Have a bit of Tainted Grail: Conquest for your roguelike deckbuilder fix

(Image credit: Awaken Realms Digital)

I see you there, twitching and chewing at your fingers. Been a while since you've stacked up cards, huh? That latest Monster Train expansion not doing it for you anymore, is it?

Tainted Grail: Conquest released this week, a roguelike deckbuilding game set in a dark fantasy takeoff of Arthurian mythology. It's a story-driven hybrid of roguelike and RPG, with an emphasis on the roguelike. Something like your Slay the Spires but with a richer story behind it.

Much of Tainted Grail's appeal is in mix-and-matching the nine classes with the hundreds of cards and passive skills to make your own combo each run. As you move from run to run you save NPCs out in the world, or bring back resources to build up the village you venture out from each time—that's your meta-element bringing a bit of progression run to run.

For my part, I like them weird monsters they've got in this game. What is that, some kind of crystalline crab person? Funky whale monster... thing? A log with a face? I don't like any of them per se but I do quite like to look at them in theory.

It's been pretty well-liked by user reviewers, with an 86% positive review record on Steam as of this article. You can find Tainted Grail: Conquest on Steam for $20, on sale for $18 until June 3.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.