So, I have been diving back into Tainted Grail again for a little while. In fact, since I started tracking this year, it might be my most played game. I did my review originally on the first few chapters and with playing it solo, I wanted to come back and look at it more now that I’m further into the game. You can find my initial review here. What do I think of Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Now?

The App Integration

This is one thing I didn’t have the experience with to talk about. Tainted Grail when I first played it hadn’t been out for long and only Wave 1 had shipped. Now, there is an app that takes care of the exploration journal for you. I really like this feature. I know some people don’t want apps in their games, and I can get that sentiment, kind of. However, this is an app that definitely makes the game better. It makes it easier to navigate what you are doing and lays out the information, section changes, exploration, everything from that exploration book in an more accessible way.

The app also isn’t part of what plays the game. The game is still played at the table. It is just instead of pulling out the book and someone at the table reading out loud or to themselves their exploration, the app can do that for you. That provides more immersion into the game for me and because it is only story, it keeps it from feeling like a video game, which I know can be an issue for some people.

Echoes of the Past

This is another thing that wasn’t available when I first did my review. This is an expansion that you can add into all three campaigns. Basically, it gives you cool abilities that you can do, if you reach certain goals or milestones. It also fills in the backstory for your characters.

I am generally kind of iffy on backstory for characters that is more of a paragraph. How I play my character might not align with the backstory that the character is given. And while I think that could be an issue for some people with Tainted Grail, for me it isn’t an issue. I feel like I am playing my character fairly close to the backstory that I am reading, and honestly, it is as much about the things you unlock.

The goals you need to complete are not easy. And while Tainted Grail is certainly not an easy game in general, it can be tricky to know what to do, these goals do give you a bit of focus when you might not be at the crux of the adventure. Now, you can push for them at the wrong times, sometime, but you don’t know what which makes it even more fun. There are definitely a lot of cool things for them. And they aren’t easy so when you get that power unlocked it is really cool.

Attribute Cards

One thing I hadn’t gotten far enough into the game to find or upgrade to were the cards you can get for your attributes. These are cards that give you basically game changing powers. Nothing game breaking, but things that can really shake things up. Some allow you to get more energy or do better in combat or diplomacy. It can really shape how you build your character.

They also help a lot when dealing with some of the harder monsters. Anything that can dish out more damage in combat is really important in the game. And that might be a slight knock to the game that I’ll talk about next.

Combat vs Diplomacy

This, I know, people have called out as a negative to the game, and I am going to say for me it’s neutral. The world of Avalon is a hard dangerous world, there are going to be a lot of things that want to kill you before talking to you. That does mean that the attributes for diplomacy are less important than those for combat. It also means that the diplomacy cards are less important than combat cards.

This is mimicked in the decks of encounters. There are three decks that have monsters and only one that has diplomatic encounters. So again, it really encourages you to lean into combat, which is fine. Just know that going into the game, know that you probably won’t spend as many resources upgrading diplomacy attributes or deck.

Regular Mode vs Story Mode

Final thing I want to talk about is the few different modes that the game has. Now, I think that there is a hard mode, I don’t know that I’ll ever get to that. The regular mode is hard enough, and in a game where you really want to dive into the story, it can be frustrating with all the management of the Menhir that you are needing to do. This was compounded by the fact we were playing remote, but I think it’s worth saying that regular mode is a tough game.

Story Mode is a simple change, you just act like everything is being paid for by one less person than you have in the group. Exploring with two people would take one energy instead of two. Lighting a Menhir which could be 2 energy per person, 2 magic per person and 3 food per person, make it a total of 4, 4 and 6 instead of 6, 6, and 9. Story Mode really does allow you to focus on the story more and let it be challenging without adding in so much of the grind.

Do I Still Like It?

Yes, I love Tainted Grail. The story is amazing, some of the best I’ve played in a game. The combat and diplomacy are fun. What helps the combat and diplomacy is Echoes of the Past. Now there is more reason for both of those things. You have goals to try and complete more than just beating the encounter.

One thing you’ll have to find for yourself is player count. I like playing with a group of people. I think it is more fun. However, that can lead to combat downtime. For me, not an issue, great game that I want to know what others are doing. For some people, solo will be better.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon still gets a solid A+ from me. I love the game and experience. It is a bit messy, there are some grey areas, but so much fun. I just wanted to come back and highlight a few things I might not have talked about as much in my initial review.

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.