One More Level‘s Valor Mortis has made a bit of a Napoleonic retreat to October 13, delaying its launch to escape the crush of games coming in September. But based on my recent interview and gameplay at Summer Game Fest last week, it’s going to be a very different original title — and maybe worth playing in a crowded fall slate.
Lyrical Games, the independent publisher known for the Ghostrunner series, will publish Valor Mortis, a Soulslike combat game set in the era of Napoleon. While the game is delayed, there’s a demo available on Steam.
I spoke with Szymon Bryla, CEO of Krakow, Poland-based game studio at Summer Game Fest, and I also played a part of the game. Instead of taking on full regiments at a time, this is about brutal, visceral hand-to-hand fighting with monsters.
Valor Mortis is a dark, supernatural reimagining of 19th-century Europe, where a mysterious plague ravages the continent following Napoleon Bonaparte’s conquest. It starts in the wake of the Battle of Waterloo, where Napoleon faced is final defeat in a bid for empire. But in this alternate history story, Napoleon makes a bargain that turns his soldiers into zombies and enables them to turn the tide at Waterloo and win.
“It was a price he paid to sacrifice his soldiers,” Bryla said.
In my demo, I started out on the battleground as William, a fallen soldier resurrected with the same corruption destroying the continent, and I had to fight through Napoleon’s warped armies and monstrous abominations to with the ultimate goal of uncovering the truth behind the plague.
This plague is tied to a strange substance called Nephtoglobin, a corrupted bodily humour found inside infected enemies. It fuels both the plague’s mutations and William’s own resurrected powers. Armed with a rapier, I went up against slain soldiers and even a dog-like creature. I found a pistol that served as a good weapon against the mutant dog, which was fast.
Built in Unreal Engine 5, Valor Mortis represents One More Level’s most ambitious project to date: a bold new IP that channels the studio’s mastery of first-person perspective gameplay blended with Soulslike mechanics and a haunting aesthetic.
The developers at One More Level (Ghostrunner) applied their first-person action expertise to a Soulslike framework, featuring Metroidvania-style exploration. It’s set in an alternate dark-fantasy 19th-century Europe where Napoleon’s endless wars have unleashed a supernatural plague.
As far as the meaning of the name goes, “Valor” translates to courage or bravery, and “Mortis” means “of death.” Meaning “Courage of Death,” tying to the game’s core concept of a soldier resurrected in a dark, plague-ridden and war-torn Napoleonic Europe.
The team, now over 70 people, has been working on the game since 2023, Bryla said. Valor Mortis is targeting souls-like fans, action game enthusiasts, and those interested in narrative elements.
Bryla noted that One More Level is focused on action-driven games, with a focus on gameplay and stunning visuals, and its known for the hardcore Ghostrunner games.
“Valor Mortis is the Magnum Opus of our studio, our lessons learned, and this time we are going with first-person gameplay, with good visuals based on Unreal Engine 5.
He said the team loved the idea of doing a game in a historical period like the Napoleon era, but with a supernatural twist.
“It’s a huge challenge in terms how to give you the feeling of immersion, but we also prepared a second hook, which is the setting alternative of the Napoleonic Wars,” Bryla said. “We said, let’s make it cooler, change the events, and add some kind of horror to it.”
Bryla said the game is the most complex and expensive game the studio has ever made, but there’s a clear vision for the project, which is precisely targeted at hardcore fans of the Soulslike genre.
“If you know your player, you can be more efficient,” he said. “Of course, you need to build up everything about your previous experience and try to prepare some kind of the buffer of time for the things that you still don’t know, based on learning. That’s a normal part of development, and when you combine all these elements into it, I think you can name yourself as a really effective team.”
Of the zombie soldiers, he said, “They are really hard to kill, but still they are more like zombies, really determined to kill everything, everyone around them. That was the price, and of course the decision changed everything in this part of Europe, and obviously he found, let’s say, a challenger, and other characters that say a hard no to his actions, and this is what you will discover in the progress of the game, when you will see that everything is not like a black and white.”
Ultimately, Napoleon appears as the No. 1 villain in the game. One More Level is a public company in the Polish stock market. Regarding the release window, he said, “We know it will be a really challenging release window, but we would like to find a good spot for our game.”
He added, “At some point it will be up to you how deep you would like to go in the universe of Valor Mortis and the complexity of the narration. We should remember that this is not an RPG. It’s not like a Baldur’s Gate.
Hands-on gameplay
I awoke on the battlefield. It was a not a glorious scene with green fields. It was a muddy and destroyed place, full of dead bodies. I picked up a sword, went through a brief tutorial, and started on my journey. I came upon an arena full of wreckage and dead bodies, all looking grotesque as if they were from a horror film. I picked up a pistol as I looted the field.
Then three of the bodies got up. They killed me, I killed them, and we went back and forth for a while until I took them all out. I got better when I picked up enough skill to turn my hand into a flamethrower, in BioShock fashion.
I fought one more enemy that had an enormous set of pimple-like orange corpuscles in place of its head, as if it were ready to explode. And so I swung my sword at it. It eventually came down, but also did me some severe damage. Then I came upon the dog-like creature that was fast. I had to shoot it a few times with the pistol to finally bring it down.
The game was about precision, much like Elden Ring, and I had to concentrate with every swing. I imagine this game is going to be a long slog through the mud, and then you’ll meet Napoleon.