izigame.me

So in its current state I think that Tainted Grail has a lot going for it. The atmosphere is pretty good, the world looks interesting, and it overall has the feel of what a newer Skyrim style game could be. This all being said I have a slew of issues with it in its current state and would highly suggest that if you are looking at this game around now (May 28, 2024) you wait a few months until they sort out some of the new problems they've injected into the game.

Combat
The dash mechanic in combat is a very nice touch, the weight behind attacks feels awesome, and the fact that you can do more damage by striking enemy weak points is a cool feature.
Where problems begin to arise is pretty much as soon as you leave the starting area. Nearly every enemy in the game besides some of the obviously weaker ones is able to oneshot you. I mean this not as hyperbole but as fact. I can't fathom playing this game at a higher difficulty when your weapons feel like pool noodles at even medium difficulty and enemies are hitting you with throwing knives that take out all of your health. To put insult to injury, it is atrociously difficult to make use of heavy armor with anything like magic as it increases the cost of using spells up to 500%, slows magic and stamina regeneration, and the calculation to determine how the armor impacts your ability to really do anything seems to not be tied to carry weight whatsoever.
To sum up combat, it feels like if someone was trying to copy a soulslike combat style into Skyrim and has succeeded at making something harsh, punitive, and without the mechanical support to let player skill actually shine through in any meaningful way.

Quests/Crashes
This is the buggiest game I've played. I understand that it is early access but with the release of this newest patch I cannot go for more than an hour without the game crashing on me. It seems like they put this patch out and either ignored how unstable it made the game or they wanted to release the new content because of a sense of pressure from those who have already purchased it. When you cannot complete quests, the game is crashing far too frequently, and it is lagging and stuttering at nearly every graphics setting there are some major kinks that need to get worked out.

I would honestly have to say that the quest design overall seems to be lacking a bit. It definitely has the Skyrim feel to it in a negative way. Most of it is go to this place, kill some enemies, retrieve an item, go back to quest giver. The quests that require you go on a scavenger hunt for items are not as bad because most of what you need to find proliferates across the map as you explore but so far there hasn't been much to really keep one's attention focused on the world.

Conclusions
With the gameplay and bugs/crashing out of the way I'd have to say again that this game has some serious potential but a lot more work needs to go into it. As of right now I've forced myself to play 15 hours and will be uninstalling until I see some patches coming out addressing some of the key issues the game is currently facing. Keep your eyes on it, and as the devs are clearly continuing to work on it I hope that the game progresses to a point where I'll be able to come back and amend this review.