Polish game developer One More Level and publisher Lyrical Games launched Valor Mortis on October 13, 2026, bringing a first-person dark fantasy twist to the Napoleonic Wars on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. Critical consensus for this Valor Mortis review settles at an 80 top critic average on OpenCritic, with 84 percent of reviewers recommending the title. While the studio shifts away from cyberpunk rooftops, it doesn’t leave its high-speed action behind [5].
A Valor Mortis Review of Bonaparte’s War
The campaign unfolds in an alternate 19th-century Europe shaped by Napoleon Bonaparte’s victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1820. Following his return from exile on Elba in 1814, Napoleon discovers an unholy purple substance known as Nephtoglobin, which allows him to resurrect fallen soldiers and turn them into obedient revenants [1]. Players control William Dowsett. This British soldier joined the Foreign Legion of the Imperial Guard before waking in a mass grave with missing memories [6]. Napoleon talks through a telepathic link, urging William forward over piles of corpses [1].
The narrative strips away romantic imperial myths to focus on battlefield slaughter, where artillery fire and disease reduced thousands of young men to rotting meat inside muddy trenches [1]. Vincent Cassel voices Napoleon. Rebel resistance leader The Shrike, voiced by Jennifer English, opposes him by leaving impaled French soldiers along roads as gruesome warnings [5]. Horrific dog-like mutants called Howlers stalk the countryside while peasants turn into living bombs [1]. It’s a dark story about blind devotion, even if William’s amnesia feels like a familiar storytelling shortcut [5].
One More Level builds this nightmare around established soulslike pillars, where Hourglass Lanterns provide sanctuary and fallen enemies drop Catalysts that vanish permanently if players die before retrieving them [3]. Lanterns refill William’s Ferro Flasks. Resting also resurrects regular foes [5]. A run through the story lasts between 12 and 15 hours on PlayStation 5 according to Kotaku, though players chasing side quests can easily push play time past 20 hours [1]. The grim setting stands out as the production’s strongest asset [2].
First-Person Swordplay and Firearm Rhythms
Unlike most third-person titles in the genre, Valor Mortis places swords and guns right before the player’s eyes [6]. William starts with a standard cavalry sabre capable of blocking incoming hits, but he soon finds a nimble rapier that cannot block and forces players to deflect attacks with precise timing [3]. Deflecting attacks produces a heavy metallic ring that James Archer of Rock Paper Shotgun described with admiration: “Damned good parries, I say”. Posture breaks enable fatal executions [4].
Offhand tools expand William’s offense well beyond basic swordplay, allowing him to fire guns or cast magical Transmutations through a radial menu that pauses real-time action during dangerous brawls [6]. Players can fire a pistol to pop glowing Red Plague pustules on enemy bodies, which breaks their guard and inflicts heavy damage. A blunderbuss blasts approaching soldiers at short range while a two-handed musket picks off snipers from afar, and Transmutations draw power from purple corpses to burn monsters or freeze them in place. Firearms use scarce ammunition. Blending quick firearm shots with rapid blade parries creates an exciting dance when facing a single opponent [3].
Combat stumbles when several monsters attack at once, since the narrow first-person view makes flanking strikes difficult to track while unseen musketeers hit players from behind with cheap shots. Lock-on targeting centers one foe. Jumping between targets feels clumsy [8]. In tight spots, players can dodge into a corner without realizing how close the stone walls are [2]. It’s a system built for duels rather than mob battles [6].
How Build Options Shape the Valor Mortis Game Review
A central talking point in every critical discussion is the strict limitation placed on character builds. There are only nine weapons. That total divides evenly into three swords, three guns, and three Transmutations. All nine items unlock through mandatory story events, meaning thorough exploration never rewards the player with hidden blades, rare firearms, or alternative armor pieces to experiment with. Fans of Dark Souls won’t find custom class options here. Every soldier finishes the story with the exact same loadout [6].
Leveling leans on a skill tree and collectible trinkets called Ambers instead of attributes like strength or agility. Defeating enemies earns Catalysts, which players spend on nodes that boost maximum health, improve stamina recovery, or expand parry windows. Elite foes drop Ambers [6]. One Amber called Marksman’s Bane lets players parry incoming bullets, while another called Volatile End triggers a damaging explosion upon shooting enemy weak points with a pistol. Perfectionism boosts damage at full health [5].
While Ambers offer subtle adjustments, they can’t turn William into a dedicated spellcaster because Transmutations stay situational [2]. Cold steel remains essential [4]. This focused design recalls the grim aesthetic seen in our End of Abyss review roundup, where a heavy atmosphere carried an action title through mechanical limitations [5]. In Valor Mortis, players must accept William as a duelist who uses magic only as support [4].
Interconnected Levels and Ghostrunner Parkour
The campaign leads William through diverse European settings, ranging from rain-soaked farming hamlets and burning fortresses to toxic flooded villages, vertiginous quarries, and hidden underground laboratories [1]. Iron gates unlock shortcuts. Each area carries distinct visual personality, showing ruined stone bridges beside idyllic lavender fields and snow-covered peaks [3]. The contrast between pastoral beauty and rotting battlefield casualties gives the journey a memorable visual identity [1].
One More Level brings its parkour heritage into the exploration, adding wall-running, pole swinging, and grappling hooks in specific zones. William leaps over deep chasms [3]. Traversal abilities also introduce light Metroidvania backtracking, allowing players to return to early chapters to reach previously blocked ledges, discover hidden shortcuts, and earn bonus healing flasks [6]. Later powers even allow William to summon spectral ledges in mid-air to bridge dangerous gaps during timed runs [3].
Yet these platforming sequences can frustrate players when rigid timing demands flawless execution during scripted escape scenes. Missing a grapple hook causes instant death, resetting William to the last lantern [8]. Destructoid reviewer Andrej Barovic voiced that annoyance during his playthrough, asking out loud: “Who angered these devs into doing this to me?” [2]. Isolated jumping puzzles feel jarring [4].
Technical Stumbles and Boss Encounters
Boss encounters remain surprisingly rare [2]. An early battle pits William against an undead general fused with his entire battalion, whose soldiers peel from his flesh to fire rifles while he swings a shredded tricolore [3]. Another encounter has players battling a massive, haunted windmill in an unexpected nod to Don Quixote. Minibosses reappear as regular foes later [2].
A noticeable drop in enemy variety hampers the back half of the 20-hour campaign. Francesco De Meo of Wccftech pointed out that players encounter roughly 90 percent of all enemy types within the first five hours. Corridor fights become repetitive chores. In several late sections, heavy concentrations of enemy riflemen turn the experience into a cautious shooting gallery rather than an energetic swordfight. It doesn’t break the game, but it drains enthusiasm [7].
PC performance sparked mixed reactions. Some reviewers ran into desktop crashes, stuttering, and enemies freezing during combat on PC, though launch-day updates and new GPU drivers resolved many glitches before the official launch [5]. On capable hardware, players maintained 120 frames per second at high resolution, and console builds on PlayStation 5 ran with stable responsiveness. The retail price is $40. At that budget tier, Valor Mortis succeeds as a bold experiment that offers satisfying first-person sword combat for patient soulslike fans [8].
- ONLINE NEWS Walker, I., & Gach, E. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis: The Kotaku Review. Kotaku. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Barovic, A. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis review – The Grande Armée and Monsters combine into the perfect soulslike setting. Destructoid. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Wales, M. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis review – a stellar Soulslike, but not as you know it. Eurogamer.net. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Archer, J. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis review – this Napoleonic first-person swordfighter is one of the freshest Soulslikes in years. Rock Paper Shotgun. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Garrard, S. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis Breaks The Limits Of The Soulslike Genre. TheGamer. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Bognar, C. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis Review: First Person Breathes New Life Into Soulslikes. DualShockers. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS De Meo, F. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis Review – An Ambitious First-Person Soulslike That Is Often More Frustrating Than Fun. Wccftech. [Article Link]
- ONLINE NEWS Norris, J. (2026, October 12). Valor Mortis | Review. PlayDayOne. [Article Link]
