'First-person Dark Souls' Valor Mortis is awesome, free taster available now

You may have already seen a trailer for Valor Mortis, the upcoming first-person soulslike set in a twisted version of the Napoleonic Wars.

Developed by Ghostrunner developer One More Level, and after several trailers and a free demo released on Steam, the game is set to release in October just a month shy of the launch of Grand Theft Auto VI.

Well, it turns out the game is also pretty awesome, as I recently discovered in my exclusive hands-on session at Gamescom 2026.

In Valor Mortis, you play as William, a soldier of Napoleon’s army who has been revived from his battlefield grave by an unknown force. It turns out that following your death, a mysterious plague has started to sweep across Europe, infecting anyone it comes into contact with.

This supernatural plague turns its hosts into undead creatures, with William’s former comrades now turning on him. The game follows William as he navigates this area of Eastern Europe while trying to survive the horrors that infect it, all while trying to unravel the question of his mysterious resurrection.

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If you like Shadow Warrior, you'll probably like Valor Mortis

The combat in Valor Mortis primarily uses a cutlass in which you need to block enemy attacks and build up a posture meter similar to Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, where staggering them can allow you to deal devastating amounts of damage to their health.

Similar to many other soulslikes and action RPGs, the game’s combat is hitbox-based, so slashing away at a large group of enemies will deal varying amounts of damage to each of them. What really allows this to prove itself lies in the animation department, though.

Lyrical Games

In games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, enemies don’t react to your attacks in the ways you’d expect them to, which can make combat feel floaty and unresponsive. But for Valor Mortis, enemies react to your attacks with a huge degree of fluidity, which makes combat feel all the more satisfying. It's kind of like a mix of Shadow Warrior and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.

Some enemies have ranged attacks too, using muskets to fire at you from afar. You’re given plenty of warning when they’re about to attack, but what was particularly fun to do is try and put another enemy between the two of you, causing them to shoot their comrade in the back. It’s these small details which really help to sell the fantasy that Valor Mortis is going for.

The initial opening area I played through was pretty closed off, but as I pressed on, I could sense each playable area gradually opening up a little more. New areas with secret shortcuts or hidden collectables started to reveal themselves, and I get the sense that over the course of the game’s long playtime, this is eventually going to turn into more of a metroidvania, with new powers and abilities unlocking new routes to traverse through.

Despite the wide open areas, I never felt like I was being crowded by enemies. At most, you come up against three or four attackers at a time, and the wide radius of your attacks and strength of your block help in dealing with these foes.

With how many soulslikes it feels like we’re getting nowadays, I was a little afraid that Valor Mortis might get lost in the shuffle. But with a unique theme and a satisfying combat loop, there’s no reason to be doubtful of this game being in GOTY conversations at the end of the year.

That’s if One More Level can keep up that momentum for the rest of the game.

If you want to check out Valor Mortis for yourself, a free demo is also available on Steam for you to check out. The full game will release for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S on October 13, 2026.