 

Played an hour. Couldn't be happier.

 

For now, at least.

[shinymcshine]

I'll be interest to hear about this - the theming of the other game : Tainted Grail - Conquest, was pretty dark & bleak (somewhat aligned with the boardgame).

[Metroid66]

So the first thing to report is quite a biggy for those whose TES experience is centred on Oblivion and Skyrim (and, realistically, the Bethesda era Fallout games). There's no level scaling here. This was a bit of a shocker for my overconfident avatar who, when reaching the open world, launched into a couple of sea lurking 'downers,' only to be sent to the big sleep with a couple of nonchalant slaps of their webby fingers.

 

You're a new born kitten at the start of this game and you barely have the stats to hold and swing the most basic sword. It's hard. And if you're ganged up on by 2 or 3 low end enemies it's game over.

 

It's old school in a way, but thankfully levelling works and rewards like it used to in the day before they came up with all that level scaling malarkey. I've already returned to the scene of an embarrassing failure against an old cantankerous knight guarding a gate I wanted to use. A couple of levels up and I gave him the good news with extreme prejudice.

 

And I've also grabbed a low level summon to at least give me a chance against mobs.

[Maf]

I think I actually played the demo for this. It’s where you start in a prison and there are zombies and cannibals and stuff? It was so Elder Scrolls I deleted it immediately and said “do not foul my video game plate with such awfulness” although I might not have said awfulness 

[Metroid66]

I've changed my build somewhat after a good few hours. Parrying in this just wasn't feeling that great, so I've ditched the shield and am using the excellent dodge mechanic, casting with left hand and melee-ing with the other. Seems to be the way to go. Parrying was hardly ever giving a good return, especially against tougher enemies who would drain your stamina on a successful parry and leave you unable to capitalise on it anyway.

 

I'm also upping the mana well to use for combat spells and leave a bit for the all important summons. Damn, you really that kind of help against mobs in this.

 

Questing up to now has been first class (for a tes-like). Still very impressed.

[Maryokutai]

I was surprised when this got such a positive reception on release and it's nice to see you enjoy it as well. I've had it on my wishlist ever since playing the demo but there were some conflicting reports about the state of the console versions, so I'm holding off until at the earliest end of the year or something to give it a go.

[Metroid66]

It's jittery on pc. The game put me on ultra settings with quality dlss. But that was bullshit. I had to drop all those settings to get it running at 60fps

[Metroid66]

So I'm starting to put a checklist together as to why this game is an excellent take on the 'TES' format/genre - and why it does everything right that Avowed and Starfield did wrong.

 

In many ways the developers have understood what makes these games great and have run with a lot of it. Everything seems meaningful and worth doing. 

 

For example it's worth exploring the world to a minute level because great finds are out there, real game changing discoveries in weapons, spells and armour. I really am kitted out from top to toe in stuff I went out, fought for or found, with no equivalent gear available in shops. And there's hidden caves and dungeons to find that open up quest lines or have self contained stories within, like one I've just done with two ghosts trapped in a tomb by the 'deadly sins' they were guilty of in life.

 

Gameplay wise this outdoes everything in the recent Bethesda games. There's no building an Everyman here. You're lucky to get enough skill points to get 2 lines going (one hand melee and casting for me) to the point were you can survive out in the field. It's difficult, but extremely well balanced and fulfilling. And the combat itself is way more competently put together than Skyrim or Oblivion - with an excellent dodge mechanic, parry with a good reward/risk balance (to risky for my liking tbh) and real weighty combat spells.

 

Of course there's a downside, and that appears to be early release console performance. On a medium PC rig like mine your talking 60fps at 4k on high settings, but I've seen some PS5 footage and it looks a bit archaic. If you've got a PC this game is essential as far as I'm concerned. For consoles it looks like a waiting game.

[Metroid66]

More reasons to get with Tainted Grail.

 

So last night I was just exploring an unchecked part of the map and discovered a nice peaceful lake. I was going to walk around it but decided to jump in a swim across. Saw something glinting at the bottom and dove to check it out, whereupon I was granted entry to a monumental hidden 'corrupted' area of castles, lands and gardens, offering a two hour self contained quest. Just hidden in a feckin' lake!

 

Later I was going to close my session but noticed I was a couple of fights away from a 'level up' so walked into a new area and found another one. A massive hidden dungeon with multiple areas and a self contained quest, which I'll be pursuing tonight.

 

Now I'm thinking I need to find more hidden stuff, diving into lakes etc. I probably missed loads in the first area.

 

This game is the dog's.

[Metroid66]

Done!

 

The best (new) game I've played all year, with the excellent Fallout London running it a close second. It's become known as A TES clone, and in certain gameplay departments that would possibly be fair. But the tone was darker, the action grittier and much tougher, the side quests better written and more fulfilling in many ways. And I'm noy saying it's better than Skyrim - but it's on a par with that game in a way that Avowed just wasn't. Got about 60 hours out of it and enjoyed every single one. And it's the type of game I'll definitely start thinking about in a years time, about how I could've done so many things differently - especially that time I accidently killed someone whose questline I'd spent hours on and was halfway thru. I'll definitely be looking to do that differently.

 

[shinymcshine]

So here I am (and this was reduced to £22 in the Xbox sale) and after 90 mins it feels really promising (and much more akin to my gameplay style than KCD2 was).

 

So that's a my Easter weekend sorted !

[Metroid66]

Now you're talking!

[shinymcshine]

I'm enjoying this - but don't know if it's because I'm doing side quests rather than focussing on the main story - but my rewards often seem to be items that are way too above my current level/skills to actually be able to use (eg. I'm lv 9 and I just got a quest reward of an armour set that requires End 10 Pra 5 (I'm 3 & 1)  - I get the point made earlier, that you probably have to focus your build rather than spreading abilities evenly, but even so I'd be a far way off meeting this particular spec requirements.

 

Also - no idea if this is a wider Xbox issue or just Series S - it always crashes to 'desktop' after the Quick Resume (so I have to load last save from the main menu screen) - no a great problem, just a small irritation.

 

I also like how the choices in quests don't particularly seem obviously binary, for example :

 

Spoiler

The necromancer under the graveyard - and how I just let him essentially turn himself into a wandering undead, then left him be.

 

The thieving temptress - sure I'll pinch something for you...

 

And then never quite knowing what any long term implications (if any) there might be....

 

[shinymcshine]

I've been breezing through this most of the time, about 20 hrs in, predominantly a magic build - but, oh boy,that's a huge difficulty spike when I tried to kill Galahad !

 

The area isn't great for moving and firing off spells, and he takes me out in like 2 hits...

 

I did wear him down a fair bit one time, but then he just started quaffing heal potions !

 

Tactical rethink time

[shinymcshine]

Finally left the first main area - and, oh boy, is this next area tough !

[shinymcshine]

So there's this lake and at the bottom ....

 

Yep, this game is pretty great at times

 

Also I just needed to equip some different spells and kit, and enemies are a bit more manageable again.

[shinymcshine]

40 hrs now, and well into the second area but there's still loads to be doing here (including returning to first area to wrap things up there occasionally).

 

And lots of the side quests also seem to be more choice / consequence rather than simple fetch & carry style too, which makes them quite engaging.

 

Build wise, I've dumped 20+ in Spiritual - around 4/5 in everything else, so I'm the typical wizard 'glass canon' build - now literally blowing away most things with a single spell, with summons to keep things at distance - but hugely vulnerable myself if things get close (and then occasionally being a bit unstuck when a mini boss / boss appears, and I end up chugging potions).

[Metroid66]

I remember having a couple of high level summons following me around in unfamiliar areas in case I was jumped. I also made sure I was strong in 2 areas, so casting and one handed for me - and then put some points into things that helped such a build, like a better dodge, and longer summons duration.

 

But, what a game, and superbly balanced in difficulty for me, except Sir G, but of course you've already surmounted that shit show.

[shinymcshine]

Think I'm getting to the end of this - but at a point of quitting sadly.

 

I've gone into Merlin's Tomb and having cleared the poison area I'm now up against a enemy that is on a floating rock that fires magic projectile, which I can parry and return, which seems to weaken the shield, and occasionally they drop to the floor, but then their shield pretty rapidly regens and they return to the platform and I just go through repeating that cycle (and occasionally losing health) without actually killing it or making any progress.

 

Coupled up with the previous area, at the end of the Forlorn Swords, being pretty much just a mini-boss run area, then I'm a bit cheesed off that it's gone down this route now (where my glass cannon build seems wholly unsuitable here).

 

Also in Merlin's Tomb, as with the mini-boss area too, the enemy health bars were no longer showing - so no idea if I'm actually doing any damage to it anyway !?!?

 

FFS

[shinymcshine]

Okay, so I just skipped back to an earlier save, gave Merlin's Tomb a miss (it was free DLC apparently) and wrapped up the main game (~65 hrs).

 

Nice story summary screens and a reasonably decent ending overall - and scope that lots could have changed had different decisions been made in the course of the game - and therefore enough to return for another play through at another time (esp. as it looks like they are actively supporting it still, with more free and paid for DLC a available.

 

Oh and with a significantly different build than my 42 pts in Spirituality, glass cannon.

 

Overall it felt like a positive mash up of Elder Scrolls and Avowed together with the storytelling of Witcher - so yes, highly recommended if they are your thing.