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Tainted Grail vs. Hell is Us vs. Cronos vs. Dying Light Beast

The best game of the four

  • Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

    Votes: 25 34.2%

  • Hell is Us

    Votes: 12 16.4%

  • Cronos: The New Dawn

    Votes: 28 38.4%

  • Dying Light: The Beast

    Votes: 8 11.0%
  • Total voters
    73
kpopSuperstar

kpopSuperstar

Member
All these games released last year, and I want to buy one of them, but it's hard for me to choose. They are cheaper now and all seem worthy, but which is the correct game to get and why?

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - May 23rd
Hell is Us - September 4th
Cronos: The New Dawn - September 5th
Dying Light: The Beast - September 18th
 
All actually solid games.. But hell is us for me was so unique and one of a kind that gets my vote. I platinumed it and loved every second, no hand holding etc... Sucks it got overshadowed by Silksong.
 
kpopSuperstar said:
All these games released last year, and I want to buy one of them, but it's hard for me to choose. They are cheaper now and all seem worthy, but which is the correct game to get and why?

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon - May 23rd
Hell is Us - September 4th
Cronos: The New Dawn - September 5th
Dying Light: The Beast - September 18th
Click to expand...
You want a really long game or a shorter one? These are all worth a sale purchase even after you already buy one.
 
Easily Dying Light The Beast. It's super fun and there's a lot of modes for replayability.

Avoid Tainted Grail, the game gets worse the more you play, almost unfinished. There's jank and performance isn't great. Cool world building though.
 
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I've played Cronos and Tainted Grail. Both are awesome games, but my vote goes to Cronos if you had to pick just one.
 
Tainted Grail is a fantastic Bethesda-style RPG. If you like open world and big variety in build/playstyles go for that.

Hell is Us is much more 'linear' but it is very unique and a really great time. If you like uncovering mystery and world-based story telling, get this one.

The other 2 games a good but not great.

I voted Tainted Grail
 
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phant0m said:
Tainted Grail is a fantastic Bethesda-style RPG. If you like open world and big variety in build/playstyles go for that.

Hell is Us is much more 'linear' but it is very unique and a really great time. If you like uncovering mystery and world-based story telling, get this one.

The other 2 games a good but not great.

I voted Tainted Grail
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Yea tainted is awesome, loved what I played of it but was waitin for them to tweak it a bit further. Great game tho. All 4 of these are pretty awesome choices, it's why I say the AA scene is pretty damn awesome these days
 
Is Tainted Grail in a good state currently? It launched with several late-stage technical issues, so I'm curious if those have been successfully addressed
 
HRK69 said:
Is Tainted Grail in a good state currently? It launched with several late-stage technical issues, so I'm curious if those have been successfully addressed
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No improvements to PS5 version, from what I've heard. Which is sad.

I bought Tainted Grail on PS5 but haven't played it yet. Played for 15-30 min, but wasn't hooked. Wondered if it was too 'dark metal' for me. Not sure.
 
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HRK69 said:
Is Tainted Grail in a good state currently? It launched with several late-stage technical issues, so I'm curious if those have been successfully addressed
Click to expand...
Here's the latest news on it:



A lot of big changes to Act 3, bosses, new loot, enemy changes, and environmental changes too.
 
March Climber said:
You want a really long game or a shorter one? These are all worth a sale purchase even after you already buy one.
Click to expand...
I know Tainted Grail can get long, but are the others? I am a bit reluctant on Tainted Grail, not because of the length, but I heard the world is too grim to get the "Bethesda exploration" feeling when playing it, which is what I would want from it.

I am leaning Hell is Us because it seems unique. Dying Light could be cool, but Dying Light 2 makes me hesitant.

Cronos looks fine, but I heard very mixed things, some say it's on par with Dead Space, while others say it's clearly not on that level.
 
kpopSuperstar said:
I know Tainted Grail can get long, but are the others?
Click to expand...
To order them from long to short:
  • Tainted Grail
  • Hell Is Us
  • Dying Light TB
  • Cronos
kpopSuperstar said:
I am a bit reluctant on Tainted Grail, not because of the length, but I heard the world is too grim to get the "Bethesda exploration" feeling when playing it, which is what I would want from it.
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It does take itself a bit more seriously and darker than Elder Scrolls on a moment-to-moment basis, but if you're wanting an ES-like experience in quite a few other ways then it would be the game to get.
kpopSuperstar said:
I am leaning Hell is Us because it seems unique. Dying Light could be cool, but Dying Light 2 makes me hesitant.

Cronos looks fine, but I heard very mixed things, some say it's on par with Dead Space, while others say it's clearly not on that level.
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My advice would be to not just drop the other 3 by the wayside and instead give them a chance on sale down the line. You could probably beat both Dying Light and Cronos within the month depending on your schedule, because each one is about 20ish hours unless you're the type to 100%.

I understand 2026 is packed to the brim with games, but unless someone is FOMO gaming there's no reason to miss out on good games from a year+ ago.
 
kpopSuperstar said:
I know Tainted Grail can get long, but are the others? I am a bit reluctant on Tainted Grail, not because of the length, but I heard the world is too grim to get the "Bethesda exploration" feeling when playing it, which is what I would want from it.

I am leaning Hell is Us because it seems unique. Dying Light could be cool, but Dying Light 2 makes me hesitant.

Cronos looks fine, but I heard very mixed things, some say it's on par with Dead Space, while others say it's clearly not on that level.
Click to expand...
You won't be disappointed with Hell Is Us
 
Dying Light or Cronos. Hell is Us is below mediocre in gameplay. Tainted Grail havent played, but seems super janky and you need to accept it's super low budget quality.
 
I only played HiS and Cronos - I really liked both but for very different reasons.

Cronos is better overall I would say.
 
Rocinante618 said:
Easily Dying Light The Beast. It's super fun and there's a lot of modes for replayability.

Avoid Tainted Grail, the game gets worse the more you play, almost unfinished. There's jank and performance isn't great. Cool world building though.
Click to expand...
didn't they just release a major patch that tried to address that?
 
My vote goes to Hell Is Us.

I thought the game was going to be a middling dark souls knock off set in war torn Eastern Europe.

Turned out to be one of the only games outside of what I normally play that I finished last year.

Game play systems are solid, they have enough "new" twists to the dark souls formula to keep it fresh through the game, it looks great and it performs very well across all the platforms I have played it on.

I have the other games that you mentioned as well and I won't belittle those to make Hell Is Us shine brighter…of that list it is the one I remember the most.
 
Finished Hell is Us, it is a great game, very atmospheric with interesting world, but it overstays its welcome, 7/10 (where 5 would be average). I enjoyed it but was glad when it was over. Worth playing though.

Other three are on my wishlist, waiting for gamepass or deeper sales.
 
Tainted Grail is fantastic but play it on PC if you can as the console versions have had crashing and performance issues since day one.
 
diffusionx said:
didn't they just release a major patch that tried to address that?
Click to expand...
I don't know maybe but my point still is that Tainted Grail isn't that much fun, it's janky and has serviceable combat. If you're into lore, story I think it's good, the world building, gothic vibe is pretty cool but I didn't have much fun with it, constant stutters due to shader being compiled every time a new effect was observed, the AI and combat were meh and while it was pretty enough it just wasn't too coherent, especially the more you play, Act 1 was interesting, Act 2 was ok, Act 3 was abysmal and pointless and made me drop it, not worth my time imo.
 
Rocinante618 said:
I don't know maybe but my point still is that Tainted Grail isn't that much fun, it's janky and has serviceable combat. If you're into lore, story I think it's good, the world building, gothic vibe is pretty cool but I didn't have much fun with it, constant stutters due to shader being compiled every time a new effect was observed, the AI and combat were meh and while it was pretty enough it just wasn't too coherent, especially the more you play, Act 1 was interesting, Act 2 was ok, Act 3 was abysmal and pointless and made me drop it, not worth my time imo.
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, yes they released a patch a few weeks ago that adjusted act 3

Patch Notes

Patch Notes and Announcements pulled from the Official Discord and Steam.Please note that these may will contain spoilers! mono branch has been updated to 1.15
taintedgrail.wiki.gg taintedgrail.wiki.gg

Not sure to what extent it's better because I haven't played it.
 
If I were to rank them i'd say Cronos > Hell is Us (just barely) > Dying Light The Beast (it was good but I honestly preferred Dying Light 2....maybe im in the minority).

Haven't played Tainted Grail.
 
Tainted Grail is a pretty good Elder Scrolls style game that's better for people into the story/lore aspect. Never finished it but got nearly 50 hours from it on the launch version and they've had updates and DLC since. Plan to return to it when there's a lull in releases.

Cronos is pretty cool but the combat just didn't do it for me. Dropped at around 8 hours but may give another go.

Hell is Us I recall there being a demo or playtest before launch. Was very unimpressed and never gave another look.

Dying Light The Beast I haven't looked into because of Dying Light 2.
 
Went for Tainted Grail.

I wasn't impressed by the others, namely Cronos which I had high hopes for but felt sparse and restrictive. Plus the entire plot hook didn't grab me and felt like arbitrary sci-fi horror spaghetti thrown at the wall to see what sticks (without getting into spoilers).

Tainted Grail is one of the few Classic Elder Scrolls like and an ambitious project for the dev. I think they hit a lot more than they miss on the title and pleased they have been supporting it.

Also, I am at the point where Elder Scrolls-like has my attention as a pitch.
 
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Cronos I found disappointing. It starts strong but never really crescendos and the story beats weren't good enough to mask the ehhhh gameplay.
 
was in your situation a month ago, op, & went with cronos. which i was really enjoying until the relentlessly grim environment just got to me. will definitely be getting back to it. i'm thinking 'right game at the wrong time'. it's definitely impressive...
 
Rocinante618 said:
I don't know maybe but my point still is that Tainted Grail isn't that much fun, it's janky and has serviceable combat. If you're into lore, story I think it's good, the world building, gothic vibe is pretty cool but I didn't have much fun with it, constant stutters due to shader being compiled every time a new effect was observed, the AI and combat were meh and while it was pretty enough it just wasn't too coherent, especially the more you play, Act 1 was interesting, Act 2 was ok, Act 3 was abysmal and pointless and made me drop it, not worth my time imo.
Click to expand...
The problem with criticizing a game in today's age is that your criticisms will sometimes not even apply anymore after a few months.
 
March Climber said:
The problem with criticizing a game in today's age is that your criticisms will sometimes not even apply anymore after a few months.
Click to expand...
It has to be annoying, you play a game and offer a valid opinion based on what you saw, but what you saw is not relevant because they release a huge patch to address the stuff you are criticizing. But that's how it is.
 
diffusionx said:
It has to be annoying, you play a game and offer a valid opinion based on what you saw, but what you saw is not relevant because they release a huge patch to address the stuff you are criticizing. But that's how it is.
Click to expand...
I only find this annoying from a critique point of view.

From the point of view as a gamer/consumer I mostly just consider it good news.

I like seeing games that may have just stayed forever as 6's or 7's a few gens ago, end up feeling like good 8's in today's age, due to updates from feedback.
 
As long as you don't have to play the Dying Light 2 core game, I guess Beast is an option, but Hell is Us is a much better choice, imo (if you don't mind horror).
 
That the new AA royalty you're talking about. You should have them all in the collection at one point. It's just a matter of what you want to play first. If you want a new Skyrim, check out Tainted Grail. Bioshock/Dead Space, play Cronos.

Tainted Grail is my overall pick. Give these guys another year and a little more money and you'll have a legit TES competitor.
 
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semiconscious said:
was in your situation a month ago, op, & went with cronos. which i was really enjoying until the relentlessly grim environment just got to me. will definitely be getting back to it. i'm thinking 'right game at the wrong time'. it's definitely impressive...
Click to expand...
Yeah, this is my fear and why I am not pulling the trigger on instinct, I have hundreds of games that look good but lack something and can't keep your interest, and ends up being played for a few hours and get stuck in the backlog.

But when the price dips to around $25, it becomes hard to resist.
 
I only played Tainted Grail so i can only recommend this one to you, but it really is a match made in heaven.

First mission you have to score some cigarettes (remember it is a dystopian Arthurian retelling, so UK), and then flee from out of shape bobbies.
After that your only goal is to find drugs for which you pay with your unemployment benefits, and wait until you get sick to be taken care in a public hospital, and expecting taxpayer money to foot the bill.

This is the main wuest tho, there are, as with morrowind, a lot of side quest to do. For exemple join a pakistani grooming gang (gives you permanent immunity against any type of law), or try yourself out in the knife fighting league and become the king of the streets.

Jokes aside, tainted grail is very good, if you like morrowind type games. Lots of it is very obscure, and if you don't find yourself a good build you'll have a hard time even with basic enemies, but it is very fun and imaginative world.
 
March Climber said:
The problem with criticizing a game in today's age is that your criticisms will sometimes not even apply anymore after a few months.
Click to expand...

Mass Effect 3. :messenger_hushed:

I played it 18 months later than my friend at launch and we had completely different experiences. He hated it, I loved it.
 
Not played Tainted Grail, but of the other three, I enjoyed Cronos the most.

Best ScI-Fi Horror title I've played since the Dead Space Remake.
 
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