Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

The first person fantasy RPG genre has been dominated by a certain bundle of geriatric vellum, so seeing another title throwing their hat in the ring is both a surprise and a pleasure, even if dethroning the Elder Scrolls can be a monumental task.

- By Martin Heath

Publisher: Awaken Realms

Developer: Awaken Realms Digital

Genre: Roleplaying Game

Release Date: Out Now

Platform: PC, PS5, Xbox X|S

Questline's latest attempt, Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon, starts off with an interesting first step by setting its game in the odd world of Arthurian legend. I hope we never visit Caerbannog, though.

Based on the board game of the same name and set in the titular land of Avalon, Tainted Grail takes place decades after King Arthur led his people from the Homeland to escape both a plague epidemic called the Red Death and an ethereal, cosmic force known only as the Wyrdness. The custom-created player character finds themselves in a hospital — or prison, depending on who you ask — being experimented on by the Red Priest, practitioners obsessed with curing the deadly malady, for unknown reasons. Riddled with the disease, we seem to be at our life's end. However, a hooded stranger unlocks our cell, and our escape begins.

Through a series of conflicts, labyrinthine corridors, and more questions than answers, our plague-bearing hero finds themselves entering a portal and appearing in another world. Visions of a bloody ritual flash as we hear a deep voice ask for help. Reaching the origin of the voice, we end up meeting — and absorbing a part of — the King of Kings himself, King Arthur. Newly cured of the plague, we find ourselves washing up near the Horn of the South, tasked with gathering the other shards of Arty while also figuring out what is going on.