Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Review (Jinx)
Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is an open world RPG in a unique universe with its own, interesting lore.
There is much world building, and I love it.
I love the diversity of making your class not just from choosing your starting bonuses to stats but as you play and decide for yourself (skill ups in several categories). This has some of the vibe of Skyrim, and indeed fans of the single player Elder Scrolls games will find familiarity (but not direct rip-offs) here.
I love some of the Quality of Life things done here, that other game devs should adopt.
One QoL thing that stood out immediately is while the game highlights new items in your inventory and puts a star next to the categories where there is something new... you don't have to mouse over each and every items to make that go away -- it will once you close your inventory!
Another is right at the start when picking your "class" (really just which stats get big bonuses) -- the guard asks you in dialogue how you came to get captured. Your response relates to what you're "good" at... and the game shows you as on-hover tooltips what stat bonuses you'll receive based on your response. No guessing the developer's intent vs esoteric dialogue choices about a world you don't yet understand!
A third is smart in-world designs. When you come to the gate of the first castle/keep and get the drunk guard to agree to let you in -- in most video games at the end of the dialogue when you select "goodbye" the portcullis would just open as the dialogue box is closed. Here, that guard shouts to others "Open the gate!" and it does. It's a little thing, but smart, appropriate. This kind of attention to detail is present through the game I've played so far. (If you tell his boss that this guard was drunk again, a short while later you'll find him in the stockade and he'll be mad at you, giving you more dialogue & options with him. He just wants a drink, and now that he's not even on duty that's not so bad right? You decide.)
A few things to note:
* There is only first person, no option to go to third person like an ES game.
* Like Skyrim you can equip a weapon/spell in each hand. You get 5 "load-outs" you can set, and switch between them with the 1-5 keys, very nice. If you want a fireball spell in each hand, you need to have 2 fireball spells in your inventory to assign one to each hand individually; however, you can simultaneously assign them to other load-outs. ...Similarly with melee weapons.
* NPCs have true ragdoll physics. Be careful how you kill an outlaw at the top of a gate wall. ;-)
* There is a day/night cycle. Nighttime has dangerous effects.
* You put down a bonfire (from the Quick menu, always available after the starting island prison) to pass time at night (can be interrupted by monsters coming for you) and use the bonfire at any time to assign your level up skill points.