Will 2025 have a new surprise hit? Tainted Grail is currently receiving rave reviews from Steam users. We introduce you to the game.
Anyone who sees a screenshot of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon will either think Cool, Elden Ring!
or Cool, Skyrim!
What at first sounds like an unfortunate identity crisis turns out to be the key to success for the role-playing game released on May 23, 2025. The visual similarity to the two aforementioned giants of the genre has led tens of thousands of Steam players to try out the title.
The good news: Tainted Grail is apparently a lot of fun too!
A fantasy game based on a recipe
To prepare Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, you will need:
- a dark fantasy open world with a gray-yellow color palette
- lots of creepy monsters
- crisp boss fights
- a hero who must save the world from something unspeakably evil
- skills, equipment, and spells
- first-person perspective
Put everything in the development oven at 200 degrees GPU temperature, stir the early access from time to time, and blow hard at the end.
Sounds like a run-of-the-mill title on paper, doesn’t it? Admittedly, Tainted Grail is certainly not going to win any innovation awards , but that’s not what it’s aiming for. Instead, the role-playing game is designed to be as fun as possible, and it succeeds in doing just that.
A real crowd favorite
Over 6,000 user reviews have already been posted on Steam,87 percent of which are positive A glance at SteamDB should make the Questline development team even happier: at its peak, almost 25,000 players explored the open world at the same time.
What’s being praised? Here are a few positive reviews to give you an impression of the strengths of Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon:
This game gives me that old Elder Scrolls vibe from…Hey, what’s that over there?
.. 7 hours later: Hey, what’s over there?
..And every time I ask the question, I wonder if there’s something over there, down there, in there, up there…. the answer is always YES, and that’s cool. – Sergeo
It’s Skyrim in a world that looks like Elden Ring without the Souls difficulty level. That’s really all that needs to be said. – Gemini Holo
I’ve only been playing for about 15 minutes and it’s already won my heart and put a smile on my face. How great is this game? – SgtFopper
What are the criticisms? Let’s flip the coin and see what weaknesses Steam users are currently complaining about:
There are still far too many bugs in the later stages of the game. It definitely needs a few more months in the oven. – Lorgor
I’m sure exploration is a real joy in the game, but the combat just feels super imprecise and ungrounded. The enemy AI also seems pretty simplistic. I would only recommend this title if it’s cheaper or on sale. – VisualVibrance
The game looks like it came out in 2009, the combat and animations are totally outdated. There is no combat AI; it’s like a Navy SEAL fighting kindergarten kids who only know how to run at you, but as soon as you close a door, they’re screwed. – Dan
Free demo on Steam
You get the picture: in the case of Tainted Grail, it’s probably best to form your own opinion. It won’t even cost you anything, as the game offers a free demo so you can try it out with no risk.
The full version should keep you busy for around 50 to 70 hours, depending on your playing style. So at least in this respect, the game is significantly smaller than Skyrim and Elden Ring.
