Put
down
your
holy
hand
grenades
and
pick
up
your
keyboards—Tainted
Grail:
The
Fall
of
Avalon,
which
draws
heavily
from
the
story
of
King
Arthur,
has
officially
crossed
450,000
copies
sold
across
Steam
and
consoles!
Not
bad
for
a
scrappy
indie
RPG
that’s
been
lovingly
referred
to
as
“indie
Skyrim”
by
players
with
a
soft
spot
for
brooding
knights,
mysterious
curses,
and
morally
questionable
quests
(so,
Skyrim
fans).

The
developers
at
Awaken
Realms
Digital
are
clearly
feeling
the
love
and,
in
a
recent
community
update,
gave
players
a
heartfelt
“big,
fat
THANK
YOU.”
In
a
tone
more
humble
than
a
medieval
peasant
offered
a
shrubbery,
they
credited
the
game’s
passionate
fanbase
for
helping
it
grow—and
promised
they’re
not
done
yet.

If
you
haven’t
dived
in
yet,
Tainted
Grail:
The
Fall
of
Avalon

is
a
first-person
open-world
RPG
steeped
in
a
dark
reimagining
of
Arthurian
legend.
You’ll
find
crumbling
ruins,
morally
complex
factions,
and
plenty
of
eerie
fog—basically,
it’s
what
you’d
get
if
Skyrim
and
Monty
Python
and
the
Holy
Grail
had
a
lovechild…
raised
in
a
haunted
forest.
I
say
Monty
Python
because
despite
the
grim-dark
graphics
and
the
fantastic
Polish
folksy
soundtrack
(think
Witcher
3),
the
game
also
has
a
weird
sense
of
humour.
So
far
I’ve
run
into
an
undead
chef
who
tried
to
convince
me
sour
fish
and
cheese
are
a
delicacy,
and
then
a
few
minutes
later,
I’m
weighing
up
the
ethics
of
two
warring
factions.

In
other
words,
yes,
I’m
playing
the
game
and
plan
on
reviewing
it.

And
if
you’ve
already
bought
it?
Congrats
on
helping
450,000
other
would-be
Grail
seekers
bring
balance
to
a
cursed
land.
Just
remember:
strange
women
lying
in
ponds
distributing
swords
is
no
basis
for
a
system
of
government.

What’s
Next
on
the
Road(map)
to
Avalon?

Selling
nearly
half
a
million
copies
is
no
small
feat,
but
Awaken
Realms
isn’t
just
counting
coins
in
Camelot.
Here’s
what’s
on
the
horizon:

• 
  Patch
  1.03
  is
  rolling
  out
  now,
  with
  plenty
  of
  bug
  squashing
  and
  performance
  improvements.
• 
  Weekly
  patches
  are
  planned
  going
  forward
  (though
  the
  devs
  cheekily
  admit
  it
  might
  be
  more
  “ish”
  than
  “weekly”).
• 
  Mod
  support
  is
  coming
  in
  about
  3–4
  weeks—cue
  the
  inevitable
  “killer
  rabbit”
  overhaul
  mod.
• 
  Steam
  Deck
  performance
  build
  is
  in
  the
  works
  (exact
  date
  TBD).
• 
  Patch
  1.1,
  due
  in
  August,
  will
  add
  new
  content—especially
  in
  Act
  3’s
  
  Forlorn
  Swords
  region.
  The
  devs
  are
  keeping
  it
  hush-hush,
  but
  it’s
  safe
  to
  expect
  something
  exciting
  (hopefully
  not
  another
  grail-shaped
  beacon).

The
devs
also
put
out
a
chunky
1.3
patch
for
the
game,
while
addressing
the
topic
of
performance
and
bugs.
If
you
want
to
read
the
full
and
very
lengthy
list
of
fixes
and
tweaks,

check
it
out
here.

“When
we
set
out
to
make
Tainted
Grail,
we
wanted
to
create
a
deep,
complex
adventure,
both
in
terms
of
storytelling
and
exploration.
But
we
also
wanted
to
give
you,
the
player,
as
much
freedom
as
possible,”
says
the
developers
on
Steam.
“That’s
why
you
can
kill
many
NPCs,
experience
wildly
different
quest
outcomes,
and
approach
things
in
any
order.
We
wanted
to
minimize
hand-holding,
just
like
we’d
expect
as
players.”

They
go
on
to
say
that
the
cost
of
this
is
that
the
game
has
so
many
combinations
of
things
that
can
happen
that
glitches
can
easily
sneak
in.
They
even
provide
a
pre-release
example,
explaining
that
they
discovered
an
issue
where
selling
a
weapon
that
had
been
upgraded
with
a
relic
could
cause
a
problem
hours
later
when
the
vendor’s
inventory
reset.