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Over the past few weeks, I've been in the fortuitous position of playing Oblivion: Remastered without ever experiencing the original game. I got into the series with Skyrim, one of my all-time favorite RPGs, and now I get to play a beautifully retouched version of what many call the best in the series for the first time.
I'm having such a good time with Oblivion: Remastered that I promised myself I wouldn't play anything else until I finished it. Well, it turns out I'm no good at keeping promises.
To be fair, I've so far only played the demo for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, but it feels like every bone in my body is compelled to play more. This brand new semi-open world RPG from developer Questline is billed as "a love letter to FPP RPGs," and the Elder Scrolls influence is obvious from the moment you start the game and are tasked with escaping a dank, medieval-era prison. Everything from the UI, to the stiff animations, to the lockpicking and combat flow just reeks of Skyrim-era Elder Scrolls.
The world of Avalon, however, inspired by Arthurian legends, is very much distinct and Tainted Grail in general seems to embrace a darker, almost gothic, and weirdly unserious, vibe. For example, the Steam page says you're free to become "a crazy alchemist-berserker punching enemies to death" and the world is afflicted with something called "the Wyrdness," presumably pronounced like weirdness, that adds "survival challenges" during the latter portion of its day/night cycle.
Anyway, it all sounds like a lot of fun, and going off Steam reviews alone, it seems like it really is. Although a majority of the reviews I've read compare it to Elder Scrolls and Skyrim specifically, there's also a lot of emphasis on the richness of the world and the rewarding nature of its exploration.
This one's all I needed to read to give it a go:
"This game gives me that old elder scrolls itch of 'hey whats over there'... 7 hours later 'hey whats over there'...And every time you ask the question, I wonder if something is over there, under there, in there, on top of that.... the answer is always YES and its cool."
Another positive review from someone who saw some FromSoftware inspirations in Tainted Grail's world reads: "It's Skyrim in a world that looks like Elden Ring, without the souls like difficultly. That's really all that needs to be said, because that's exactly what it is."
Commenting on the game's apparently well-written lore, another review reads: "The setting just grabbed me from the get go. I actually read all the books and notes I find, which I usually don't.
"Exploration is exciting and rewarding. For the first time in a loooong time I'm actually thinking about a game when not playing it, looking forward to going back. Having a hard time putting it down again when playing."
Remember when I mentioned Tainted Grail's apparent silliness? This review is a bit of a rollercoaster but it's worth reading just so I can drive home that point. Lightly edited for clarity, it reads: "So I did a quest, found a guy on a dungeon, a very old cook gave me a recipe to make a cheese made out of fish. I go find the fish, make the cheese, my reward? A SPELL TO TURN PEOPLE INTO CHEESE."
As it stands, 89% of recent Steam reviews for Tainted Grail are positive, and I couldn't find a single negative review that was unrelated to performance. My point is, I'm sorry, Oblivion: Remastered, but you just might have to share my TV screen with another 50-60 hour RPG for a while.
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