I went into this game semi blind, I’ve seen the trailers for it but not all of them during gaming events, I was very cuious to see how One More Level studio the creators of the amazing “Ghost Runner” franchise will handle a first person souls like game and how they gonna put their own twist in this genre.
STORY
The story takes place during the Napoleonic Wars era across Europe, where you play as one of Bonaparte’s loyal soldiers marching to the battlefield when a deadly disease known as the “Crimson Plague” breaks out, killing and transforming people into mindless monsters, with some who don’t even resemble humans anymore.
You play as William Dowsett, a British soldier who volunteered to fight under Napoleon’s flag with the French army and vowed his loyalty to His Imperial Majesty, unaware of the horrors, atrocities, and hardships he’ll encounter during this war, caused not just by the new deadly plague but also by the orders of Bonaparte and his army.
At the start of William’s journey, he and his regiment get attacked, causing him to lose his memory of who he was and only remember his loyalty to Napoleon. This causes William to hear Napoleon's voice in his head throughout the game to lead him through all the horrors as William kills and cleanses all of his turned comrades.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay in Valor Mortis is a Souls-like, but with an interesting twist being that its in first person, which not a lot of Souls-like games do.It has the general mechanics of a Souls-like, such as Endurance (stamina), Nephtoglobin (mana), catalyst (souls), healing flasks, and torch stands. Torch stands work as this game's version of bonfires, where you can upgrade your abilities and teleport to previous locations, making exploring and traversing easier and faster.
The world in this game is more linear but is packed with details like small puzzles to unlock rewards and shortcuts, traps, and obstacles, and I loved the random side quests and stories you find by exploring the areas and being thorough with it.
One of the things I loved, and I did actually hope they’d add, is the parkour. Knowing the devs' background in such a feature, they’d be the experts in it, and they made it really well and very fitting for the atmosphere and setting. They didn’t go too crazy with it; it’s just good enough for a human soldier to be able to do, even with his unnatural abilities.
The combat in this game is really smooth and punishing. It’s nicely balanced, so you don’t pick one build and cheese the entire game. You have to learn and master the playstyle you’re going for. The stealth is really good as well. It’s completely optional, but it’s really satisfying and helps with killing certain enemies or heavily damaging them.
Another feature I adored and wish to see more of is the choice-making that affects the outcome of certain side quests, main quests, and rewards, so think twice before making a choice because it could lead to a disaster or reward you handsomely.
The game is not short either. It’s a nice length where it’s not too long and not too short, allowing you to enjoy the game for a while but not get bored because it’s taking forever to finish. Progression is also nicely done and not rushed with the way you unlock new weapons and abilities. For me personally, I used mainly the rapier for melee weapons because of how smooth and fast the parrying and attacking with it are, and the starting pistol because of how reliable it is throughout the game.
There is a skill tree that allows you to customize your playstyle. There are specific skills and abilities you can unlock and upgrade for specific builds, and the more you progress through the skill tree, the more amber slots you’ll unlock, which are for the passive abilities you get throughout the world in chests, as rewards for completing side quests, or get by beating a boss of sorts.
Bosses and mini-bosses in this game honestly are cool but aren’t that fun. Their fights are easy, especially mini-bosses. I can’t say the same for the regular enemies and the special enemies. They’re extremely well-designed, and they’re really fun to fight, and I loved analyzing their fighting style and form. The devs really did super well simulating a real fencer's fighting style and their swiftness, especially for the Eternal Guards.
VISUALS
The game is visually beautiful, and at the same time, it shows the horror of the plague and war that have taken over the lands. Combat is super fun and unique, but what really hurt my playthrough was the constant environmental bugs, like getting stuck on things or the character just refusing to climb, or landing on a tiny slice of wall next to a death fall and constantly respawning on that small slice when you jump off it, forcing you to return to the torch stand and sometimes losing all the catalyst in the process, or getting stuck on a small object on the ground mid-fight, preventing you from retreating or dodging properly and dying because of it. Those environmental bugs happened so often that it genuinely became super annoying, but I’m happy to say they did patch them in the day one patch.
On PS5 Pro, the game runs great at a pretty consistent 60FPS on performance mode without any major issues. There are some minor stutters and drops here and there, but overall it was manageable and it did get better with the day one patch. However, I did also get to test the PC port and that one has a lot more stutters, thankfully the day one patch did improve this significantly so I would say its far from unplayable but its not perfect.
If you know me, you know how much I love Easter eggs and small details in games, especially ones that reference other games and media. Valor Mortis has that, I managed to find the classic Dark Souls bonfire which you can even light up with the fire ability, granting you an achievement. I also found it to be a neat way for the developers to acknowledge how much this game is inspired by Dark Souls, which I love to see.
FINAL VERDICT
Valor Mortis is a great time, the dev team outdid themselves with this one, especially as its their new IP in a genre they haven’t worked on before. The game sadly can get repetitive & tedious in some parts, but it overcomes that with the great combat and fun random stories you find around the world, so it never feels empty. I hope to see a sequel that can outdo this one in the future.
VALOR MORTIS- 8/10 - GREAT
Special thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy