《Valor Mortis》PC评测

A first-person Soulslike game featuring a French soldier from the Napoleonic era sounds intriguing. That is precisely how Valor Mortis—the new title from One More Level, the studio best known for the Ghostrunner series—is presented to us. I had been anticipating this game since its announcement, and I wasn’t disappointed after playing it; Valor Mortis proves to be a classic Soulslike in every sense, and yet it features a fresh approach to execution.

The setting is taking players back to the 19th century and introducing an alternate reality where Napoleon’s troops are fighting in an unnamed region of Eastern Europe, somewhere in the Carpathians. The protagonist, William Dousset, dies in battle but mysteriously returns to life some time later.

Napoleon’s voice echoes in his mind, urging him to take action. As he moves forward, William witnesses utter chaos: massive piles of corpses and a strange biomass that has overgrown the entire battlefield. He eventually finds his fellow soldiers, but there is something “off” about them; they lunge at William the moment they spot him. Now, William must navigate this nightmare, find allies, and figure out exactly what is going on.

For a typical Soulslike, a premise like this might be enough to motivate the player to push forward, with the unfolding events serving merely as a backdrop while the lore and story are conveyed primarily through item descriptions and boss encounters. Valor Mortis takes a more conventional narrative approach: the story is linear, guiding players sequentially through 12 diverse locations. William’s initial objective is to locate surviving comrades, acting on a tip-off from a mysterious gentleman.

After being discovered, one of the two survivors, a doctor named Louis Moreau, sends us on a mission to investigate the “plague” ravaging the local lands. As we investigate, we witness war crimes committed by the French army and uncover the true reason why this region has turned into a living hell. That is the story in a nutshell, free of spoilers; overall, however, the plot is predictable, and the identity of the main villain becomes apparent almost immediately.

Following a brisk opening, the narrative sags a bit in the middle, and I found myself wondering a couple of times why I was even pushing forward. The final third of the game picks up pace once again, and what seemed like an obvious conclusion turned out to be quite far from the end. William’s story feels complete; while some questions remain unanswered, the developers left the door open for a sequel where, hopefully, the remaining mysteries will be revealed. Otherwise, the game world is fleshed out through notes—and there are quite a few, though they are short enough not to become tedious—as well as side quests and the environments themselves.

Side quests are self-contained within a single location and don’t require you to traverse the entire map in search of a specific item or character (a breath of fresh air after Elden Ring and Lords of the Fallen). They don’t impact the main plot but serve to expand the game’s lore and enhance the atmosphere. For instance, I remember the quest involving an empty crib from which the sound of crying emanated, while in the courtyard, a married couple—already turned—appeared to be eating something…

Or the quests in the city where we are accompanied by a pair of orphans who stay out of sight but offer various activities: playing “monster hunt”, which requires gathering sketches of all the bosses we’ve killed so far, or collecting parts of a prayer to Shriek (a local resistance leader regarded as a witch, whom we meet later in the story). All of this enriches the setting and the unfolding events while adding variety to the gameplay.

The game’s alternate 19th-century Western Europe turned out incredibly authentic and stylish. From corpse-strewn battlefields to a plague-ravaged city, everything feels cohesive and draws you deep into the experience. The designers brilliantly captured both the spirit of the era and the surrounding chaos.

The available region is compact yet diverse, William’s journey takes him through salt mines, blooming foothills, swamps, and sewers (because what would a Soulslike be without them, right?), as well as a city and a castle. For me, the local gloomy village beats the one in Resident Evil Village in terms of atmosphere, while the city reminded me of a couple of maps from Battlefield 1 (perhaps an unexpected comparison, but for me, that Battlefield title is practically the gold standard for this kind of visual style). The locations are expertly crafted using the classic Soulslike approach: maps consist of linear corridors with branching paths linked by shortcuts, all tied together by a central hub.

I have to give credit to the level designers: exploring the world is a pleasure, and shortcuts and checkpoints are placed with maximum convenience. I never encountered those typical genre frustrations where you die far from a bonfire and have to trudge back through a tough area packed with a hundred enemies, risking losing everything along the way.

The levels also feature the kind of traps one expects from the genre: an enemy hiding behind a crate, an ambush in a dark corner, or an unseen mine—it’s all there and feels right at home. Admittedly, the floor giving way beneath William with uncanny regularity did make me laugh at one point. The enemy placement is balanced just right, challenging enough to keep things interesting without becoming overwhelming; the groups are arranged like a puzzle you have to solve to survive.

At the same time, the levels accommodate speedrunning; I managed to dash through a couple of particularly tough spots using a “pacifist” approach, ignoring almost all the enemies. The game also features Metroidvania elements: you’ll encounter areas accessible only with tools unlocked later in the story, which is a real bonus for players who love exploring every nook and cranny and want to spend a bit more time in this world.

There aren’t many characters in the game, with the lion’s share of screen time going to the protagonist; Napoleon, who occasionally speaks inside the hero’s head; and Louis Moreau, whom you encounter almost everywhere as you progress. Moreau asks leading questions, prompts the hero to reflect on events, and generally acts as an enigmatic figure who knows far more than he lets on.

The protagonist himself is quite charismatic and feels like a fully realized individual. He is a simple soldier trying to survive and make sense of the horrors unfolding around him. Unlike Major Nechaev in Atomic Heart, he remains mostly silent, yet occasionally delivers quips that made me smirk and helped break the tension. In the few available dialogues, you can choose from a couple of responses that suit the situation; while these choices don’t alter the course of events, they further flesh out the protagonist’s character.

As for the other characters… well, they exist. You can exchange a few words with fellow soldiers in the hub area about the current events and your discoveries; Napoleon appears only once; and the local resistance leader—a lady named Shriek who plays a pivotal role in the story—is on screen for barely three minutes, with her backstory conveyed primarily through other characters and notes.

The enemies fare much better, however. The bestiary is typical for the genre yet diverse and visually interesting. The plague has transformed Imperial soldiers and locals into vile monstrosities, either twisted human forms or clumps of biomass fused from multiple bodies. The local dogs, and their initial appearance, left the strongest impression on me. What’s more, many of the infected retain traces of their former minds, which adds to the sense of dread. Soldiers patrol the area and locals go about their business, yet it all feels deeply wrong, creating a disturbing atmosphere for the observer.

There is a wide array of monsters here: Juggernauts fused with cannons, dogs that were once human, and heaps of biomass—some crawling, others clinging to walls like turrets—along with many other quintessential examples of body horror. The French forces consist of standard infantry, cavalry, chasseurs, volunteers, and specialized elite troops. Local inhabitants differ primarily based on the weapons they carry.

While there is variety among enemy types, they often boil down to foes that either set you on fire or poison you. And then there are the bosses—you can’t have a game like this without them. To me, the bosses are the highlight; they offer visual and mechanical diversity, and the encounters are memorable. Mechanically, they play fair with the player; there are no cheap tricks like the “infinite wind-up” designed to bait a dodge roll (seen in Elden Ring) or attacks that trigger immediately after you use a healing item.

Some bosses serve as mid-game encounters that later reappear on the map as standard Juggernaut enemies, but these are few in number and relatively easy to defeat, even during the actual boss fight. There isn’t a wild difficulty spike between bosses, though I met my personal nemesis here: an “Orphan” (a victim of experiments) who absolutely drained the life out of me; by comparison, the subsequent battles against the final bosses felt like a joke. Seriously, I spent more attempts on that one fight than on all the previous bosses combined, whereas the final boss went down on the very first try.

The developers promised a first-person Soulslike, and the result is… well, I can no longer ignore the elephant in the room. Valor Mortis is a more grounded Ghostrunner expanded with Soulslike elements. And it is perfect, I had dreamed of this kind of gameplay back when I played the Ghostrunner duology; now the table is set, and I couldn’t tear myself away from the game for 20 hours.

At first, the resemblance might not be immediately obvious, given that your arsenal consists only of a pistol, a saber, and a hand-mounted flamethrower. But then you encounter familiar horizontal bars for vaulting over chasms, find platforms that let you run along walls, and eventually acquire a grappling hook and stasis ability to aid your parkour. This parkour is seamlessly integrated into the environments, alternating between standard map exploration and combat. I mentioned the potential for speedrunning areas earlier—this is why. There is even a boss phase that is purely a parkour segment, reminding me of the server tower from the first Ghostrunner.

The Soulslike elements are organically integrated and they add great depth to the gameplay. You level up and upgrade your passive skill tree using a “catalyst” (the local equivalent of souls). There isn’t a huge variety here; the passives are utilitarian, offering bonuses to stats, skill casting speed, ammo pickup amounts, and the like. Only one unique passive allows you to slow down time while aiming in mid-air.

Each skill point invested fills a gauge with five slots where you can insert stones that grant a choice of interesting passive properties, thereby expanding the build-crafting possibilities. There are quite a few of them in the game; I collected around 20 during my playthrough, and that certainly wasn’t all of them. You find these stones while exploring the various locations, and some are guarded by elite enemies. The passive bonuses they provide are exactly what you’d expect from games of this genre: for instance, getting more catalyst from defeated enemies, using a healing flask without being interrupted, or parrying enemy projectiles.

The arsenal consists of three blades, three firearms, and three spells. Each weapon serves a specific purpose and remains relevant throughout the game; there are no useless weapons that you simply acquire and then forget about. The saber is versatile and suitable for most encounters, while the rapier is designed for precision strikes against weak points. The pistol and shotgun also target weak points but deal significantly more damage and can be used in tandem with the rapier or saber.

I used the fire spell to quickly dispatch shielded soldiers or Jaegers, as the burning effect either rapidly depletes half the enemy’s health or leaves them vulnerable to attack. Stasis was primarily used for traversal, while the shield allowed me to pass through poison and speed-run past troublesome enemy-filled areas. The musket is a straightforward, high-damage ranged weapon, and the claymore… well, it was simply made to be awesome. In my opinion, the claymore is the best weapon in the game thanks to its high damage, wide attack range, and ability to cast empowered spells; plus, it can interrupt certain boss attacks. The entire arsenal can be upgraded; at specific upgrade levels, you can choose one of two passive abilities to tailor the weapon or spell to your playstyle.

Consumables are present here in reasonable quantities and are grouped by type, making it easy to find what you need without getting lost when opening your inventory. Three quick-access slots are allocated for consumables, though they can also be used directly from the inventory. You can carry up to three of each type, and—in classic fashion—stocks are replenished at checkpoints.

This combination of elements allows players to craft a comfortable build for their playthrough. The game features incredibly spectacular, dynamic combat; much like in Ghostrunner, you zip across the battlefield from foe to foe, skillfully taking them down in seconds. The combat system relies on parrying and dodging; all boss attacks—except for those with specific visual cues—can be blocked or parried. Blocking converts a portion of your health into “temporary health” that can be recovered through subsequent attacks, while parrying shatters the opponent’s stance, enabling a flashy finishing move—a mechanic that rewards aggressive play.

However, you can’t simply spam the block button like in Sekiro; your stamina drains after just two or three hits while blocking, and the parry windows are quite tight. Ultimately, the combat remains enjoyable and engaging right to the end, delivering a gameplay experience that feels both adrenaline-fueled and rewarding.

While Valor Mortis might not look “next-gen,” it is certainly pleasing to the eye. There is plenty to look at, with a beautiful and diverse range of environments. However, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of a photo mode or even the option to hide the HUD or holster my weapon. The visual effects were a letdown; at times they looked very cheap, and static elements like smoke resembled a pasted-on PNG image.

Thanks to Unreal Engine 5, the lighting is fantastic; in fact, this is the first game on this engine that hasn’t lagged or brought my PC to its knees at launch. On my system (equipped with an RTX 3080), the game ran stably at high settings in 1440p with DLSS set to “Quality,” with only rare dips to 50 FPS in a couple of particularly demanding city areas.

That said, the overall experience was marred by bugs; while I didn’t encounter many, the ones I did find were quite frustrating. My first meeting with Shriek in the city triggered a soft-lock where the dialogue simply wouldn’t progress (restarting the game fixed it), and I got stuck in or fell through the geometry a few times (I was absolutely furious when this happened during the “Orphan” boss fight). During one boss fight, the AI ​​logic broke in the second phase, and the boss just stood there taking hits until it died. These were minor bugs, really, but they felt particularly jarring given the game’s otherwise high level of polish.

Valor Mortis is a solid title that kept me hooked for a 20-hour playthrough, delivering a rollercoaster of emotions along the way. To me, that is exactly why Soulslikes have become so popular. The “all-or-nothing” gameplay, high-octane and spectacular combat, and an intriguing setting make this game a standout in the genre, offering a fresh take on a formula that had long since stagnated.

I’m willing to overlook the slightly sagging mid-game narrative and the bugs I encountered; after all, bugs get patched, and in Soulslikes, the story serves merely as a motivator to keep pushing forward. I’m already planning a second playthrough and eagerly await a sequel—which I will definitely play if it ever comes out.