I woke up in the forest gut, surrounded by hundreds of dead bodies, with mist developed. The bloody body of my fellow brother advanced my path and led me deep into the darkness. Mud outfit under my boots. I’m crouching – there’s something ahead. Once upon a time, a now mutated monster, it spins and screeches, lifts its weapons and prepares to fight. This is my introduction The death of couragelike a new soul from the creator of Ghostrunner. It’s a striking departure from the cold neon-covered streets of Dharma city, but like the cyberpunk sisters, it quickly hooks me.
Revealed at Gamescom 2025, Valor Mortis stabs you into the middle of the world of war. Set in the 19th century of the same borough where Infinite Conflicts destroyed the planet, you will be cast as William, a fallen member of Napoleon Large Army Clearly, who was brought back to life? Infuse a new set of powers that allow you to spit jets of jets from your hands, you fight your way through various bosses (many of which are inspired by real historical figures), and Napoleon Witter’s unembodied voice unleashes everything in your head. What’s not going well?
I know pretty quickly. As I cross the early stages of the tutorial, I try to cross a rotten bridge and quickly find myself at the bottom of the crack. It’s not a great start to crush my plot. I fight through some of my fallen mutated comrades, with a tried soul-like fashion, a mix of quick and heavy attacks, a perfect parry of seasoned side-tips, a tested and tested soul-like fashion, and eventually break the woods’ grip. The enemy is killed, and there is a moment of silence as you look over the sunset. I feel my breath hold. In a world so far, which has been portrayed as harsh at the core, there is a fleeting beauty. But it’s just a fleeting moment.
The rest of the world is gore and smooth, amplified by the game’s brutal kill animations, reminiscent of the slices and dicing seen in Ghostrunner. Beheading the enemy, Level’s designer Damien Warzick urges him to “go for a little psycho” and separates the corpse on the ground, promising that this is not what he is doing in his free time. I can hack my body and see that in fact my limbs fall and spit fluids everywhere. “We strive to hit the sweet spot with violence,” he laughs. Despite the initial surprises about how Gory the game is, there is no denying that cutting down enemies is extremely satisfying.
With my bloody Saber and pistol in hand, I follow the trail until I come for another clearing. The sun illuminated in its center is one of my colleagues, hanging upright in a distorted circular structure made of internal organs and gore. Assuming he is dead, I approach him and reach out to what appears to be his shining red heart. I panic as he grabs my hand, twists, pours some eerie crimson energy into my veins. He disappears silently, leaving me with the very red hand and the ability to create flames in my palm. Not bad, but definitely not good.
I can use new powers to burn the growth of the environment and allow access to new areas of the map. In combination with Flintlock, I shoot down trees and provide a somewhat dangerous path along the sides of what appears to be a rather deep canyon. I take a leap of faith, grabbing a tree branch, swinging it around the next branch, and proceeding downwards towards the center of the battle, badly. However, parkour offers something different from other souls. Other soul slurred are largely linear and off the beaten path with strange detours. I certainly can feel a bit of ghostrunner in its fluidity, so I ask Wójcik how the team integrated the platform elements into Valor Mortis.
“It’s going to be easier if there’s no jump (which makes something like souls), obviously,” he says. “You don’t have to think about the environment and you can block it in a natural way. Obviously, the other Soulslikes aren’t part of the identity of games like Souls, so there’s no platform part, but I took my inspiration from my experience with Ghostrunner. You’ll need to jump a lot, but the battle will be easier.”
However, Valor Mortis breaks soul-like conventions in shooting mechanics. We’ve seen the Remnant Marry Gun Combat and the soul lights of the Fromsoft-Style Bosses and Dodge-based defensive moves, but on another level you can use the gun in parallel with traditional sabers and new magic. I quickly sent a sniper who was perched on the roof, but I also found out I had lost a nearby cart and climbed up and reached for him, crushing one of his allies in the process. With parkour elements and double weapons working together, there are multiple ways to approach each combat instance, making things feel more dynamic than “enemies, farm resources, repetitions, battle bosses.”
“There’s shooting at Bloodborne, but that’s more supportive,” says Wójcik. “It plays like a real shooter game here. You can also use fire. You may be able to do something else with new forces. But you can combine both (William’s) hands to make the battle feel different (from other soul slilies).
Its flexibility becomes handy with the giant Roterre, composed of the remains of his dead companions, a former soldier, General Rosiah, the final boss of the demonstration. Sport-shootable growth that deals extra damage, I quickly learned his general patterns and only died three or four times in his first stage. From yelling your body to slamming it into the ground and dealing significant damage, there’s a wave of relief when his health bar finally hits zero. I saw mom and won!
He then rises and begins phase 2. Well shit. Given that I only had an hour in the game, I called it a victory in my vein and Wójcik politely informed me that few people actually beat Rosiah in the course of the show. However, it is worth noting that my preview was the first day of Gamescom’s business days. So it was probably the first practical one. Still, I win where I can get it.
I’ve listed Valor Mortis as one of Gamescom’s three top games, and now I can understand why. At first glance, it has its own settings, but feels like another soul pickle, but quickly adds your own ideas and makes it a dynamic action game that pays homage to Software’s proven formula. When I saw another level making something like soul, it contrasts with Ghostrunner’s lightning bolts – I was a bit confused about how it would look, but here certainly has some dharma DNA. Ghostrunner’s influence still feels like a natural throughline. That’s not a case of “looking, we’re platforming differently.” It is fully integrated into the overall experience.
From the game, I was afraid to play (I’m not good at Soulslikes). There are so many possibilities in one of my games on the show, Valor Mortis. If we do it over and over again to close what feels like a certain death, I can’t really wait to see what comes next – and ultimately, defeating Rosiah forever. Honestly, I went to him with ease. He can’t stand the chance.
