There’s little else quite so satisfying in gaming as a really chunky parry sound effect.
<![CDATA[ <article> <p>There’s little else quite so satisfying in gaming as a really chunky parry sound effect. When you read your opponent precisely and time a deflection to perfection, hearing that impactful audio cue as a reward is about as good as it gets — especially if you can follow it up with a devastating finishing move. <em>Valor Mortis</em> nails this.</p><p>I never tired of hearing the reverberated twang of blades clashing in my time with the first-person ‘<em>Souls</em>-like’ from One More Level. And given how much time is spent duelling with the reanimated corpses of Napoleonic soldiers, body horror monstrosities, and a few unique creatures I won’t spoil, it’s really something the developers had to nail.</p><p>So, I’m pleased to say that they have, and it’s one reason why I stuck with <em>Valor Mortis</em> through several of its other less successful aspects.</p><div class="fancy-box"><div class="fancy_box-title">Review info</div><div class="fancy_box_body"><p class="fancy-box__body-text"><strong>Platform reviewed: </strong>PC<br><strong>Available on: </strong>PS5,<strong> </strong>Xbox Series X|S, PC<br><strong>Release date: </strong>October 13, 2026</p></div></div><p>The opening, however, is strong. You awaken on a battlefield, surrounded by corpses, the rousing voice of Vincent Cassel as Napoleon in your ear encouraging you to move forward. But this conflict has turned into something far worse than just blades and cannon fire. A plague of sorts has torn through the land, transforming humans into monsters and unlocking mystical powers for you to use in your quest to understand exactly what’s happened while you’ve slumbered.</p><p>It’s all a setup that fits the <em>Dark Souls</em>-inspired core of the game, with its dangerous, foreboding, war-torn world to explore. This time, lanterns serve as the safe spaces to save your progress, level up using the blood from dead enemies, tweak your build with several skill-tweaking gems, and restart from when you inevitably die.</p><p>Your power to fight back against the horrors builds slowly and doesn’t ever get massively expansive. First, a sabre. Then, a pistol. After that, well, it’s the ability to shoot fire from your hands and put enemies in stasis. You can switch between these and a handful more melee, ranged, and magical powers at will — and will often need to do so to tackle different enemy types most effectively.</p><h2 id="bonjour">Bonjour</h2><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:2560px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="tULyEWJ8sskEazf4AuYqQe" name="valor-mortis-2" alt="Looking over a smoking battlefield in Valor Mortis" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/tULyEWJ8sskEazf4AuYqQe-1920-80.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="2560" height="1440" attribution="" endorsement="" class=""></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Future / One More Level)</span></figcaption></figure><p>For example, basic soldiers can be taken out with a few sword slashes. A more imposing axe-wielding officer is better handled by keeping your distance as you burn it with fire to set off the explosive keg on its back. There’s a malformed grenadier who protects its sack of explosives with an engorged hand, but when it moves to lob a grenade at you, a well-timed shot can cause a massive explosion.</p><p>As you proceed forward, each encounter requires you to assess whichever threats you’re facing and break down the best way to take them out or exploit a weakness with the tools at your disposal. Of course, you can always go wailing in with a sword, but it’s rarely the smartest move. You have limited stamina, and the aggressive enemies can obliterate you in just a few hits.</p><p>As is the trial-and-error nature of these types of games, it takes a few encounters with some new foes to get the better of them, but I wish <em>Valor Mortis</em> wasn’t so obsessed with the trickery of it all. Long delayed attacks that are preceded by multiple feints and five seconds of interpretive dance before a sudden blow pulverises you is kind of funny the first couple of times, but by the dozenth time I was getting irate.</p><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:2560px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="RA7K4aVqSkPJMhnoiyDxy3" name="valor-mortis-3" alt="Valor Mortis main character wielding a sword and fire powers" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/RA7K4aVqSkPJMhnoiyDxy3-1920-80.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="2560" height="1440" attribution="" endorsement="" class=""></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Future / One More Level)</span></figcaption></figure><p>The same goes for some aspects of the level design, which is regularly full of traps and “gotcha” moments. Enemies pop up out of bushes, others surprise you from behind doors, items are placed for you to be ambushed, or trigger rocks falling on you, or make you step on sections of floor that fall out from under you. I get that these moments are meant to keep you on your toes, but when they happen repeatedly in quick succession, they start to feel cheap rather than challenging.</p><div class="fancy-box"><div class="fancy_box-title">Best bit</div><div class="fancy_box_body"><figure class="van-image-figure " ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' ><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="NNj8VcpF2GdcNq5AM2zAqP" name="valor-mortis-windmill" caption="" alt="A screenshot of a windmill from Valor Mortis" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/NNj8VcpF2GdcNq5AM2zAqP-1920-80.jpg" mos="" link="" align="" fullscreen="" width="" height="" attribution="" endorsement="" class="pinterest-pin-exclude"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=""><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Future / One More Level)</span></figcaption></figure><p class="fancy-box__body-text"><strong>There are a couple of boss fights that I could call out here that feel awesome to emerge from victorious because you perfectly parry all attacks to deliver a satisfying riposte or are wowed by a piece of clever inventiveness, but I wouldn’t want to spoil the specifics. Instead, I’ll keep it vague and just say that when a set piece cleverly mixes combat, puzzle, and platforming elements well, that’s when </strong><em><strong>Valor Mortis</strong></em><strong> hits its peak.</strong></p></div></div><p>What I do like is that at least <em>Valor Mortis</em> mixes up linear gauntlets with open areas that give you more freedom in how you approach. There are opportunities to sneak up or around to get better vantage points and backstab enemies for an instant kill or significant damage. Thinning out larger groups is definitely something you’ll need to do, as even facing just two enemies at once puts you at a massive disadvantage in the game’s first-person view.</p><p>Variety is added further with some fantastic sections that combine the frenetic platforming of the team’s previous <em>Ghostrunner</em> series with the tight combat mechanics to create some entertaining and inventive set pieces. A section across broken-up ships that are suspended in time above the sea is a highlight, as you hop and swing between the splintered decks, take out snipers with your musket, and slash through any remaining soldiers prowling around.</p><h2 id="finding-its-footing">Finding its footing</h2><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:2560px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="X7P8AJMT8iLAJ29NsrpCh4" name="valor-mortis-boxout" alt="A screenshot from Valor Mortis showing a train carriage suspended in the air" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/X7P8AJMT8iLAJ29NsrpCh4-1920-80.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="2560" height="1440" attribution="" endorsement="" class="inline"></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: Future / One More Level)</span></figcaption></figure><p>On the other hand, a diversion into a mine is perhaps one of the game’s most dreary and aggravating sections. Here, lots of tight, dark, and windy corridors are not the easiest to see or fight in. Then, while you’re also trying to dodge and parry different enemies, the game decides to throw freewheeling minecarts that can almost kill you in one hit down these same small alcoves at the same time. A fun idea, in theory, but there’s a point where a situation becomes too chaotic for you to assess it and react to it quickly enough, and so my approach changed to brute force and luck rather than skill.</p><p>But then I was quickly brought back again by another thrilling on-rails segment that makes full use of all abilities and weapons you’ve gathered until now, before culminating in a surprising out-of-this-world boss fight that puts the rewarding parrying mechanics front and centre.</p><p>When that works, it <em>really </em>works. And the flourishes One More Level adds with ranged weapons and magical abilities are welcome tactical options — even if you will have to rely on swordplay more than anything else. The fact I kept getting beat up but wanted to keep coming back to nail a parry combo shows where the strengths of <em>Valor Mortis</em> lie. It’ll likely scare many away, but if challenging <em>Souls</em>-likes are what you enjoy, here’s another with an intriguing premise and a neat twist to add to your list.</p><h2 id="should-you-play-valor-mortis">Should you play Valor Mortis?</h2><figure class="van-image-figure inline-layout" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style="max-width:1920px;"><p class="vanilla-image-block" style="padding-top:56.25%;"><img id="bRA4wDDG6mymz6bYCBLP8S" name="valor-mortis-4" alt="An enemy from Valor Mortis throwing a grenade" src="https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bRA4wDDG6mymz6bYCBLP8S-1920-80.jpg" mos="" align="middle" fullscreen="" width="1920" height="1080" attribution="" endorsement="" class=""></p></div></div><figcaption itemprop="caption description" class=" inline-layout"><span class="credit" itemprop="copyrightHolder">(Image credit: One More Level)</span></figcaption></figure><h2 id="play-it-if">Play it if…</h2><div class="product"><p><strong>You’re looking for your next </strong><em><strong>Souls</strong></em><strong>-like</strong><br>As far as <em>Souls</em>-likes go, <em>Valor Mortis</em> is a good one, especially if you prefer the parry-focused combat seen in the likes of <em>Lies of P</em> and <em>Sekiro</em>.</p></div><div class="product"><p><strong>You enjoyed </strong><em><strong>Ghostrunner</strong></em><strong> but wanted more involved combat</strong><br><em>Valor Mortis</em> is far from the speedy pace of the <em>Ghostrunner</em> series, but some of the developer’s inventive platformer and set piece design is in here, just with more emphasis on combat.</p></div><div class="product"><p><strong>You’re a fan of horror</strong><br>The world, environments, and monsters of <em>Valor Mortis</em> are tinged with horror, while some of the side stories you come across are equally unsettling or downright devastating.</p></div><h2 id="don-t-play-it-if">Don’t play it if…</h2><div class="product"><p><strong>You get frustrated repeating encounters</strong><br>You’d probably expect this based on the genre alone, but if quick deaths and repeating encounters until you master them are not what you enjoy, then <em>Valor Mortis</em> is best avoided.</p></div><div class="product"><p><strong>You like a lot of weapons and build variety</strong><br>A trio of swords, a trio of guns, and a few magical skills are all you really get in <em>Valor Mortis</em>. These all work fine and have different strengths and weaknesses, but it doesn’t make for a whole lot of variety in the long run.</p></div><h2 id="accessibility-features">Accessibility features</h2><p><em>Valor Mortis</em> offers very few accessibility features. In terms of dialogue, there is only an option to adjust the subtitle size between small, medium, and large. Mouse and keyboard, and controller options are available, with full key rebinding possible on the former and several control schemes available to choose from on the latter. You can also adjust the field of view, turn off or tone down camera shaking, as well as turn blood splatter and dismemberment on or off if you prefer a less gory experience.</p><h2 id="how-i-reviewed-valor-mortis">How I reviewed Valor Mortis</h2><p>I played over 10 hours of <em>Valor Mortis</em> on PC using an <a href="https://www.techradar.com/reviews/xbox-wireless-controller-2020">Xbox Wireless Controller</a> and playing audio through my <a href="https://www.techradar.com/audio/wireless-headphones/bose-quietcomfort-headphones-review">Bose QuietComfort Headphones</a>. I’m using a fairly mid-range rig with a Ryzen 5 9600X, an <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/gpu/amd-radeon-rx-9060-xt">AMD Radeon RX 9060XT</a>, 48GB of RAM, and a <a href="https://www.techradar.com/computing/computing-components/the-best-ssd-just-got-better-as-samsung-reveals-its-990-evo-plus">Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD</a>. My monitor is the MSI MAG 27CQ6F.</p><p>With some tweaks to the settings, I was able to play the game on High at 1440p with frame generation on and maintain a comfortable 100+ fps at almost all times. It may not be a hugely demanding game, but it looks good and runs smoothly, which is ideal for reaction-based combat.</p><p><em>First reviewed October 2026.</em></p> </article> ]]>
