Valor Mortis begins by making its Soulslike credentials perfectly clear, then starts leaping off walls with a pistol in hand. One More Level’s Napoleonic action game builds on familiar checkpoints, corpse runs and patient sword fights, but its first-person shooting and increasingly elaborate parkour give those foundations a distinctly faster pulse.

Eurogamer’s review finds the result a delight, particularly when movement and combat start feeding into one another.

The studio behind Ghostrunner has not simply transplanted its parkour into a conventional Soulslike. Instead, Valor Mortis gradually shifts the player from cautious duels toward a more mobile style that can make a fight feel like a platforming route with enemies inconveniently in the way.

A familiar Soulslike, with a pistol in the mix

The story places William Dowsett, a soldier in Napoleon’s Grande Armée, on a battlefield after he has been reanimated. It is an alternative-history take on the Napoleonic era, with a spreading plague, grotesque mutations and the Emperor’s voice intruding on William’s journey. The setting supplies plenty of grim atmosphere, but the unusual way the game moves is what makes it stand apart.

At first, its combat keeps close to genre convention. William attacks and blocks with a saber, watches for enemy tells, and sidesteps attacks that cannot be blocked. Defensive moves use Endurance, while a well-timed parry can break an enemy’s posture and create an opening for a damaging riposte. A successful follow-up can also recover some health lost in the exchange.

Hourglass lanterns act as checkpoints, healing flasks restore health, and dropped Catalysts serve as currency that can be lost on death and recovered by returning to the spot. The framework is recognisable, then, but the feel of a fight changes as William’s options grow. Eurogamer describes the challenge as demanding without tipping into the genre’s most punishing territory.

The pistol is the first big change of pace. William can raise it and free-aim without halting his movement, using shots to interrupt enemies, land headshots or strike the glowing Red Plague pustules that leave them vulnerable. Those weak points change position after an enemy respawns, so the same shot is not always available on a return visit.

Combat in Valor Mortis featuring a blend of ranged and melee weaponry. – Image: Valor Mortis / Steam

Ammunition is limited, which stops the pistol from replacing the saber. Instead, it encourages a run-and-gun rhythm: take a few shots on the approach, then close in to parry and cut through the remaining health. Other weapons broaden that choice. Shotguns hit hard but take time to reload, while a rifle can thin out enemies at range at the cost of leaving William exposed nearby.

The rapier offers another trade-off, swapping slower swings for quick jabs and potent posture damage. It is well suited to parrying, but cannot block, making a mistimed defence a costly habit. Grenades, molotovs, temporary boosts and Nephtoglobin abilities add further ways to interrupt or control a fight, including powers that burn or freeze enemies.

That toolkit gives encounters a satisfying range of possible responses without turning the game into an action sandbox. Rock Paper Shotgun notes that the weapon and ability selection is relatively limited, and that upgrades lean heavily toward straightforward health and damage increases. Even so, Eurogamer found the core swordplay remained compelling across its approximately 20-hour run, as long as players are happy to make parries and close-quarters combat their main event.

The movement is more than a change of scenery

Parkour arrives in stages. Early on, William jumps and swings across gaps; later, he can wall-run and grapple at specific points, launch airborne attacks and activate timed parkour markers that create ledges and outcrops. Those fixed locations keep traversal from becoming unrestricted free-running, but they do not stop it from changing how encounters and routes play.

Some sections are built around the movement itself, with gaps, platforms and incoming fire to negotiate. The stronger moments, though, fold parkour back into combat: a route over an enemy group can offer a better angle, a chance to avoid a fight or a position from which to open with a shot.

The perspective is a meaningful part of the experience, rather than just a novelty. It brings players up close to the game’s monsters and environments, while making awareness of space especially important when movement gets hectic.

Levels give that mobility room to matter. Major locations are separated by loading screens, but individual areas loop back on themselves, with shortcuts, alternate paths and secrets rewarding a closer look. Lavender fields, lakes and woodland sit alongside burning buildings, quarries, wheat fields and a poison swamp; the scenery shifts between pastoral beauty and battlefield horror without losing its sense of place.

Exploration can also pay off in practical ways. A tucked-away cannon may help clear a crowded stretch, while other routes provide a vantage point or let a player bypass a group altogether. The overall progression is still largely linear, but side quests and paths that open after William gains new abilities offer reasons to return and explore beyond the obvious route. Players following the broader Soulslike scene may also recognise the appeal of that mix in another modern Soulslike, Wuchang: Fallen Feathers.

Bosses are a particular bright spot in Eurogamer’s assessment, even if there are not a huge number of them. One early encounter pits William against a general fused with his own battalion, its soldiers emerging from the mass to attack. Later fights take stranger turns, including large-scale spectacles that make full use of the game’s movement and combat.

Combat against a mutated enemy in Valor Mortis. – Image: Valor Mortis / Steam

The pace does lose some of its surprise later on. Eurogamer notes that familiar enemy types and settings begin to recur. The movement can make the journey feel fresh, but it does not prevent every stretch from settling into familiar patterns.

What works, and what holds it back
  • Strengths: Fluid sword-and-gun combat, expressive first-person movement, inventive boss encounters, and levels packed with shortcuts and alternate routes.
  • Limitations: Ammunition is scarce, some parkour is restricted to set locations, and the largely linear journey revisits enemies and environments. Once a reliable rhythm of shooting, dodging and parrying clicks, regular encounters can also lose some bite.

There is no need to pretend Valor Mortis throws out the Soulslike rulebook. Its checkpoints, recoverable currency and measured duels are all familiar, and players looking for a relentlessly punishing experience may find its difficulty more forgiving than expected. The difference is that One More Level gives those familiar rhythms room to accelerate, adding free-aim shooting and parkour that can change how a fight is approached.

That makes the game an appealing fit for players who want Soulslike progression and enemy-reading, but would rather not spend every encounter rooted to the ground. Its first-person perspective and fixed traversal points are not a wholesale reinvention, and its arsenal has limits; still, the movement often makes the old sword-and-parry dance feel newly kinetic. Valor Mortis’ launch details are a separate consideration, but the reviews’ clearest recommendation is about the play itself: expect a familiar foundation, then prepare to start running.

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