“September has become absolutely stacked with incredible-looking games,” it wrote on Twitter. “We knew this was a possibility, but when you’re in a partner showcase as we were, dates get locked weeks in advance.” Which would certainly explain why so many titles, including Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and more opted for the same day.

“We want to give Valor Mortis (and your wallet) some room to breathe. Therefore, we’ve decided to move our release date to October 13.”

Of course, there’s another incentive for additional time – implementing feedback. Valor Mortis’s demo recently hit Steam and currently has a “Mixed” rating. Out of 701 reviews at present, 68 percent recommend it, with complaints ranging from performance issues to how awkward it feels to swap between magic, parrying, attacking, and so on. And though the studio’s previous game, Ghostrunner 2, was relatively well-received, fans aren’t exactly feeling some of those same design sensibilities in Valor Mortis.

Regardless, there’s plenty of time to make changes and really help the title find its footing before launch. If you haven’t been following it, Valor Mortis takes place in an alternate 19th-century Europe. As one of Napoleon’s fallen soldiers, you somehow rise from the grave and set out to find your fearless leader across a plagued landscape. Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.

In Valor Mortis, players take on the role of a former soldier, William, who rose from death and has to face a variety of enemies while he questions and comes to understand the meaning of destiny, loyalty, and the empire. The trailer gives us a look at quite a bit of gameplay, with a primary focus on the hard-hitting first-person melee combat. We also get a look at how William’s various magical abilities can be used outside of fights, for aspects like traversal, which involve quite a bit of parkour.

Valor Mortis was officially unveiled all the way back in August 2025. The announcement trailer at the time had confirmed that its fantastical take on the Napoleonic War will also revolve around a strange plague that is spreading throughout the land. Among the enemies that players will have to take on are Napoleon’s Eternal Guard, which take the form of strange and horrific creatures.

Studio CEO Szymon Bryla had spoken about creating an entirely new IP at the time, noting that One More Level wanted to “stay true to what we do best,” which means making sure that “hardcore players” would find its “demanding games” engaging thanks to their expansive worlds and challenging gameplay.

Valor Mortis is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Look, what the genre needs is innovation. A fresh perspective, something novel, if only to rejuvenate fatigue.

Well, incoming from Ghostrunner devs One More Level is Valor Mortis, a self-declared Soulslike fought in first-person. Set in a supernatural, Napoleonic nightmare, Valor Mortis – while not the first attempt – might be the most serious stab yet at shifting Soulslike’s surgical precision to first-person. With melee combat, especially, first-person perspectives are where countless games have struggled. Spatial awareness, depth perception, field of view; how will One More Level ensure responsiveness and fluidity when the camera naturally frames the action tightly?

Before we get there, first you need resurrecting. Valor Mortis begins facedown in the mud. You are the walking corpse of William, a downed soldier mysteriously reanimated by the order of Napoleon’s screeching whispers. You stalk a soggy battlefield’s aftermath, a hellscape of fresh death and fog, unsure of who, if anyone, was victorious. You’re not alone: more undead walk too, occult forces acting as narrative flesh to wrench from charred bones. If Soulslike is also shorthand for bleakness, Valor Mortis ticks every box.

And the game’s Napoleonic setting could prove a masterstroke, giving One More Level leeway for multi-directional storytelling, worldbuilding through alternative history and fantasy. As famous for defeat as he is societal reform, Napoleon Bonaparte’s legacy appears here to provide a playground for numerous phantasmagorical what ifs: like, what if Bonaparte knew how to raise the dead – would he still have lost the Battle of Waterloo?

Yet, as primed for fantastical retelling as the Napoleonic Wars are, we run into Valor Mortis’ first concern: are these murky battlefields built for readability? Watching early gameplay footage, stepping through sodden, miserable, overcast miasma, the predominant tones are grey and brown. Enemy silhouettes aren’t as high-contrast as you’d think they need to be, given the game’s stated desire to replicate Soulslike’s demanding combat.

Yet, there’s no need to jump the gun – stonework villages, forests, and icy plains also occupy reveal trailers and artwork shared by the developer. Each setting is grim and dimly lit, suggesting, perhaps, that the studio is looking to push a specific way to play their Soulslike beyond the demands imposed by a narrower field of view. You’ll need patience, and to be deliberate, choosing your actions carefully. New ways to manage space, even. See, where Valor Mortis’ setting sells the fantasy, it’s in design and artstyle which ultimately reinforces close-quarters clarity.

To hit the fluid satisfaction which only a good Soulslike can, their design relies on readable telegraphs, tight timing windows, balanced hitboxes, and – the glue holding it all together – awareness of surroundings. When tightening the action into first-person, issues are introduced: depth perception, difficulty reading wide attacks, tunnel vision, and reduced peripheral awareness. These are all undeniably harder to overcome in first-person.

So, what does Valor Mortis do to overstep these potential pitfalls? Well, Soulslike’s traditional building blocks are all present – light and heavy attacks, limited healing items, block, dodge, and parry manoeuvres, multiple health bars, stamina, and stagger meters – but there is a big mechanical identity shift amongst that feature list. See, blocking still causes chip damage, which will undoubtedly push you toward perfecting your parries Sekiro-style. However, timing windows appear, at this current pre-alpha stage, to be more forgiving than FromSoftware’s shinobi epic.

Look, you might be concerned by this, but there are two things to consider: one, these wider timing windows may narrow as the game goes on, or could be refined altogether in later builds. And two, slightly wider windows, when compared to Sekiro et al, are a potential necessity for first-person. There needs to be a challenge, but the difficulty should always be manageable.

Still, it’s all in the feel isn’t it? Mastering strict precision brings satisfaction in flow, but Valor Mortis might not be aiming for this; we could have some sort of accessible hybrid in our hands, instead of pure, masochistic punishment. Whether that replicates Soulslike’s feel or brings something new to the table, well, we’ll have to wait and see.

Either way, parrying is the centrepiece, offering a rhythmic beat that’s accentuated by the studio’s Ghostrunner lineage. There’s still flow, momentum, and readability, it’s just different to what you imagine given the game’s Soulslike framing. Plus, given the elemental transmodification abilities – shooting fire from your hands like an 18th century-set System Shock – Valor Mortis, after all, seems to be mixing immersive-simulation into its identity.

Yet, no matter the arsenal, or the powers, flow or momentum, there’s one make-or-break issue which One More Level are still working on: field of view. See, fighting multiple enemies in first-person is notoriously messy. Taking on the game’s huge bosses inevitably means their hulking limbs swing from out of shot if you get too close.

Valor Mortis’ default viewpoint is undeniably tight, but the devs are addressing this. An FOV slider has now been added, appearing in settings after the bulk of playtest footage has already been uploaded to YouTube. While there isn’t much viewable evidence out there at present, increasing FOV might lower fidelity or reduce intimacy, but playability is sure to have received a boost.

There is a hidden counterpoint to widening FOV too, and it harkens back to our suggestion you’ll need to adapt to managing space in a new way. This is because you’re positioned right inside the danger zone; skirmishes aren’t abstracted to third-person, meaning the fight stays between player and enemy. Warring with perspective is thrown out in favour of carefully paying attention. If the narrow field of view means you can’t perceive your surroundings, then take a step back. Observe what’s going on – you do this when studying your opponent’s attack in Soulslikes anyway. Narrow FOV doesn’t change the process; it simply reshapes immersion.

If the studio gets a handle on some of the game’s other stated problems – difficulty deciphering depth perception – as in, sometimes the sword plunges deep while other times it’s a swing and a miss – and reading enemy telegraphs without resorting to overexaggerated animation, then Valor Mortis will instantly elevate itself beyond earlier first-person Soulslike experiments.

Games like the melee-heavy Elderborn which struggled with readability, Witchfire which diluted the experience with FPS and roguelike elements, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide with its excellent, yet imprecise hit feedback, or Kingdom Come: Deliverance which admittedly doesn’t follow the Soulslike loop at all despite its duelling depth. If One More Level solves the perspective issues, then Valor Mortis could become the most convincing “true” first-person Soulslike yet.

And really, in discussing Soulslike’s DNA, or in speculating whether Valor Mortis imbues the same lineage or if it incorporates too much immersive simness to be a true innovation in the genre, the bottom line is this: the game has insane potential. Whether precision-first combat can be executed faithfully in first-person remains unknown, but if anyone can pull it off its One More Level – with their already-demonstrated grasp of motion and camera control in Ghostrunner.

The game still has a way to go, but if the potential showcased in trailers and gameplay footage so far is anything to go by, whether it fully hits its Soulslike ambitions or not, Valor Mortis is set to inject some much needed innovation into the first-person gamespace.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

While holding your ground with a saber is very much a necessity, there’s a fair bit of traversal in Valor Mortis. Much like Ghostrunner, you’ll swing from poles, use a grappling hook to access high ground and even slow down time for precise shots. It’s pretty much a necessity, given some of the bosses roaming about. One such threat possesses a massive chest cavity that fires a stream of acidic sludge. So maybe avoid that whenever possible.

Valor Mortis launches on PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC this Fall. As William, who finds himself revived in this nightmarish version of the continent, the monsters highlighted in the trailer are only tease of the true horrors.

You’ll have numerous weapons and spells at your disposal, but don’t let the dashing or first-person perspective fool you. It’s still a Souls-like game where stamina management, parrying, and much more will ensure your survival. Stay tuned for more details, especially a more concrete release date in the coming months.

With plague spreading through the land and monstrosities like Napoleon’s Eternal Guard in their path, players must utilize different weapons and abilities (including fire spells) to survive. Dashes, parries, and other mechanics should look familiar to Ghostrunner fans, though you can also look forward to “Metroidvania-inspired” levels laden with secrets.

As for why it’s creating a new IP, studio CEO Szymon Bryla said in a press release, “With Valor Mortis, we wanted to try something new and original – a darker experience, while still offering players a true challenge. After Ghostrunner, we knew we had the foundation to create an FPP title, but this time in a Soulslike genre.

“At the same time, we wanted to stay true to what we do best – making demanding games for hardcore players, set in an engaging, expansive world, while showing that the studio has grown since our previous projects. Valor Mortis is a fresh, new and original take on the Soulslike genre that we can’t wait for players to get their hands on.”

A pre-alpha playtest is also coming soon that players can register for through here. Stay tuned for more details and gameplay for Valor Mortis in the coming months.