I got to spend about 30 minutes with Valor Mortis, going from the opening of the game to the first major boss fight. I left the demo feeling cured of my Souls-like fatigue, thanks to the distinct first-person combat and the finely tuned precision.
Valor Mortis is a first-person soulslike from developer One More Level, the creators of Ghost Runner. Set in 19th Century Europe, as a former member of Napoleon’s army, you have to contend with men turned into monsters as you explore a rotting world. Outside of the Napoleon angle, the pitch of an infected world is fairly standard for the genre, but the combat is anything but.
The first-person combat sees you wielding a sword in one hand, and either a gun or a special power in the other. The special powers come from the infection taking over the warring armies, although the early section I played left me with more questions than answers. In practice, though, I was able to light enemies on fire with the first power I gained, providing another tool for dispatching them.
Valor Mortis is focused on the quick but precise balance of parrying and dodging enemies, while still getting in close enough to land hits. It operates in the Sekiro realm, where you may be asked to parry multiple sword attacks in a row, building your enemy’s posture meter before breaking them and performing a power critical hit. The parries feel fantastic in first-person, and the snappy dodge feels like it would be more at home in a speed running game but adds more to the experience than a slower dodge would.
There were also a few brief moments of first-person platforming, something that Ghost Runner excelled at. While it’s unclear how much time will be dedicated to this in the full experience, my brief time spent swinging from branches and the glimpses of wall-running in the trailer have me excited for a faster, more fluid traversal system.
The boss fight proved to be brutal, as you might expect. A massive enemy soldier, with four small hands sticking out of his shoulder with pistols, wielding a sword in one hand and a flag pole in another. The incoming attacks were still easy to read in first-person, even if I hadn’t quite developed the skills to consistently parry them to make it through to the end of the boss fight. Still, the combat is incredibly fun and feels as precise as it needs to be to avoid being frustrating.
Valor Mortis is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 13.
