1348 Ex Voto’s Combat Will Leave You Raging For All Of The Wrong Reasons

I’m a glass half full sort of person. I consider myself to have the ability to see the best in something - and yet, I’m struggling to find any redeeming qualities in 1348 Ex Voto, a game whose concept I was fairly sold on. I can’t fault the ambition of indie studio Sedleo, but I’m afraid several potentially okay ideas have been lost within an experience that is underbaked, unoptimised and, at times, unplayable.

1348 Ex Voto is a third-person action-adventure that follows knight Aeta as she sets out to find her “closest one” Bianca in Medieval Italy. Armed with a sword, players will battle through waves of enemies in this linear experience, inching their way closer to Bianca after she goes missing during a raid on the duo’s town in the game’s opening.

Combat Is Dull, With Little Variation

The most glaring problem with 1348 Ex Voto is its combat system, particularly as it’s the only thing there to really keep you engaged. In between sword fights, Aeta will run through what are essentially scenic corridors. Eventually, there might be a small puzzle where you have to make use of nearby items to find your way up to a ledge. 1348 Ex Voto predominantly, though, revolves around its combat, which is a shame given how weak it is.

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It’s a very simple combat system, particularly in the early chapters. You have four options. You can light hit, heavy hit, block, or dodge. That’s it. You have a stamina bar so you can’t just spam block, but it resets pretty regularly. The caveat is that your enemies have this defence too. You’ll need to break their stamina bars before you can actually deliver any blows, at which point you can probably finish them in a handful of strikes.

You might already have predicted the first issue here. The combat is boring which, as I said, doesn’t cut it in a game that doesn’t really offer much else. Aeta may face off against a handful of enemies at once, but they’ll all hover weirdly, coming at you one by one as they mutter the same voice lines over and over again. I’m open to playing something that has an element of yesteryear about it, but 1348 Ex Voto lacks nostalgia. It just feels horrendously out of date.

The Auto-Locking System Makes The Game Unplayable

The combat is made worse by the game’s abysmal auto-locking system. The game will essentially dictate who you auto-lock onto and it doesn’t always make sense, resulting in a myriad of problems. As I said, you have to break a character’s stamina/shield before you can actually deliver any blows. The problem is that when the auto-lock switches from one character to another, which it does often, that stamina resets. It meant that I’d spend entire battles making zero progress as the auto-lock swung me this way and that.

With my camera swinging erratically from side to side, enemies could deliver swift blows as I wasn’t able to effectively block. It didn’t even help if I spammed hits. I could be fighting someone directly in front of me, with the auto-lock transferring to someone in the background. The game then registers you as fighting that person in the background, so my hit didn’t even land on the guy standing two-feet away.

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This is all made worse by the fact that 1348 Ex Voto relies purely on autosaving. In Chapter 3, I fought my way through around seven enemies which may not sound like a lot, but it took a long time to do so given all of the issues I’ve mentioned above. I reached a tent with a couple of healing items in and assumed the game might have autosaved there. I entered the next segment, quickly died due to just how unwieldy the combat is, then was transported all the way to the very start of that particular section, from before I defeated the seven enemies. It made me want to put the game down and never return.

1348 Ex Voto Is Plagued With Performance Issues

I’ve yet to mention the fact that 1348 Ex Voto is hugely unoptimised. It stutters horrendously with low framerate drops, and my PC more than met the specifications. I constantly felt as if Aeta was wildly drunk which didn’t help given the combat issues either. There are trinkets and sword parts you can find to offer additional benefits in combat like automatic healing if you reach one heart remaining, for example, but they failed to save the system for me.

Solid Acting Is About One of The Only Redeeming Qualities

What I will say is that I can’t really fault the performances of Alby Baldwin as Aeta and Jennifer English as Bianca. They aren’t given the best material to work with, but they bring it to life in a way that I couldn’t particularly fault. It’s a shame the game’s animations didn’t work harmoniously with their performances. In the opening discussion between Aeta and Bianca, there are some very questionable facial expressions. It’s the type of stuff you just know the internet will immediately meme.

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Those questionable graphics continue throughout the game. I did somewhat admire 1348 Ex Voto’s aesthetic vision. There’s a grittiness to certain vistas where I can somewhat see the unfulfilled cinematic intention. However, it’s hard to appreciate that when the stuttering makes for a rather uncomfortable, disorientating experience. 1348 Ex Voto has a serious clipping issue too as well as delayed load-ins making for some less than seamless transitions.

The story also lacks an intriguing sense of drive. Much of the game’s opening is Aeta traipsing from one settlement to another, looking for signs of Bianca. When she gets there, she or a random lord will spout a ton of exposition. Cutscenes are long, and don’t really move the player on emotionally. I know Sedleo has touted The Last of Us franchise as an inspiration but 1348 Ex Voto fails to feature any nuance.

It does sadden me that the game turned out this way, as I fear a certain dark corner of the internet will use the game’s negative reception to push an unwarranted agenda, namely that the game’s failure is tied to the assumed relationship of the two female leads which, of course, is not the case. It’s difficult to overlook 1348 Ex Voto’s flaws though. While there are some charming performances on display, it’s ultimately let down by a dull and problematic combat system and poor optimisation that doesn’t really give you any incentive to push on with what is, sadly, a slog.

Pros: Decent cast performance, some nice cinematic shots

Cons: Dull and problematic combat system, repetitive gameplay, poor performance, poorly paced story

For fans of: The Last of Us, Hellblade, A Plague Tale

3/10: Poor

1348 Ex Voto launches on 12 March on PC (version tested) and PlayStation 5. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.