The Napoleonic Wars have been reimagined as a zombie-infested apocalypse in Valor Mortis, a first-person Soulslike action RPG from One More Level, the studio behind the Ghostrunner games. Players step into the boots of William Dowsett, a resurrected British soldier fighting for Napoleon's Grande Armée in an alternate timeline where the French emperor may have won the Battle of Waterloo. The Crimson Plague has ravaged the Eastern Front by 1817, leaving a landscape of devastation populated by malformed zombie soldiers.
Soulslike Mechanics Meet Serene Atmospherics
Valor Mortis retains many core Soulslike tenets, requiring players to defeat formidable foes to reach checkpoints, known here as lanterns. Resting at a lantern replenishes health and healing items but also revives all enemies. Upon death, players respawn at the last lantern, tasked with retrieving lost experience materials, called catalysts, from the site of their demise. A second death before retrieval means losing those catalysts permanently. Despite these challenging mechanics, the game offers a surprisingly serene experience, juxtaposing brutal combat with a strangely chill atmosphere and several forgiving gameplay elements.
The game's historical setting is a key draw, presenting the Napoleonic Wars through a first-person lens often overlooked by other titles. The environments shift from vast, corpse-strewn plains and snowy mountain paths to ruined villages and ancient churches, all rendered with historical authenticity. This quiet devastation, populated only by wandering monstrosities, creates a melancholic beauty that is as impactful as any jump scare. The enemy variety further enhances the theme, featuring mangled versions of Napoleonic units like zombie lancers, grenadiers, and musketeers, alongside more grotesque amalgamations like soldiers fused with hounds or molten into cannons.
Exploration and Flexible Combat
While the main story follows a linear path, Valor Mortis encourages Metroidvania-style exploration. New abilities unlock access to previously unreachable areas, revealing optional loot such as weapon upgrade materials, grenades, and equippable amber stones. This emphasis on exploration is complemented by a flexible combat system. Victory relies on mastering parries against regular attacks and dodging unblockable ones, with the first-person perspective aiding in timing these crucial maneuvers. Players can utilize a combination of melee weapons, firearms, and magical abilities, which consume ammunition and a mana-like resource called nephtoglobin, respectively.
Unlike many Soulslikes, Valor Mortis allows for frequent character respecs. Players can reallocate passive skill points at any lantern for a moderate catalyst cost, even before facing a boss. Furthermore, catalysts dropped upon death near a boss arena can be used for respecs, and damaging bosses rewards a small number of catalysts regardless of the outcome, facilitating easy build experimentation. This approach, combined with a modest arsenal of nine weapons and spells, encourages dynamic playstyles. For instance, a player might use a fire spell to burn enemies before switching to a rapier to exploit weak spots, then parry with a saber, and resume spellcasting, never feeling limited by the available options.
Difficulty Spikes and Memorable Encounters
Despite its forgiving nature in some aspects, Valor Mortis exhibits uneven difficulty scaling. While regular enemies provide a suitable challenge, the first boss encounter, General Lothaire, proved exceptionally difficult, capable of depleting the player's health bar with a single failed parry. However, subsequent encounters, including another boss and some mini-bosses, presented a more varied level of challenge. These difficulty spikes, while occasionally frustrating, are somewhat redeemed by the game's captivating world and the incentive to experiment with different strategies. The game ultimately prioritizes an enjoyable experience over punishing difficulty, making the journey through Napoleon's apocalyptic landscape a memorable one.