Put down your holy hand grenades and choose up your keyboards—Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, which pulls closely from the story of King Arthur, has formally crossed 450,000 copies bought throughout Steam and consoles! Not dangerous for a scrappy indie RPG that’s been lovingly known as “indie Skyrim” by gamers with a smooth spot for brooding knights, mysterious curses, and morally questionable quests (so, Skyrim followers).

The builders at Awaken Realms Digital are clearly feeling the love and, in a current group replace, gave gamers a heartfelt “large, fats THANK YOU.” In a tone extra humble than a medieval peasant supplied a shrubbery, they credited the sport’s passionate fanbase for serving to it develop—and promised they’re not completed but.

Should you haven’t dived in but, Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is a first-person open-world RPG steeped in a darkish reimagining of Arthurian legend. You’ll discover crumbling ruins, morally complicated factions, and loads of eerie fog—principally, 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 as a result of regardless of the grim-dark graphics and the implausible Polish folksy soundtrack (suppose Witcher 3), the sport additionally has a bizarre sense of humour. To this point I’ve run into an undead chef who tried to persuade me bitter fish and cheese are a delicacy, after which a couple of minutes later, I’m weighing up the ethics of two warring factions.

In different phrases, sure, I’m enjoying the sport and plan on reviewing it.

And in case you’ve already purchased it? Congrats on serving to 450,000 different would-be Grail seekers deliver stability to a cursed land. Simply bear in mind: unusual ladies mendacity in ponds distributing swords is not any foundation for a system of presidency.

What’s Subsequent on the Highway(map) to Avalon?

Promoting practically half one million copies is not any small feat, however Awaken Realms isn’t simply counting cash in Camelot. Right here’s what’s on the horizon:

  • Patch 1.03 is rolling out now, with loads of bug squashing and efficiency enhancements.
  • Weekly patches are deliberate going ahead (although the devs cheekily admit it could be extra “ish” than “weekly”).
  • Mod assist is coming in about 3–4 weeks—cue the inevitable “killer rabbit” overhaul mod.
  • Steam Deck efficiency construct is within the works (actual date TBD).
  • Patch 1.1, due in August, will add new content material—particularly in Act 3’s Forlorn Swords area. The devs are holding it hush-hush, but it surely’s secure to count on one thing thrilling (hopefully not one other grail-shaped beacon).

The devs additionally put out a chunky 1.3 patch for the sport, whereas addressing the subject of efficiency and bugs. If you wish to learn the total and really prolonged listing of fixes and tweaks, test it out right here.

“After we got down to make Tainted Grail, we needed to create a deep, complicated journey, each when it comes to storytelling and exploration. However we additionally needed to offer you, the participant, as a lot freedom as potential,” says the builders on Steam. “That’s why you possibly can kill many NPCs, expertise wildly totally different quest outcomes, and method issues in any order. We needed to attenuate hand-holding, identical to we’d count on as gamers.”

They go on to say that the price of that is that the sport has so many mixtures of issues that may occur that glitches can simply sneak in. They even present a pre-release instance, explaining that they found a problem the place promoting a weapon that had been upgraded with a relic might trigger an issue hours later when the seller’s stock reset.