

Within the Souls community, depending on who you ask, you may find that different people attribute the status of granddaddy of them all to different titles.
Some will say Dark Souls truly served as the catalyst of the genre, whereas others will give Demon’s Souls the credit. However, there is an argument to be had that, without King’s Field, there would be no Dark Souls.
This was a first-person dungeon crawler with primitive bones that would form the spine of Souls’ design today. But, for some reason, very few developers have ever tried to emulate this first-person style to stand out from the crowd.
That all changed when Valor Mortis popped up at Gamescom. A Napoleonic Soulslike from the Ghostrunner Devs that feels a stone’s throw away from the cyberpunk parkour epic in some ways, but entirely its own beast in others.
It piqued our interest, and as we wandered Cologne, we decided to sit down for some gritty hack-and-slash action—a decision we do not regret at all.
A Matter Of Perspective
The most pressing question from Souls and Ghostrunner fans alike will be, how does the first-person approach feel?
A fair question, and one that I can happily report, feels great. As someone who liked but ultimately sucked at Ghostrunner, I was happy to find that the game is much slower, methodical, and deliberate compared to Ghostrunner’s fast, reactionary approach.
Sure, it’s all a lot slower than Ghostrunner, but it’s equally as smooth, cathartic, and rewarding to master. This has me convinced that the Souls community will take to this one in a heartbeat.
Instead, in Valor Mortis, you have a much more varied set of skills that allow you to be more than just a superhuman parrying machine. You can carefully navigate environments looking for a backstab, you can use magic akin to BioShock’s plasmids and Vigors. Or, you can rely on your pistol to exploit enemy weak points from range.
Granted, it’s still near-impossible to navigate the portion of the game we’ve seen without engaging somewhat with the parry mechanics. But the good news is that you never have to be at Sekiro levels of competence. It’s a tool in your tool belt, but you need a whole assortment of tools to get the job done.
While we only fought one boss, it was against this hulking general that we got to see Valor Mortis at its best. The first-person approach allows for a more immersive battle and lends itself to the Soulslike staple of feeling out your opponent and learning their choreography on the fly.
Sure, it’s all a lot slower than Ghostrunner, but it’s equally as smooth, cathartic, and rewarding to master. This has me convinced that the Souls community will take to this one in a heartbeat.
The Hardships of War
In case you hadn’t noticed by the garb and the funny hats, Valor Mortis takes place in a Napoleonic setting, albeit one that seems to blend with themes of corruption and the occult.
From what we have seen, it’s clear that the central narrative theme will be the trials and tribulations of war, and the monsters we can become on the battlefield, but I do have my concerns about how this admittedly very interesting slant on the French Revolution tells its story.
You see, Souls games typically focus on an enigmatic, environmentally told story that allows the players to speculate and fill in the blanks. However, Valor Mortis seems to offer a more linear and guided storyline, using flashbacks, NPC exposition, and a funneling level structure to keep things moving.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad approach, and it once again feels akin to how Ghostrunner delivered its narrative.
However, at least for me, half the fun of a Souls game is making sense of the world through your own lens. Something that I don’t think this game will allow you to do, opting to show you in a more cinematic way.
Finding Middle Ground
When combining a Mirror’s Edge-style parkour epic with such a beloved and pre-established blueprint as the Soulslike, all you can aim to do is find a suitable and comfortable middle ground when it comes to design. This is something that Valor Mortis seems to do in all aspects, for better or worse.
To speak on the ‘better’, Valor Mortis, in my humble opinion, is a very accessible Souls game which comes courtesy of diverse combat options, a very accommodating parry window, and more telegraphed boss fights to allow for that reactionary feel.
Then, as for world design. It’s just open enough that players are encouraged to search for new paths and hidden secrets, but with a clear and obvious path of progression to follow through each level.
That’s right, I said level. But, I was assured by the developers that this game is built with Metroidvania ideals in mind, meaning you will be encouraged to backtrack through levels when new powers and traversal mechanics become available to you.
But, on the flipside, I couldn’t help but feel that this title pulls its punches a little too much to really gel with the sadistic nature of the Soulslike crowd.
Put it this way. I consider myself a competent Souls player. Never one to no-hit or first try a boss that can put up a reasonable fight. But in this demo, I didn’t so much as die once, and that’s down to the very same wealth of combat options I praised before, as well as relatively flimsy boss health bars, and the wealth of resources on offer to the player.
Granted, this could have been a feature of the Gamescom demo alone to help all players see what Valor Mortis has to offer. But, it certainly raised a few alarm bells that this Soulslike may be so focused on smooth, satisfying systems that it just might forget to add the grit, the punishment, and the elation of payoff that comes with overcoming the odds.
Our Verdict:
“Valor Mortis at this early juncture looks the part and plays even better than it looks. The first-person approach isn’t just a novelty but one that elevates the experience, making combat immersive and intense. The abundance of early combat options the player has access makes me excited for what else awaits us in the later game, and if the game does nail the Metroidvania design the developers hinted at, it will be a truly fantastic experience. That said, the jury is still out on whether this will have enough bite to truly test veteran souls players looking for their next sadistic fix.”
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Author: 360 Technology Group