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"Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon even in Early Access is one of the best FPS RPGs of recent memory. True to its Dark Fantasy setting, it sets the mood perfectly. In EA it just needs more time."

Early Access is..... Good?

I'd say so far from what I've played and observed from the developers (Questline) have in the works for this game that Early Access is exactly what this game needed. You can read about this directly under their View Update News on the game's Steam store page. Early Access has been given a bad reputation recently by some other games, but it appears that Questline is different and seems to be delivering on their word, taking all the feedback to heart and in doing so increasing performance, ramping up their staff, fixing bugs, as well as making various requested improvements.
My experiences during the time of this review, July 28th 2023, have been almost entirely good and while I've run into some issues nothing was game breaking and I loved that Questline had included a very easy to use Bug Reporting feature built right into the game, easily accessible from just pausing the game. The game looks good and plays well outside of performance issues and several small things that I'll talk about below that would make my journey all the more enjoyable. In addition, the first chapter of the game which was available at the time of this writing took me roughly about 11 hours to complete and that is without doing anywhere near all the side quests, crafting and the exploring that was available during this stage of the game build.
It is also important to note that the developers tried to do their best to manage expectations by listing directly on the Steam store page under their description that the game will not have the polish or graphics that a triple A game has, along with the expected current game length in hours. Also, they've done their best to manage expectations by letting players know that Major Updates would be several months apart, right from the very start, albeit all these updates would be included for free.

A few Pros and Cons

Pros

Excellent Dark Fantasy setting with very good graphics that draw you into the game.
Most voice work is very well done, and there is so much of it.
Combat is somewhat unique for a FPS RPG and at this stage of EA works well.
Exploration is encouraged and there are plenty of noteworthy sites to see.

Cons

Questing without hand holding is welcomed, but some do not give enough detailed info.
Performance can range while playing, but frames will definitely be lower at this stage of EA.
Some voice lines during battle are repeated too often or are bugged some of the time.
Some players have reported issues of getting soft or hard locked in progress during their playthrough. See reviews.
Enemies sometimes scale poorly from far too easy to unfair fight.


My hopes going into the game

I grew up in a time when Dark Fantasy movies were some of the best. I grew up on movies like The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Conan, Legend, The Neverending Story, and of course...Excalibur. I couldn't wait for the next movie to release that gave me this dark, moody feeling yet was so fantastical. Back then, I used to dream of games that could replicate anything of that feeling or tone. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon perfectly fits within what I'd love it to be. Dark, atmospheric, fantastical, a story ripped from Authurian legend but yet uniquely twisted and yet interesting. The game has unique creatures that I haven't seen in other fantasy. It has graphics that while not triple A, are still top-in-class when talking about other RPGs that focus only on a First Person camera view.
I had also hoped the combat would be engaging since the trailers didn't show that much. I really enjoy doing a correctly timed parry in this game. If you time it just right, it uses up more of your opponents stamina while also having you take no damage. Parry the opponent till their stamina is depleted and they will drop down to a knee, unable to fight back for a few moments. Both yourself and the enemy having a stamina meter during battle makes the engagements interesting and more focused on the strategy of battle, rather than just who has more HP and who does more damage.
Similarly there seemed to be good magic options and they were as simple as obtaining the magic spell found by adventuring and then just equipping it. The rest would come down to how you evolved your character as to how many times you could cast the spell and how much damage or healing it would do. Unfortunately I didn't go pure magic build so I couldn't tell you too much beyond this, but others within the Steam Discussions have said that magic is quite powerful.

Can I pick this...cup up?

Anyone who has played a first person RPG where you can loot most things you come across, worthless or not, understands the joys of grabbing things as they go and having the opportunity to fight something and easily upgrade all their gear by vanquishing that foe. Grabbing things like food, plates, feathers, wood, etc., just goes on to make you wonder later how you might be able to use these things to your advantage... or, possibly because you're just a thief at heart in games. I'm happy to report that I kept trying different ingredients and I was making all sorts of different cooked items with crafting. There is also weapon and armor crafting, alchemy, and on the horizon fishing and hopefully much more. When talking about weapons and armor, I upgraded multiple times throughout my playthrough with whole new sets and all these had unique appearances. Some had magical properties that would inspire unique builds.

Some final gripes

To the developers and potential buyers, here is my list of things that either I know the developers are already working on or just purely were disappointing to me during EA.

Clouds. I want clouds. The sky looks very good but unfortunately the absence of clouds really hurts my immersion.
Better enemy engagement when fighting multiple enemies. ** Already being worked on by the dev team and a video clip shown in the Updates section for July. **
When it is level appropriate, no one shot kills. Spoiler free, but I ran into someone who had an ability to kill me with one magical spell. Devs.... this never feels good, ever.
A city and world that is alive. Please add patrols for enemies, and also add some life to those who are living a civilian life. Make your world seem real.
More varied enemies. While I really like what is here, there needs to be a greater variety. Most likely that is planned, but still a request.
Please give the player more different attack options with melee weapons. Sidestep attacks, dash attacks, etc. Even if just a few more.
Frames and polish. ** Already being worked on by the development team and posted about in the Updates **


Final Thoughts

While rough around the edges and still includes bugs and performance issues, within 11 hours of gameplay I never experienced a single crash or lockup. Also, this game had brilliant support for Controller (I played with an Xbox One Controller). I'd definitely recommend Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon to any FPS RPG lover or anyone who looks at the Steam store page trailer and thinks the game looks good, but under one requirement. You need to understand the game is not finished, it will be months between Major meaningful updates, and performance will be under what you get from you other current games. These things aside, I wouldn't have wanted to miss this adventure.
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