Valor Mortis review: death was apparently a short break

The big picture

William, a soldier in Napoleon's army, has returned from the dead to find a plague-ravaged Europe and plenty of things eager to undo the achievement. Valor Mortis is not offering resurrection as an opportunity to retire somewhere quiet. The corruption that brought him back also supplies supernatural power, so his new lease on life comes with equipment and an extremely unpleasant itinerary.

One More Level's single-player first-person soulslike reached full release on October 13, 2026, for Windows PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. The studio behind Ghostrunner puts the camera inside William's head, removing the reassuring view of a whole hero standing between you and a sword. When something swings at the screen, the game is being very direct about whose problem it is.

Finish the swing you started

The official gameplay FAQ describes a posture system: attacks and parries can break an enemy's posture and create an opening for heavy punishment. Crucially, you cannot cancel an attack into a parry. Once William starts swinging, you do not get to rewrite that decision halfway through because the other fellow has produced a more persuasive argument.

Blocking followed by an immediate counterattack can recover health, while a perfect dodge briefly slows the action. Those rules encourage judgement about when to commit and when to respond. An extra attack has an actual cost beyond looking ambitious. The game is less interested in how quickly you can request every available action than whether you picked one that made sense.

Dashes, finishers and supernatural attacks keep the arsenal broader than standing still with a sword and waiting for permission. Dual-wielding and upgrades across weapons and magic add ways to shape the approach. The attraction is controlled aggression, with options that reward learning rather than providing an emergency excuse for every overeager swing. William has already returned from death once; that does not make taking unnecessary hits a sound philosophy.

Learn the way around the catastrophe

Metroidvania-inspired exploration surrounds the fighting. Secrets, shortcuts and sidequests give the spaces jobs beyond connecting one duel to the next. Better capabilities can change how you use a place, making a return journey feel like progress rather than a punishment for forgetting where the exit was.

That structure suits players who enjoy the space between bosses. An optional encounter or newly useful route can be a reward in itself, especially when the world has enough character to make investigating worthwhile. It also means paying attention. Charging straight towards the next fight may be efficient in the short term and less helpful when you would really like to know whether there is a shorter way back.

The difficulty caveat is substantial: there is no launch difficulty selector. Interest in the setting does not provide a gentler historical-horror tour. New Game+ is also absent from the current release, with an update planned rather than delivered. Judge the game available now, not an imagined version in which the missing options have already arrived and everyone is having a more convenient afternoon.

Some dangers are outside the combat system

Lyrical's October 13 known-issues notice flags possible system shutdowns on Radeon RX 7600 hardware, GPU crashes on RX 7900 XT cards and other stability problems. Owners of those cards should check current support guidance before buying. An enemy ending the run is part of the challenge. The computer ending its participation entirely is not a thrilling new difficulty tier.

The October 16 update fixes some common crashes and progression blockers, while the developers say performance investigations continue. That is progress without a universal clean bill of health. The named warnings deserve more weight than a general impression that the setting looks interesting or the combat sounds suitably demanding.

Platform and edition details need similar restraint. Switch 2 is only under consideration, not a released version, and the official FAQ flags a Japanese PlayStation availability exception, so buyers there should check their regional listing. The Deluxe edition includes a major story expansion scheduled for 2027. Paying for future content does not enlarge the campaign currently on offer, however confidently the edition name says Deluxe.

Verdict

Valor Mortis combines committed first-person fighting, corrupted military history and exploration that rewards growing capability. It is most appealing if studying enemies is part of the attraction and a gentler difficulty is not essential. Launch stability warnings, especially for the named AMD cards, keep the recommendation conditional. There is a distinctive game to investigate here. Just make sure the death-and-return cycle stays inside William's story rather than extending to your PC.