We all know Napoleon wasn’t the type to give up easily, but unleashing the zombie apocalypse rather than face defeat? That’s a bit much, even for our favorite Petit Corporal. Granted, 13 hours and four chapters into Valor Mortis, I’m not quite sure who’s responsible for the Crimson Plague that has devastated the Eastern Front in the Napoleonic Wars, but since the year is 1817, and Napoleon isn’t quietly enjoying exile on Saint Helena, my money is on him.
Valor Mortis, a first-person Soulslike action RPG developed by One More Level (the studio behind the Ghostrunner games), takes place in an alternate version of the Napoleonic Wars. You play as William Dowsett, a resurrected British soldier in Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Yes, British, not French — but before we declare him a dirty traitor, remember that Napoleon may have won the Battle of Waterloo in Valor Mortis‘ version of events, perhaps uniting the Western European forces afterward.
In true Soulslike fashion, William must defeat a terrifying array of monsters (malformed zombie soldiers) to reach the next checkpoint, or rather, the next lantern. Resting at a lantern replenishes HP-recovery flasks and restores William’s HP, but it also revives his enemies. Whenever William dies (which is fairly often, in my case), he’s revived at the latest lantern, from whence he must return to the site of his demise to pick up the lost catalysts — the level-up materials. Die a second time before retrieval, and the catalysts are lost forever.
Unlike a typical Soulslike, Valor Mortis has been a strangely relaxing experience for me. While Soulslike gameplay can be intense to the point of frustration, Valor Mortis combines an oddly serene atmosphere with a few forgiving gameplay elements that counterbalance the brutal combat. This game is easy to learn, hard to master, and a joy to retry.
What initially attracted me to Valor Mortis was its historical setting. Not many games feature the Napoleonic Wars, and those that do tend to feature top-down, tactics-based gameplay, but Valor Mortis proves this neglect unjust. A few minutes after William’s awakening in a murky forest, I was treated to the first of many epic vistas, complete with Napoleon’s voice sounding in my head: “I see you — all of you. Each and every one.”
The scenery, ranging from vast plains littered with fallen soldiers to snowy mountain paths, and from a ruined village to an old church, feels historically authentic without lacking variety. When I heard “Eastern Front,” I must admit my imagination didn’t go beyond cold plains, so it was nice to find myself traversing a misty graveyard and an abandoned quarry before long. Unobstructed by a playable character, Valor Mortis‘ first-person perspective makes the views extra spectacular.
But none of these locations are busy; there are no marching troops, no gunshots, no screams — due to the Crimson Plague, all that remains are corpses and lone, wandering monstrosities. This quiet devastation, surrounded by forest, mountains, abandoned carts, and burned villages, is as sad as it is beautiful. I much prefer this melancholia to pure horror — in a way, the constant reminders of the lives that were lost are way more horrifying than a few deranged zombies.
Speaking of zombies, while props like cannons, wagons, and tents help sell the military atmosphere, the enemy types do the heavy lifting; the world of Valor Mortis is inhabited by zombie lancers, grenadiers, musketeers, and every other mangled version of Napoleon’s units. Again, I love the variety here; there are fairly regular zombie soldiers, but also soldiers merged with hounds, zombies molten into cannons, and living piles of corpses. Each requires a different tactic, and most are hard to defeat (at least on the first encounter).
Adding to the Napoleonic theme is the man himself; as I mentioned earlier, Napoleon has the creepy ability to issue telepathic orders. A story set in Napoleon’s era is fun, but a story featuring Napoleon as an active character is even better. Napoleon’s mental DM’s are quite vague, though, so they mainly function as background lore. Luckily, Valor Mortis also features a proper quest system with clear objectives, stories, and a distinction between main and side quests. Without a quest marker in sight, Valor Mortis can’t be accused of handholding, but I find it very convenient to track my questing progress.
One of my favorite side quests began with the sound of a crying baby — I broke into its house, looked into the crib, but there was nothing there except blood. My task was to find out what had happened to the little one. Other quests involved a corpse turned into a scarecrow, and the ghosts of an abandoned family. Valor Mortis focuses on combat and exploration, but these small glimpses of soldiers’ and peasants’ former lives give me extra incentive to keep going.
While Valor Mortis‘ main story is linear, the world is open to Metroidvania-style exploration. By acquiring new abilities, you can travel back to unlock doors, remove walls, and sling across chasms (yes, there’s a grappling hook). Naturally, this leads to extra loot, such as weapon upgrade materials, hand grenades, and equippable amber stones. Although the extra exploration opportunities are optional, I found them worth doing, especially since I’m constantly changing my weapons, skills, and tactics.
In Valor Mortis, victory is heavily reliant on your ability to parry regular attacks and dodge unblockable ones. The parry window is small, so it’s important to observe and memorize the opponent’s attack patterns. The first-person perspective worked to my advantage; when I see a weapon coming toward me, I find it easier to time a parry compared to a third-person perspective, where I have to observe from a distance. Besides melee weapons, you’ll have a few guns and magical abilities at your disposal, which require bullets and nephtoglobin (mana), respectively.
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At first, I thought I would gather a few swords, pick the best one, study the skill tree, decide on an upgrade roadmap, and use either a spell or a ranged weapon as a secondary option for the remainder of the game. But that’s not what happened.
Whereas most Soulslikes don’t allow you to respec very often, Valor Mortis almost encourages it. For a moderate amount of catalysts, adjusted to your current level, you can reallocate your passive skill points whenever you rest at a lantern (one of which is always positioned before a boss arena). On top of that, whenever you meet your demise at the mutated hands of a major boss, your catalysts are dropped before the arena’s entrance, so you can use them for skill point reallocation. Even better, damaging a boss rewards a small stack of catalysts, even if you die. So, after a few failed tries, you should’ve gathered enough catalysts to adjust your build.
Of course, this makes Valor Mortis significantly easier than a game like Dark Souls, but where the latter’s character build system has often given me a headache, playing with different build options in Valor Mortis has been a blast. I wasn’t convinced when I first laid eyes on Valor Mortis‘ relatively simple skill tree, but its small size and straightforward abilities (more HP recovery, better parrying impact, higher headshot damage — that sort of thing) enable the leisurely experimentation I’ve come to enjoy so much.
Likewise, Valor Mortis offers a humble total of nine swords, guns, and spells. After I obtained my first two weapons, the sabre and rapier, I was disappointed at the lack of options, because I mistakenly assumed I’d have to commit to one weapon — I liked the rapier best, but due to its lack of blocking power, and without an in-between option, I thought I was doomed to use a sabre always. I’d not yet realized that the quick in-combat weapon swapping meant that I could still exploit both weapons’ strengths, even without rapier upgrades. I found myself burning enemies with my fire spell, stabbing their weak spots with my rapier, dodging, swapping to the sabre, parrying, and picking up the nephtoglobin orb that just popped out of the opponent’s stabbed weak spot before burning them again. Without the sabre, I wouldn’t have pulled off the parry, but without the rapier, I wouldn’t have stabbed the weak spot. Even with only nine weapons total, I never felt limited in my playstyle.
The only aspect that clashes with Valor Mortis‘ “difficult but not frustrating” concept is the difficulty balance. Regular enemies encountered during exploration were perfect; I died occasionally, but rarely lost any catalysts. Two or three tries were usually enough to clear an area. The first boss encounter, however, proved truly hardcore; one failed parry, and “General Lothaire” would nearly deplete my HP bar. This boss fight became a major obstacle, and I assumed the second boss fight would be worse. Not so; I got past him on my second try. Meanwhile, one of the mini-bosses encountered during that time took six attempts. The challenge level is all over the place.
I might’ve been mad at General Lothaire for two-shotting me on repeat, but one glance at that magnificent, tragic, war-torn landscape, complete with its hidden stories and secret pathways, and all is forgiven. Any other boss is welcome to crush me at least once — I wouldn’t wish to be deprived of the chance to try a different strategy. Apart from the difficulty hiccups, Valor Mortis is a steady Soulslike that prioritizes fun over hardcore gameplay, and it’s made my time with Napoleon all the more memorable.
