I think probably the best way I can quickly describe 1348 Ex Voto in the introduction to this review, is that it looks and feels like a budget Ninja Theory game with a great setting that is undercut by drastically underbaked and immensely frustrating combat. Yeah, that about sums it up nicely I’d say.
Taking place in the relatively grim times of 14th century rural Italy, 1348 Ex Voto casts players as a wayward knight by the name of Aeta, who finds themselves locked into a deep friendship with their close confidant, Bianca, a spirited village girl who seeks a spiritual path by joining her local convent. As you might well guess, things go off the rails pretty quickly when Bianca is kidnapped by local brigands, setting Aeta off on a vengeance stuffed odyssey as they cut a bloody swathe through brigands, corrupt lords and heretics alike in pursuit of their abducted friend.
1348 Ex Voto PS5 Review
Viewed from a similar behind the shoulder, third-person perspective as the Hellblade games, players guide Aeta around the various forests, foothills, caves, abandoned settlements and villas of 14th century Italy, carving up the ranks of the unclean, collecting treasures, scrolls, sword upgrades and food to keep that precious health bar ticking over as they go.
For all intents and purposes, gameplay is split into two distinct chunks. You’re either cutting your enemies to bloody ribbons, or, you’re stalking around the place, admiring the scenery and attempting to sniff out precious upgrade-enabling loot. When it comes to the former, sadly, 1348 Ex Voto falls flat on its bowl-cut noggin.
Put simply, combat is clumsy though straightforward – you can attack, block, dodge, parry, do perfect attacks, perfect parries and use different stances all the while maintaining your stamina. The key, of course, is to put your opponents into the ground as quickly as possible and the only way you can do that is by wearing down (read – stagger) your foes by hacking away at them until you break their guard in order to start dishing out the really big damage.
However, while the block mechanic works well enough on a similar guard break system for the player, the evasion mechanic tragically does not and the big reason for this is that it’s simply too imprecise to be counted upon. Either some dodges feel like they should have been successful aren’t and in other cases, the attacks of the enemy actually home in on you as you attempt to dodge them, lending Ex Voto‘s martial encounters a degree of haphazardness that feels eminently frustrating to say the least.
There’s also a strange health system at play when it comes to the various boss encounters. Rather than whittling down the health of your boss adversaries, their health instead regenerates quickly if you don’t keep doing damage to them, which of course becomes very very difficult when your attacks are being interrupted and you’re being constantly flooded with unblockable attacks – preventing you from doing anything close to successful stagger.
Now combine that with the utterly variable and miserable dodge mechanic and it comes to pass that 1348 Ex Voto has the dubious honour of boasting one of the most frustrating, pad-yeeting boss fights in recent memory. Congrats, I guess? There are other problems with the combat system too. Not only are the regular enemies themselves really quite dumb sorts that fall into the same attack patterns, but you can obtain an item early on in the game which makes the first hit after a guard break an instant kill, which utterly inbalances proceedings by making a previously fearsome encounter with more than one enemy seem anything but after that point.
And then on the polish (or lack thereof) side of things in the combat sphere, enemies seemingly cannot handle dropping down ledges well either and most just wait for you to climb up to get a few cheap hits in or just glitch their way down to where you are in less than graceful fashion. It’s a shame too, because the combative movements of Aeta and her assorted foes have been completed motion captured by Historical European Martial Arts (or just HEMA, for short), which lends every stance, every heft, every strike and every block a real sense of authenticity that feels appropriate considering just how grounded the world of 1348 Ex Voto is.
Sitting aside the combat is a simplistic progression system built entirely around exploration, which is arguably 1348 Ex Voto‘s most compelling vector. You see the picturesque 14th century rural Italy with its graceful rolling hills, craggy mountains, idyllic streams and misty mountain ranges, all provide ample fertile ground for exploration and discovery of secrets, as though each area is linear by nature there are various secret paths, nooks and crannies that can be discovered all the same.
Upgrades are accommodated by collecting paper scrolls and then using those as experience points essentially which can then be invested in a number of categories, while Aeta’s sword can be upgraded by collecting new components such as pommels, blades and so on that are dotted around the game world – again in such a fashion as to encourage the player to stalk every inch of 1348 Ex Voto’s world.
And what a gorgeously rendered world it is too. Developed by Italian indie studio Sedleo and leveraging the myriad technical powers of Unreal Engine 5, 1348 Ex Voto boasts some truly incredible scenery that does a superb job of evoking the time period in ways that Ninja Theory would surely be raising an eyebrow or two at. In fact the opulent combo of beautifully realised rural areas and the pinpoint detail work of extravagant shops, houses, temples, villas and more, all lend 1348 Ex Voto a visual veneer that is reminiscent of Asobo Studio’s superb Plague Tale titles.
The character models are also highly detailed for the most part as well, with some great motion capture and voice actor performances by main character actor Alby Baldwin and the reliably dulcet tones of Jennifer English, who plays the wayward Bianca. In fact, it’s fair to say that both Baldwin and English give their respective roles their all, committing fully to their characters and lending the already heavy world of 1348 Ex Voto some additional dramatic gravitas for good measure.
Unfortunately, 1348 Ex Voto‘s technical merits find themselves compromised somewhat with the realisation that the whole experience is limited to a single 30 FPS mode – a fact which also bizarrely holds true on PS5 Pro, too. That’s right nobody gets 60 FPS – which for feels a tad baffling in the year of our lord 2026 and in a game that isn’t necessarily doing *that* much to justify a 30 FPS cap. It’s also a bit annoying that the trailer for Ex Voto (see below) is shown to be running at 60 FPS – so what happened there my friends, eh?
Nonetheless, it’s also certainly worth mentioning that at a budget price of around $25 and with between six and eight hours of play with a little more if you’re hellbent on finding absolutely every secret, 1348 Ex Voto certainly punches above its weight from a budget perspective – a fact that is once again borne out by the frequently stunning visuals that do a commendable job of echoing the output of much larger studios such as Ninja Theory.
Sadly a compelling setting, great performances and some occasionally stunning visuals aren’t enough to overcome the horrendously uneven and frequently broken combat system which sits at the heart of 1348 Ex Voto and threatens to cast this otherwise intriguing and ambitious indie effort into the ninth circle of mediocrity.
1348 Ex Voto is out now on PS5.
Review code kindly provided by PR.