Valor Mortis launches today (October 13, 2026) on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
It’s a first-person soulslike from One More Level (the studio behind Ghostrunner and Ghostrunner 2), published by Lyrical Games.
It’s available day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, with a 90-minute trial for PlayStation Plus subscribers (progress carries over if you buy it).
Setting & Story
You play as William, a soldier in Napoleon’s Grande Armée who dies in battle and is resurrected in an alternate-history Napoleonic Europe.
A plague-like substance (Nephtoglobin) has raised the dead and mutated people into monsters.
Napoleon (voiced by Vincent Cassel) speaks directly to you as you fight through war-torn, supernatural battlefields and villages.
The tone is grim, body-horror-tinged dark fantasy with period weaponry and BioShock-style supernatural powers.
Gameplay
- First-person melee combat focused on parries, dodges, stamina management, and visceral finishers.
- Mix of swords (sabre, rapier, etc.), firearms (pistols, muskets), and supernatural “transmutations” (fire, shields, grapples, time effects).
- Classic soulslike systems: lantern checkpoints, currency (Catalysts) dropped on death, enemy respawns, shortcuts.
- Parkour-style traversal (wall-running, grappling) carried over from the Ghostrunner DNA.
- Single-player only, roughly 18–25 hours for a main playthrough.
Standard edition is priced at $39.99 (Deluxe ~$59.99). Physical discs are available at launch. No early access or digital pre-orders were offered.
Reviews
Scores are mixed-to-positive. Metacritic sits around 77 (Generally Favorable) on PC; OpenCritic is in the high 70s to low 80s. Individual scores range from 9/10s to 6/10s.
Praise commonly goes to:
- Satisfying, snappy parry-focused combat
- Distinctive Napoleonic horror setting and atmosphere
- Level design and the first-person soulslike execution
- Visuals and the novelty of the premise
Criticisms often mention:
- Limited enemy variety
- Uneven difficulty/balance (especially early on)
- Weak or underdeveloped storytelling
- Some systems (weapons/abilities) feeling underutilized
- Occasional technical or pacing issues
Eurogamer, Rock Paper Shotgun, and several others called the combat and parkour strong highlights, while GameSpot was more mixed, saying it tries to do too much.
Bottom line: It’s one of the more interesting soulslike experiments of the year thanks to the first-person perspective, Ghostrunner-influenced movement, and unique setting.
Worth trying on Game Pass if you’re curious about a different take on the genre.
