I’ve talked about Tainted Grail a lot, you can see that here but last night an era came to an end. Now, of course, I do have three more campaigns to play counting the Red Death expansion, which we didn’t do this time. So it’s not like I’m done with the world of Avalon but it does mean that I’m done with the Fall of Avalon campaign.

There are a contingent of people who believe unless you’ve played the whole game, especially for campaign games, you haven’t played it enough to review it. I clearly am not in that camp. That said, I do want to come back and talk about this game because it is a big campaign game. And one that was successful on Kickstarter. So when people do complete the game, it might show up on the second hand market.

Who Is Tainted Grail For?

I feel like I haven’t covered this too much. Tainted Grail is a massive exploration and survival game. It is a game rich with story but also full of things that are ready to kill you at a moments notice. And that works for me. There is a story mode that helps make the game easier just with two simple tweaks. I’ve played the game on both regular and story mode and both work.

Theme

Why start with all of that, well, because you need some framework on the game. But Tainted Grail is an adult themed, meaning intense situations, descriptions and narrations. So this is not a game for kids. It isn’t adult themed like late night cable but it will get intense.

Story Progression

It’s also not a game for people who are going to get frustrated by running around the map. I call it story progression because I don’t have a better way to say it. But you will go from north to south to east to west and back again during the campaign. You might do that during a single chapter of the game. You see places that you’ve been before. And you’ll do that a number of times lighting the Menhir as you go. So it won’t work for some people retreading ground they’ve already seen.

Survival

Tainted Grail is a survival game. As much as there is story in the game, and there is a lot of great story, there is also a lot of survival. You need to keep the Menhir lit – they basically drive back the wyrdness. You need to fight monsters. The villages aren’t friendly to you. The game, and the world, are trying to kill you. And you always need more. More food, more money, more diplomacy, more combat, better reputation and more magic.

The game is really meant to be difficult. It is meant to make you feel like you need to scrape to survive. The story mode does help mitigate this. That said, if you are the type of player who doesn’t want to worry about that, this game probably won’t work for you.

Being the Heroes

In a lot of board games, you are the heroes. You rush into a room and do better than everyone else. The townsfolk can’t save themselves, but you can save them. Tainted Grail is not that kind of game. From your village, in the game, others left already to try and save you. They are missing. You leave as the B Team to find them. Can you fight, yes. Can you explore, yes. Are you the saviors of the land, maybe?

If you want to be heroic, this game does give you moments. If you want to be the heroes, you might be at times. But this is a grim dark fantasy setting. The amount you are a hero is dulled by the fact no one can truly be. It goes back to the theme, this is a world with dark things happening. But, I like that about the game. You don’t need to be the heroes, you need to help and hopefully survive.

Does The Story Pay Off?

I write this question because for my 2020 and 2019 #1 game of all time, Gloomhaven, the story kind of pays off. It’s a situation where, yes, it pays off, it has an end. But it isn’t the best story out there. For some people, how it pays off is going to be disappointing. Does Tainted Grail follow that game or have a good ending?

Tainted Grail, I feel, gives you a better end to the campaign. The story has an ending point and has a few spots you can end it. Gloomhaven will give you one ending, Tainted Grail will give you several. And the one I have seen was enjoyable. It made sense for what we did with how it ended. And there is a lot of story to be uncovered still and I am curious to find out more.

Would I Play It Again?

Probably, I debated last night if I would. When we had wrapped up the campaign and I was getting ready for bed, I wasn’t sure that I would. But, I do think that I would. I think that I’d tweak the game slightly to play it again.

Now, that might sound surprising, I’d change up a game that I love. I might do that, why, because I want to see more story. We didn’t play with Ailei so I’d likely play her deck. But we also didn’t play with Maggot. So I would play on story mode, I would play true solo, but, I’d play as if I was the whole party. That is just so I can explore more of the story. Or maybe I’d build out each character and swap between them.

If you are concerned that Tainted Grail might not be replayable, don’t be. First, there is a ton of content just in one play through. Probably 50+ hours for just Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and that might be enough time for you. So the value is there. But if you want to play it again, you can. We have a lot of statuses that we didn’t get, that I would love to find.

Final Thoughts on Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

This is up there with some of the best gaming experiences that I’ve had. The story immerses you in the world and you feel the weight of the burden that you carry. That might not be the experience that everyone wants. That might be hard to separate from reality for some people. For me, games give me worlds to explore that I know aren’t my own that I know are a story.

I won’t say where this one ends up on my Top 100 List, it was there last year and I’m going through and doing my list again now. I’ll just say that if you are looking for a very immersive game, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is among the best I’ve ever played.

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