Tainted Grail Review

Tainted Grail is a new rogue-like RPG title for the literary adventurist or someone looking for a new game that will challenge your decision making, deck-building, and your curiosity.

Tainted Grail

When I started playing, I realized I was in a world inspired by Arthurian legends and Celtic mythology. Names like Merlin and Kamelot were immediately familiar to me. But what I liked most was that I was able to place myself in the point of view of someone in this hard, unforgiving world. While the environment of Tainted Grail is unfamiliar to me, the notions of Kamelot and a cast from the legends the story is founded on were welcome aspects that pulled me willingly through the story while giving me the added layer of strategizing my character’s overall effectiveness in combat, progression, and the world.

Setting and Story

The landscape is dark, it’s desolate, desperate, and on the verge of collapse; the perfect combination of magical realism and fear. You begin the game learning that an ancient, mythic statue in your village known as a Menhir is in some apparent state of decay. Your mission is to set out from home and make for Kamelot, where someone may know how to restore it.

Sharp narration and voice overs throw you right into the story and create a sense of reality. I think of all the environmental aspects of this game, the voice overs are really well done. It’s the little things like that which really help to flesh out the world of Tainted Grail and put you into the pages of a dark fantasy story.

Progression

In all, this game feels a lot like a book and your decisions hold a lot of bearing over the plot. At times I felt challenged to make some choices, wondering how it might affect the story or the amount of time I spent in one area. There are some obvious signs of how the story will go based on the decisions you’re making, like whether or not something you say will initiate combat with who you’re speaking with. This gives you a lot of control over what will happen next and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it gave me options of how I want to play my character and after a while the was less spontaneity and surprises.

After a few encounters with NPCs, I found that engaging in combat was the quickest way to move through the game if they posed an obstruction in the main quest line. In some instances, if you don’t fight then you’re given a side quest. Some of these quests are really interesting and delineate upon the rich influences that lay behind Tainted Grail. Someone familiar with Arthurian legends would certainly follow them along for the story alone, but rewards can pay off in the long run too. However, not only will side quests slow your progression in the main story down, but you risk using resources that you might be saving for later in the game or for more challenging encounters.

One resource that’s particularly valuable in Tainted Grail are Wyrdcandles, a source of light that serves to keep the Wyrd at bay. You’ll learn early in the game that the Wyrd is a dark, misty environmental effect that strengthens your enemies and makes combat more challenging.

Tainted Grail - Game play

Combat and Leveling

Combat in Tainted Grail is very simple and easy at first. You’re given a limited deck of cards that you use in each turn-based encounter and symbols over your enemy’s head tell you what their next move is going to be. This takes any aspect of risk out of the equation for most encounters, but some enemies are labelled as unpredictable and that adds to the excitement of the battle.

Your cards are a mix of attacks, stuns, and blocks with some boosting damage or hitting multiple enemies at once. If you use your cards wisely and utilize the stuns often then you should pretty much breeze through any fight you come across in the early game. Even in encounters with two or more enemies I found I had more than enough defense and crowd control cards to ease my way through a fight without taking much damage.

For the hairier fights you can also access a quick slot bar with health potions (if you have any) or some other various elixirs that give you a damage shield. I didn’t use these too often because I wanted to use my resources sparingly for harder fights.

I didn’t notice much about leveling and I didn’t play actively trying to get to the next level but combat is definitely the best way to grind up the ladder. Each level rewards you with a choice between a new card or wealth (the game’s currency). Because you start with a lot of diverse and helpful cards, I chose wealth pretty much each time I leveled up, which was only about five times by the time I reached Kamelot.

Tainted Grail - Player

Overall Score

I give Tainted Grail a 3.75/5 but there’s definitely room for improvement. I think if combat was a little more challenging with better rewards, I’d have been more inclined to get excited about a new card for my deck or more apprehensive about taking on a side quest instead of slaying my way through the story. Plus, when you’re done with the campaign but not done with the game, the replay value is expanded in an open-world aspect of the game called Conquest that gives you a lot of freedom behind how you play and opens up new layers of customization like base-building.

If you’re looking for a nice blend of dark fantasy, strategy, and deck-building in a grim environment, Tainted Grail is certainly worth a try. It’s currently in early access right now on Steam and is receiving a lot of positive feedback from the community.

Awaken Realms Digital, the developer for Tainted Grail, also plans to release a few updates that seek to overhaul progression after overwhelming player feedback calling for improvements. They’re planning a lore-book that will track your achievements and unlocks while also adding a “proper reward system” that adds new cards and passive skills. Along with some visual and quality of life changes to come, it sounds like Awaken Realms Digital is taking feedback seriously, giving Tainted Grail is a promising future.

Developer: Awaken Realms Digital
Country of Origin: Poland
Publisher: Awaken Realms Digital
Release Date: 18th June 2020

This review is based on a copy of the game provided by the developer. The PC version of the game was played for this review Tainted Grail.

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WHAT DID Into Indie Games THINK?
  • THREE POINT SEVEN FIVE OUT OF FIVE STARS

Summary

Tainted Grail is a new rogue-like RPG title for the literary adventurist or someone looking for a new game that will challenge your decision making, deck-building, and your curiosity.

This Article was written by: Rahul Shirke

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