Valor Mortis: A First-Person Soulslike That Soars and Stumbles

Can a Soulslike truly thrive when confined to a first-person perspective? This is the bold question posed by Valor Mortis, the latest offering from One More Level, the Polish studio behind the acclaimed Ghostrunner series. Released on October 12, 2026, for PC and PlayStation 5, Valor Mortis takes a daring leap, promising a unique blend of brutal combat and immersive horror in an alternate 19th-century Napoleonic Europe. While initial skepticism about its first-person approach was high, the game largely delivers on the immersion front, yet it faces an uphill battle against uneven design that threatens player endurance.

Valor Mortis casts players as William Dowsett, an amnesiac British soldier resurrected into Napoleon's Grande Armée in a world where the French emperor not only won Waterloo but his victory is intertwined with a devastating Crimson Plague whose origins are central to the story. This supernatural twist transforms the Eastern Front into a melancholic, monster-infested wasteland, where players must navigate war-torn landscapes, facing off against malformed zombie grenadiers, lancers, and even creatures fused with cannons. True to Soulslike form, death means a trek back to retrieve lost catalysts, but Valor Mortis immediately distinguishes itself by placing players directly into this macabre historical nightmare.

The Unlikely Success of First-Person Combat

Many genre fans might naturally recoil at the idea of a Soulslike in first-person, fearing a loss of crucial situational awareness or awkward combat mechanics. Yet, Valor Mortis largely silences these concerns, with several outlets praising its execution. Reviewers generally find that the first-person perspective, surprisingly, enhances the core Soulslike experience rather than hindering it. As Polygon notes, seeing a weapon coming directly at you can make parry timing more intuitive; Wccftech also praises the game's finely attuned parry window and reliance on visual cues, while GamingTrend highlights the crisp and satisfying moment-to-moment combat with an emphasis on parrying. The fluid movement and responsive parry windows are consistently highlighted as strengths, making the stamina-based swordplay, combined with guns and BioShock-like magical abilities, a strategic dance rather than a fumbled mess. The ability to quickly swap between melee weapons, firearms, and Transmutation powers further deepens combat, turning each encounter into a tactical puzzle. While DualShockers initially doubted the first-person concept for a Soulslike, they ultimately found the combat fantastic and immersive, especially during boss encounters.

A Compelling World, Uneven Storytelling

The setting of Valor Mortis is undoubtedly one of its strongest draws. An alternate 19th-century Napoleonic Europe, ravaged by a supernatural plague, offers a fresh backdrop rarely explored in the genre. The world-building, featuring haunting battlefields, ruined villages, and eerie forests, paints a picture of melancholic devastation that is both beautiful and unsettling, as Polygon observes. This environmental storytelling is a significant strength, creating a pervasive atmosphere of cosmic dread that complements the historical grandeur, enhanced by strong voice acting, including Vincent Cassel as Napoleon, as GamingTrend reports. The narrative itself, following an amnesiac protagonist uncovering the truth behind Napoleon's victory and the plague, is ambitious. Wccftech praises the unfolding mystery and the reflections on the brutality of war, despite some threads being left unresolved. However, IGN finds the story mostly disappointing, with a generic