Despite the insane popularity of Oblivion and Skyrim, one would think there would be more imitators on the market. For decades, if gamers wanted similar experiences, their only other options were the Fallout games. The fact is that these kinds of massive open-world RPGs are not easy to make, and even the best examples come with some baggage due to their immense scope.
The Elder Scrolls has always had a solid foundation to build off of, but for some reason, even Bethesda never bothered to expand upon it. Rather, their games became more streamlined with fewer RPG mechanics as they continued to get sequels.
It turns out anybody could have made games like Skyrim, and an indie team could do it. What if a hungry Polish indie team sought to do their take on The Elder Scrolls, but did it darker and bleaker? Could it come close to scratching that specific Skyrim-shaped rash? Find out in our Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon review!
This is a review coupled with a supplemental video review. You can watch the video review or read the full review of the below:
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon
Developer: Awaken Realms, Questline
Publisher: Awaken Realms
Platforms: Windows PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 (reviewed)
Release Date: April 30, 2025
Price: $44.99
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon begins eerily similar to Dark Souls. The world is seemingly on a crash course for certain doom after a plague has devastated the land. The player begins on a remote prison island, rotten with disease and cells full of the undead.
A knight sets you free, and after a daring escape from the evil druid scientists, players are set loose in a sprawling open world packed full of quests and side quests that flesh out the setting. There is more to Tainted Grail than just being a grimdark Elder Scrolls.
The premise is inspired by Arthurian lore, and players meet the disembodied spirit of King Arthur Pendragon himself. He doesn’t understand how or why he’s been reduced to a phantom, but he imprints himself on the player’s avatar and carries him with them for most of the game.
King Arthur’s essence has been taken apart into separate parts, and the main quest centers on restoring him to his former glory by finding all of them. It’s kind of like finding Horcruxes since every aspect of his being is manifested in parts that represent his character.
Arthur is a compelling and well-acted character, and while he may resemble an Elden Ring boss, he’s always a voice in the avatar’s head. Kamelot (yes, it’s actually spelled like that in the game) feels almost post-apocalyptic after the plague ravaged it.
Everywhere you go, there are corpses, wandering zombies, smoking villages ransacked by monsters and raiders, and all of Arthur’s guys from the Round Table have turned on each other. Even the lake where the lady of the lake would have resided is a blood lake.
Pretty much everyone you talk to is filled with distrust and in a constant state of fight or flight. When following the main story, you’re not going to be able to waltz right up to the plot-relevant NPC and complete the objective.
Almost everyone has problems of their own, and they’re not willing to lift a finger for you unless you’re prepared to participate in a bit of the old “I scratch your balls, and you scratch mine”. There is a disgusting number of quests and side stories to discover. Some of which can fail and never retry.
Tainted Grail pushes gamers to commit to their actions and choose sides because joining one faction cuts off another questline that they might have experienced. This is easily one of the better-executed aspects in the role-playing since the core mechanics feel like they’re from the same vintage as Oblivion or Skyrim.
Yes, it’s true. Tainted Grail lifts so much from The Elder Scrolls that the developers also copied the infamous jank, unreliable AI, and spotty combat. From the dumb enemy AI, awkward animations, clipping, sloppy third-person mode, and inconsistent collision, fans of Bethesda’s RPGs will feel right at home.
Despite copying a lot of its homework, Tainted Grail impresses by doing many things better. The gritty and dark visual style makes it stand out. From some angles, Tainted Grail resembles Demon’s Souls. The way fields are spattered with blood and the corpses peppered all over the land reinforce the bleak tone.
There are no clean areas in Kamelot. The whole place is bathed in grime and air so thick that it sticks to you like a fine, greasy crust. Most pieces of equipment look dinged up a bit, even legendary weapons like Excalibur appear worn out from entropy doing its thing.
There are hanging bodies, charred remains, and enormous statues built into mountains; Tainted Grail establishes an unforgiving dark fantasy inspired by history.
You’d be surprised by how many pagan shrines, druid alchemists, or necromancers defying God are out in the open. The region feels like what it would be like if you wandered into the really bad part of town in the Elder Scrolls universe.
Tainted Grail has no shortage of personality, but where it goes above and beyond is its level of detail. Kamelot may not be as big as its inspiration, but it makes up for it in density. There are countless incidental objects and props to pick up, some of which are useful as tools. Shovels can be used to dig up buried booty. Pickaxes can mine ore.
Most importantly, players can go fishing at any body of water with a rod. Sadly, you won’t ever see the fish swimming if you go for a dive, and there is no sea monster out in the water to kill you for swimming too far. Fishes only appear when you catch them after playing an amusing mini-game.
Fishing is one of the more important features that Tainted Grail does not bring up too often, because cooking is important to survival. Mastering alchemy to craft potions and add-ons for your weapon is one thing because mixing benches are uncommon, but making food at any fire with whatever you find is trickier than you’d think.
There are not enough recipes that make sense. You’d think throwing together eggs, cheese, and butter would yield a tasty omelet, but it results in the default undercooked slop that all bad combos make. Frying fish is easy enough, but there should have been more logical mixtures that equal fair results, because you’ll need everything you can get. After all, Tainted Grail is fairly hard… at first.
This is the kind of RPG where equipment has stat requirements. For a long time, expect to collect a lot of gear you can’t equip until you level up about 10-15 times before you even think about wearing that common leather jacket you lifted off a low-level highwayman.
The first five to ten hours are unbelievably brutal, but as the avatar gains levels, equips better gear, and more helpful skills, Tainted Grail falls into the same trap as most open-world RPGs. Players become absurdly overpowered and outclass most enemies, and the simplest solution to all problems always becomes raw violence.
It just can’t be helped. Becoming a brutal and bloodthirsty vagrant is too appealing and easy in these kinds of games. There is no downside for the most part, and it makes even more sense in Tainted Grail since the tone and atmosphere are hopelessly bleak.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is a surprising and beefy open-world dark fantasy epic that is guaranteed to please Elder Scrolls maniacs. The review build does have a few technical hang-ups, but the final release version will have fixes, and more improvements and refinements are to come post-release.
Being divorced from the Elder Scrolls and being able to do its own thing elevates Tainted Grail. It has more personality than being a generic medieval Tolkien-esque fantasy and combines elements from real-world history and myth to realize its twisted vision.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon was reviewed on PlayStation 5 using a code provided by Awaken Realms. Additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy is here. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is now available for PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S
