Valor Mortis takes the familiar foundations of the soulslike genre and transports them to an unsettling reimagining of Napoleonic Europe. Developed by One More Level, the studio behind Ghostrunner, and published by Lyrical Games and One More Level, this action RPG trades traditional third-person combat for a first-person perspective, putting players directly in the path of grotesque enemies and their deadly attacks. It is an intriguing combination of historical horror, demanding swordplay and acrobatic traversal, although its willingness to follow established genre conventions sometimes holds it back from reaching its full potential.
The story follows William, a soldier in Napoleon’s Grande Armée who awakens among the dead after a mysterious plague has devastated the battlefield. His former comrades have become horrifying abominations, while supernatural forces offer him abilities that make his resurrection more than a simple return from the grave. Napoleon himself continues to exert an influence over William, and the unfolding mystery gradually develops into a story about loyalty, corruption and the terrible consequences of war. The alternate-history setting is one of the game’s strongest assets, offering a welcome departure from the medieval fantasy worlds commonly associated with soulslikes. Its narrative initially takes a back seat to the action, but becomes considerably more engaging as the adventure progresses and the motivations of its various characters become clearer. Optional stories, environmental details and decisions affecting the fates of certain characters add welcome depth, although the reliance on scattered documents and indirect storytelling can make some developments difficult to follow. The conclusion also struggles to bring its different threads together convincingly, leaving some of the story’s more interesting questions without entirely satisfying answers.
Combat is where Valor Mortis makes its most important distinction. Rather than simply transplanting a conventional soulslike into a first-person camera, One More Level attempts to combine deliberate, stamina-based swordplay with the immediacy of a first-person action game. Players must learn enemy attack patterns, time their parries and dodge incoming strikes before finding opportunities to counterattack. Breaking an opponent’s posture opens the door to particularly satisfying finishing moves, while the different melee weapons encourage distinct approaches to combat. The rapier rewards precise timing and aggressive parrying, for example, whereas other blades offer a more balanced or damage-focused alternative. Firearms and supernatural abilities expand the available options, allowing players to weaken enemies from a distance or exploit particular vulnerabilities. When everything clicks, encounters feel physical and engaging, with well-timed deflections and punishing counterattacks providing the sort of satisfaction that makes the genre so compelling. However, the combat is not always as consistent as it should be. Some enemy attacks are difficult to read, while occasional problems with hit detection and targeting can leave a carefully timed strike connecting with nothing but air. These frustrations are particularly noticeable when using weapons that demand greater precision, and they can make certain encounters feel unfair rather than challenging.
The first-person perspective proves more than a superficial gimmick, although it comes with trade-offs. It brings enemies uncomfortably close, making their grotesque appearances and sudden attacks more intimidating, while requiring players to pay close attention to their movements. It also gives firearms a more natural place in the combat system, including opportunities to target vulnerable points on particular enemies and exploit environmental hazards. Explosive objects, for instance, can be used to damage nearby foes, rewarding players who look beyond simply swinging their sword. At the same time, the camera can make spatial awareness more difficult during crowded encounters, and the lock-on system does not always compensate for that limitation. The game also lacks the extensive character-building options found in some of its genre contemporaries. Instead of assembling a highly specialised build around a broad selection of weapons and attributes, progression revolves around upgrading the character, improving equipment and unlocking abilities through a more structured system. This makes progression straightforward, but reduces the freedom to experiment with radically different playstyles. Valor Mortis succeeds in making first-person soulslike combat work, even if it does not fully explore every possibility offered by the concept.
One of the more welcome surprises is the way exploration incorporates ideas from both soulslikes and metroidvanias. The adventure is divided into interconnected areas featuring checkpoints, shortcuts, hidden passages and optional discoveries, with new abilities gradually opening routes that were previously inaccessible. Although the overall progression remains fairly linear, individual locations offer opportunities to explore away from the main path, and revisiting earlier areas can reveal rewards that were impossible to reach before. This approach works particularly well alongside the parkour mechanics inherited from Ghostrunner. Wall-running, carefully timed jumps and grappling manoeuvres introduce a welcome change of pace, giving William a degree of mobility that distinguishes him from the comparatively grounded protagonists of many soulslikes. Some routes even allow players to bypass particularly dangerous groups of enemies rather than fighting their way through every encounter. The problem is that this exploration can become unnecessarily cumbersome. With several areas containing inaccessible passages that only become available later, the lack of a map makes remembering where to return a frustrating exercise, particularly as the adventure grows more complex. The level design does improve as the game progresses, but a better way to track unexplored routes would have made its backtracking considerably more enjoyable.
Progression follows a similarly familiar formula. Defeating enemies rewards players with Catalysts, which function as the currency for levelling up and purchasing improvements. Dying means losing the unspent resources carried at the time, creating the usual incentive to return to the location of the previous death and recover them. Checkpoints restore resources and revive defeated enemies, while upgrades improve William’s capabilities and make further progress more manageable. The system is easy to understand, and the game generally provides enough opportunities to strengthen the protagonist without turning every obstacle into an endurance test. Its difficulty is demanding but not consistently punishing by the standards of the genre, and repeated boss attempts can offer small resource rewards that help soften the consequences of failure. Nevertheless, some encounters rely on attacks that are difficult to anticipate, and the challenge can feel uneven as a result. The boss roster also loses some of its impact towards the end, with recycled encounters and less memorable final confrontations undermining the build-up. There are some excellent fights that demand a thorough understanding of enemy patterns, but the overall selection could have been more consistently inventive.
Visually, Valor Mortis benefits enormously from its unusual setting. Rather than relying on another collection of castles and fantasy ruins, it depicts a corrupted version of nineteenth-century Europe, complete with devastated villages, military fortifications and landscapes scarred by endless warfare. The contrast between recognisable historical architecture and grotesque supernatural mutations creates an effective sense of decay. Its creature designs are especially striking, transforming once-human soldiers into disturbing masses of flesh, armor and weaponry. The first-person perspective further strengthens the horror, as enemies can loom into view with little warning and environmental details become more immediate. Unreal Engine 5 also provides detailed interiors, atmospheric lighting and impressive scenery, although the visual presentation occasionally feels more technically accomplished than artistically distinctive. Some locations lack the visual individuality needed to make them memorable, and familiar-looking environments can dilute the impact of an otherwise imaginative world. The technical presentation is not entirely flawless either, with occasional visual irregularities and some awkward collisions. Even so, the combination of historical imagery and body horror gives the game a distinctive atmosphere that remains one of its most compelling qualities.
The audio contributes to that atmosphere by reinforcing the sense of danger and decay surrounding William. The constant threat of hostile creatures, the immediacy of combat and the unsettling implications of a plague that has corrupted an entire army all benefit from the game’s horror-oriented presentation. Napoleon’s presence in William’s thoughts also helps maintain the connection between the supernatural events and the historical conflict at the heart of the narrative. However, the storytelling does not always give its characters enough room to develop, and the environmental approach can leave players piecing together important details from fragments rather than receiving a consistently clear account of events. The atmosphere is effective, but it is not always matched by the narrative clarity needed to make the story’s more ambitious ideas land.
Ultimately, Valor Mortis is a solid and often entertaining addition to the soulslike genre, made more interesting by its first-person perspective and its disturbing reinterpretation of the Napoleonic Wars. One More Level’s experience with fast-paced action is evident in the responsive movement and the satisfying combination of parries, dodges, firearms and parkour. Its interconnected environments also provide worthwhile reasons to explore beyond the main route, while the alternate-history setting gives the adventure an identity that extends beyond its mechanical influences. However, inconsistent hit detection, an occasionally awkward targeting system, limited build variety and an uneven selection of boss fights prevent it from standing alongside the genre’s strongest entries. The narrative has an intriguing premise but does not entirely deliver on its potential, particularly towards the conclusion. Valor Mortis is therefore more successful as an engaging and well-crafted variation on an established formula than as a reinvention of it. Fans looking for a different perspective on soulslike combat will find plenty to appreciate, provided they are willing to accept a few rough edges along the way.
Score: 8.0/10