Valor Mortis Final Preview (Summer Game Fest 2026 Exclusive)
Valor Mortis is a visceral, first person soulslike, which is fitting because it’s releasing in one of the biggest bloodbaths the game industry has ever seen. Valor Mortis already shifted its release date from mid-September to mid-October, but should it get out of the fall completely or does it stand a chance against all of these industry heavyweights? The answer might surprise you.
Valor Mortis Preview
Due to Grand Theft Auto 6 releasing on November 19th, it makes sense that if you’re making a game, you probably want to be far enough away from Rockstar, so that people don’t have to make a decision with time or money between your game and one of the top five best selling franchises of all time.
Unfortunately, everyone had the same idea and decided that September and Early October is the best place to release their game and give it a fighting chance. Established IP like Marvel’s Wolverine, Gears of War: E-Day, Control Resonant, Silent Hill Townfall, Onimusha: The Way of The Sword, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 4, and Ace Combat 8 are all releasing within a six week span starting from the first week of September. This doesn’t even including new, incredible looking IP like End of Abyss, Orbitals and Blood of Dawnwalker. Which brings us to Valor Mortis, which was initially releasing near the end of September, but decided it was for the best to get closer to Grand Theft Auto 6, release on October 13th and I agree with One More Level.
When speaking with Radoslaw Ratusznik, the Game Director of Valor Mortis at Summer Game Fest he mentioned that the game is a tight, narrative driven adventure that will likely take the player around 12-15 hours, meaning that you’ll be long finished before heading back to Vice City, so it shouldn’t be competing for your time.
We asked Radoslaw a bunch of questions about Valor Mortis, but before we get to the interview, we have now played Valor Mortis twice, once in 2025 for the closed alpha playtest and now once again at Summer Game Fest, We have opinions and we wanted to give four reasons why we think Valor Mortis deserves your attention this fall.
WHY VALOR MORTIS?
NEW EXPERIENCE
The thing that’s immediately apparent from just glancing at the list of games coming in fall is that about 90 percent are sequels. There is nothing wrong with sequels and I can’t wait to play a bunch of those games, but revolutionary moments in gaming typically happen inside IP’s. The first time you played Super Mario Bros, Metroid, Wolfenstein 3D, or Portal. Those were the moments that have transcended time.
Valor Mortis is attempting a tell a unique narrative in the underexplored Napoleonic Era. It’s not a historically accurate retelling, but it provides an unfamiliar backdrop. One More Level probably could’ve made Ghost Runner 3 by adding a few new mechanics, but they chose to try something orginal and create a first person souls-like something that hasn’t been done on this level before.
With Ghostrunner, One More Level was trying to be part of the Cyberpunk moment, but with Valor Mortis, they are trying to create their own moment.
FEEDBACK
The alpha playtest in 2025 was conducive to a very good game at launch. However, there were some issues, but the team continues to constantly accept feedback and try to improve the game before release. The enemies seemed somewhat repetitive, but that has been fixed. For a soulslike you need patience and timing, but the readability, visual and audio cues were lacking. These have all been improved greatly. Targeting has also been greatly improved. Even during the alpha and the SGF demo, which is now the Steam Next Fest demo, One More Level is constantly pushing hotfixes to address issues that arise and I like this level of commitment from the team to make the best thing they can possibly make.
ONE MORE LEVEL
After two games, One More Level have established themselves as a studio that excels at high adrenaline, visceral gameplay. My impressions after the closed alpha in 2025 is that Valor Mortis is a much slower experience. After playing a much later section at Summer Game Fest, it’s clear the experience greatly evolves as the journey porgresses. Later sections resemble Ghostrunner as they incorporate a lot more parkour platforming like grappling, wall running and swinging. Overall, it’s very impressive how well everything blends together including the Napoleonic setting, the signature visceral gameplay the studio is known for, and soulslike elements in first person.
LYRICAL GAMES
Finally, Valor Mortis is being published by Lyrical Games who were only founded in 2025 as a counter argument to where gaming was heading with live service, free to play and uninspired releases.
Lyrical Games is composed of former members of Private Division, Devolver Digital and Humble Games, who have all seen how tumultuous the industry can be, but can also bring their knowledge about how to avoid problems and what resonates with players. You needn’t look further than their mission statement: “We are not building a live service, billion dollar empire. We are not chasing quarterly earnings. We back exceptional games”
Valor Mortis is the first title that Lyrical is publishing and this might not matter to most people, but I personally want to support publishers who are striving to be better.
INTERVIEW COMING SOON
