Valor Mortis is an upcoming single-player first-person soulslike action-RPG that made headlines last week when developer One More Level announced a $39.99 price tag ahead of its October 13th release date. While a demo is available now, the studio also confirmed that the game will have a 20-hour story campaign, showing that they value players’ time and money amid a stacked season of video game releases.
For the past few weeks, I have been playing an updated PC preview build of Valor Mortis, and I can confidently say that, so far, this game is another exhilarating experience worth keeping on your radar. Here are more details on One More Level’s latest, my raw opinions, and why this might be worth your time and money if you’re interested.
Created by the same team behind both Ghostrunner games, Valor Mortis takes place in an alternate 19th-century Eastern Europe where Napoleon’s endless war has become a supernatural plague. Players take on the role of William, a resurrected British soldier whom Napoleon orders to battle undead monsters and solve the mystery behind the plague. The narrative is a survival-meets-mystery historical timeline what-if scenario designed to keep you hooked the moment you start playing.
Since this is a soulslike action game, combat is the cornerstone of the overall experience. William’s primary and secondary weapons are a cutlass and flintlock pistol. This is essentially where the RPG elements come into play, as you can level up your character over time. Think of these abilities like the powers you can unlock in a BioShock game, and you’ll immediately understand exactly why this title already has a lot of cool things going for it.
All of the other combat mechanics like blocking and parrying are straightforward and satisfying. Switching between targets and sneaking up on enemies for close execution kills is easy, while trying to avoid unblockable attacks can be challenging depending on if you’re surrounded by a group or not.
Fighting the soldier monsters was a fair and balanced experience, while jumping into a few of the boss battles was exhilarating and tough. As with any soulslike game, there is a learning curve to getting good, but this game very much feels like anyone can be successful by putting in the right amount of time.
The preview build included the first four chapters of the game and did a phenomenal job of showcasing what to expect from the final version. Most of my time was spent exploring various locations like the decimated battlefield and getting a feel for the combat and other characters introduced within the story. The graphics look fantastic, and if you’re planning to play on a high-end PC, then I’m certain you’ll have the best experience possible. I’m eager to try this game on console and am planning to do more coverage for this title on those platforms in the future.
I purposely didn’t dive too deep into this build as I really want to get my hands on the full experience and see the entire vision that the developers had for this game. However, I have played enough to know I want more, and I believe there are some unique qualities about this soulslike that make it stand out from other games in the genre. Luckily, we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out if these statements are true, with the game dropping in just a few short weeks. I encourage you to download the demo and stay tuned for more thoughts on the game in the weeks ahead.
Valor Mortis launches on October 13th for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Let us know if you plan on checking out the game.
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