One More Level’s next game brings first-person Soulslike combat into a plague-ridden Napoleonic nightmare.
Valor Mortis, the next title from One More Level, the studio behind the Ghostrunner series, is shaping up to be one of the more unusual Soulslike projects currently on the way. Instead of castles, gothic villages, or traditional fantasy worlds, this one takes players into an alternate version of 19th-century Europe, where Napoleon’s war has left something far worse than broken battlefields behind.
The game was first revealed during Gamescom 2025, and it is now planned to launch in Fall 2026 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. For players who know One More Level from fast first-person action games such as Ghostrunner, this is a very different setting, but not a complete break from the studio’s strengths.
Valor Mortis uses first-person combat to place players directly inside its plague-ridden Napoleonic horror world.
In Valor Mortis, players take on the role of William, a soldier of the Grande Armée who wakes from death as a mysterious plague spreads across the continent. The Europe he returns to is no longer the one he fought for. War, disease, supernatural corruption, and horrifying mutations have twisted the landscape into something far darker.
Valor Mortis
Release: Fall 2026
Genre: First-Person Action Soulslike, Action RPG, Horror, Alternate History
Developer / Publisher: One More Level / Lyrical Games, One More Level
Platforms: PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Valor Mortis – Gameplay Trailer
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A Soulslike built around death, plague, and corrupted power
At its core, Valor Mortis is a first-person action Soulslike. That means stamina, timing, punishing combat, and the kind of repeated death-and-mastery loop players expect from the genre. The twist is the perspective. Rather than watching the action from behind the character, players are pushed directly into the fight through William’s eyes.
William’s primary weapon is a blade, with combat built around blocking, dodging, parrying, and finishing enemies at close range. Players will also be able to use firearms, including pistols, to strike weak points and stagger enemies. That gives combat a three-way rhythm between melee pressure, ranged precision, and supernatural abilities.
As William grows stronger, he gains access to powers known as Transmutations. These abilities let him channel the same corruption that brought him back from death, turning the plague inside his body into a weapon. Every death is presented as another chance to learn, recover, and push deeper into a world where even survival feels unstable.
Grotesque enemy designs and brutal first-person encounters help define Valor Mortis’ Napoleonic horror identity.
Napoleonic war becomes supernatural horror
The setting is one of the most striking parts of the game. Valor Mortis takes the visual language of Napoleonic warfare and bends it into horror, with ruined cities, corrupted soldiers, plague-ridden monsters, and a sense that history itself has gone wrong.
The enemies shown so far lean heavily into body horror and military decay, including mutated soldiers and twisted remnants of Napoleon’s Eternal Guard. There is a little of that Lies of P atmosphere in the way the game mixes elegant period detail with grotesque combat encounters, although Valor Mortis is clearly chasing its own identity through first-person movement, supernatural powers, and a darker battlefield tone.
For readers interested in more Soulslike coverage, Fix Gaming Channel has also covered titles such as Top 7 Soulslike Games to Play in 2025 and Lies of P: Overture DLC coverage.
Parkour still matters
While Valor Mortis is not simply Ghostrunner in a historical horror skin, One More Level’s background in first-person movement is still visible. The latest gameplay trailer shows traversal mechanics such as wall-running and grappling, giving William more mobility than players might expect from a traditional Soulslike setup.
That could be the part that helps the game stand apart. First-person Soulslike combat is already difficult to get right, and adding parkour-style movement on top of that makes the challenge even more interesting. If One More Level can balance weighty melee combat with the speed and readability the studio is known for, Valor Mortis could become a very distinctive entry in the genre.
A brutal mix to watch
There is still no exact release date yet, but the Fall 2026 launch window gives Soulslike fans a clearer idea of when to expect it. With PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S confirmed, Valor Mortis is now one to keep an eye on for players who like difficult combat, supernatural horror, and games that try to push familiar genre ideas into stranger territory.
A Napoleonic first-person Soulslike with plague horror, parkour, cutlasses, pistols, and supernatural powers is not exactly a common pitch. That alone makes Valor Mortis worth watching.
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Written by Aidan Minter, Writer at Fix Gaming Channel.
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