With 2025 releases like Obsidian’s Avowed and the recent Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered, it feels like we’re re-entering into the once bygone age of first-person open-world high fantasy role-playing games, and I couldn’t be more excited!
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is another ambitious upcoming title in the vein of scrolls-like RPGs, this time based on a tabletop RPG much like Larian’s Baldur’s Gate 3. From creator Awaken Realms and the development studio aptly named Questline, comes a self-proclaimed love letter to open-world first-person RPGs, with blatant and intentional nods to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion especially, both through clever marketing around the release of Bethesda’s recent remaster, as well as in-game jokes such as offering horse armor DLC as a tip of the hat to the classics.
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon takes on a darker fantasy tone as it explores a more mystical interpretation of the legend of King Arthur. The game has been in development for about 4 years, and early access for playtesters to provide feedback over the last two years, and even now has a short playable demo on consoles but will soon be in the hands of eager RPG fans. The full release will be filled to the brim with Elder Scrolls style questing set in an open world of mystery and wonder and should run between about 50 and 70 hours depending on how the player approaches their experience.
The game is fully open world, but divides that world into three large zones, somewhat similar to how Obsidian handled segmenting the game in Avowed. These zones will vary from a frozen snowy Skyrim-esque mountain region, to the dark and misty South, to a sunbathed village and its surrounding lands.
As the studio is working with a much smaller team and budget than the likes of Bethesda or Obsidian, it’s important to note that the maps themselves won’t be comparably large, though what they lack in size has been promised to be made up for with density of content. It seems as though everywhere the player travels will be jam packed with dungeons, side quests, and exciting encounters that are sure to keep fans of the genre engaged.
Tainted Grail also features many other activities that have become common in the genre such as blacksmithing, alchemy, mining, and fishing. There are also player homes that can be purchased and managed, that even include farming to supplement resources much like with the other previously mentioned activities.
Along with an open-world filled with dangerous dungeons and engaging activities, will be a rich character customization and development system akin to recent Elder Scrolls games, such as creating a character that fights and behaves as the player sees fit, leveling skills by regularly utilizing them, and progressing the story through many dialogue options that will change the story and the world around the player.
“Become a crazy alchemist, a blood-thirsty berserker, a blacksmith mage, or a stealthy archer. Become who you want to be and play the way you want to play in this dark fantasy RPG, a love letter to all the genre classics,” the company stated in a press release.
They also indicated that the game will feature a branching main storyline with “hundreds” of endings, with an epilogue that will be added upon official launch of the complete game. Even though Questline is a small indie studio, they have managed to include over 200 side quests, more than 250 voice-acted NPC’s to interact with, and player freedom to explore and engage with these quests and characters in their own way, forging their own adventure alongside the main storyline.
The combat seems much like what players have come to expect from the genre, as there will be melee and magic, archery, dual weilding, and over 400 unique weapons and 55 spells upon launch, allowing the player to battle in the way that best suits them. I’m leaning towards stealth archer… I always lean towards stealth archer.
One positive difference between Tainted Grail and the Elder Scrolls games, is that the majority of encounters are not scaled to the players level, with only certain enemies in certain instances being scaled. The leveling attributes will be things like Strength, Perception, Endurance, Dexterity, and other familiar stats from games of the genre. When the player performs feats related to these attributes, they will be rewarded with skill points to spend on the skill trees that belong to each attribute, very similar to how Skyrim handled leveling but with more focus on the specific attributes like in Oblivion.
I for one am looking forward to playing the game on release and hope that the teams at Awaken Realms and Questline are able to create a world of fun and adventure, even with the limited budget and team that they had for development. With recent successes from small studios like Sandfall Interactive with their critical and commercial success Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, I am optimistic that this game will scratch that “Scrolls-like” itch left in the wake of having already 100%’d Oblivion Remastered.
I suppose we’ll all find out together when Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon officially launches on May 23 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S
