I’ve been very vocal about the volume of Soulslikes releases. The market is saturated, and more Souls games are on the way. Valor Mortis is one of the latest to be announced, but this preview comes after playing it at Gamescom 2025. One More Level has an unbelievably exciting new project, as the studio has taken some of the best Ghostrunner qualities.
I knew I had an appointment to play One More Level’s (at the time) unannounced new IP at Gamescom 2025. We learned about Valor Mortis during Gamescom 2025’s Opening Night Live. It became evident very quickly that this isn’t another Elden Ring, Lies of P, or Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. I can tell you first-hand, this is the most excited I’ve been for a Soulslike in years.
More Souls Than Your Usual Soulslike
Valor Mortis doesn’t hide its genre or obvious inspiration. There are Lanterns serving as the usual Souls checkpoints, enemies respawn, and you lose your resources if you die. It’s standard fare in that regard. However, I’ve been wanting a polished and powerful first-person Soulslike for a while. Everyone goes for third-person, and no one seems to see the potential of a first-person perspective.
One More Level has taken the plunge. You’re a fallen Napoleon soldier in the 19th century, reanimated and revived. I jumped straight into the action with a sword in hand, a first-person camera angle in place, and the game teaching me the basics: How to attack, parry, and other common Souls techniques and movements.
I was elated to see that One More Level hadn’t forgotten its roots. Valor Mortis still lets you perform a sizable dash à la Jack from Ghostrunner, and there’s some fun parkour and traversal moments. But the core of the game’s structure revolves around combat. This is a Soulslike, and I can say it gets the blood pumping and makes my heart beat furiously.
Beauty is in The Hand of The Beholder
My hour-long demo saw me finish with a sword in my right hand for light and strong strikes, and interchangeable gadgets for my left hand: A pistol or the ability to spew fire from my hand. If you’re familiar with Bioshock or the Dishonored franchise, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
The pistol is great for enemies with big weak points, whereas fire is perfect to coat enemies with a crispy blast of flames and can quickly build up huge damage. I found I needed all three weapons to overcome the boss at the end of the demo. I won’t spoil things, but the boss is big, nasty, malformed, and took some beating.
The fascinating part of the fight for me was that the boss had plenty of weak points to target. Other Souls games emphasize elemental damage and weaknesses, and resistances. The pistol was a necessity, and the weak points added dynamism to the fight. There’s a lot of diversity in Valor Mortis’ gameplay, but you can still upgrade your main stats, like your health and parry capabilities. The unique environment is bolstered by visions of fallen soldiers, so you can learn more about the world—acting as a collectible in some ways.
One hour with Valor Mortis felt like seconds. As a huge Soulslike fan, this is the type of game I’ve been craving. If the tight-knit world-building and slick gameplay of Ghostrunner transfer over to Valor Mortis, this might be a sleeper GOTY contender.
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If you enjoyed my Valor Mortis Gamescom 2025 preview, check out other impressions we have: Super Meat Boy 3D, Hell Let Loose Vietnam, Borderlands 4, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and G’AIM’E.
