Valor Mortis Is Weird. Good. Gaming Needs More of That.

A fresh camera angle isn't automatically a fresh game

Valor Mortis launched October 13, 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Developer One More Level, known for Ghostrunner, has taken the familiar Soulslike loop and moved it into first person. You play William, a soldier in Napoleon's army who dies and wakes up in a nightmare version of Europe full of plague-ridden enemies. It's a ridiculous setup in the best way: history, horror and sword fights all smashed together.

Combat leans heavily on parrying and timing, with a gun, fire powers and other abilities expanding the options. The first-person perspective can make a sword duel feel more immediate because every attack comes straight at you. That is the pitch. But a different camera doesn't automatically make the underlying combat loop original.

Reviews have real complaints

GamesRadar's October 12 review praised the satisfying parry duels, strange enemy designs and some boss fights. It also criticized scripted parkour sections, unremarkable powers and technical problems on its PC review build, including crashes and inconsistent frame rates. Those aren't tiny issues. A game built around precision has to respond reliably, especially when failure sends you back to repeat an encounter.

The studio's Ghostrunner background shows through in the wall-running and movement challenges. Sometimes that sounds like a good blend. Other times, reviewers say the platforming feels like an unfair memorization test. The developers reportedly planned launch-day fixes, so performance should be evaluated by platform and patch version rather than treating one pre-release review build as the final word.

What deserves support—and what still deserves criticism

Here's my thing: gamers say we want studios to take risks, and I do. A Napoleonic horror Soulslike in first person is more interesting to me than another franchise installment that looks exactly like last year's. But supporting experimentation doesn't mean giving the game a pass on bad performance or frustrating design.

I haven't completed Valor Mortis, so this isn't my scored review. It's a look at the concept and the early critical response. I'd rather be clear about that than pretend I've fought every boss. If the combat stays satisfying and the rough edges get fixed, there's something here. If the frustrating bits dominate, being different won't save it.

Sources: GamesRadar review, October 12, 2026, https://www.gamesradar.com/games/action-rpg/valor-mortis-review/ ; official Steam listing, https://store.steampowered.com/app/2828710/Valor_Mortis/