Valor Mortis PAX East 2026 Preview: Why You Need This First-Person Soulslike

As a big fan of One More Level's Ghostrunner series, a duology that released in 2020 and 2023, I was very much excited to check out the team's latest effort, Valor Mortis. There's no release date just yet, but it's planned to launch sometime in 2026. It borrows some elements from Ghostrunner, but mostly stands on its own as a first-person soulslike where you play as a former soldier of Napoleon's army in the early 19th century.

GameRant had the opportunity to check out Valor Mortis at PAX East 2026 in Boston and spent about 30 minutes playing through the opening section of the game. And after those 30 minutes, I walked away with one thought: I need to get back into the world of Valor Mortis ASAP.

Satisfying First-Person Soulslike

As for what Valor Mortis borrows from Ghostrunner, it's a first-person game, but instead of playing as a sentient cyborg that can grapple and run on walls, you're a fallen infantryman who awakes after death with some interesting powers, including one that lets you shoot flames from your hand. You start off the game with a simple sword that can be used to block and parry enemy attacks, and you can perform a light or heavy slash depending on how quickly you want to attack foes.

From what I played, the game has pretty linear sections that you'll progress through, fighting enemies along the way and picking up upgrade materials from defeating them. You'll reach bonfire save points (ala Dark Souls) that you can rest at to recover your health and healing flasks, upgrade your skills, and equip accessories to increase the effectiveness of your character. However, once you rest at one of these points, all defeated enemies will respawn.

Metroidvania-Esque

While the first stage we played was mostly linear, the developers are calling the levels 'Metroidvania-inspired,' and I can see why. There were points during the stage where a side path would be blocked off by a strange glowing red object that could obviously be destroyed by a projectile, but I didn't have a gun or anything like that yet. So, once you do get new abilities and weapons, like the gun later on in the first stage, you can retrace your steps to head back to the blockade and explore previously locked-off areas to find hidden goodies like accessories and pieces of lore.

There was one side path that led me to a very difficult mini-boss with a wacky attack pattern that caught me by surprise. After dying once to it rather quickly, I kept going on the main path so as not to waste my demo time beating my head against the wall to defeat it. However, there was a chest behind the enemy, and I tried to reach it without fighting the mini-boss, but ultimately failed. I probably could have managed to make off with the optional accessory or currency in the chest if I'd had a few tries, but I wasn't sure it was possible.

Parrying Is Key

Besides the boss having a tough attack pattern, your health, at least at the beginning of the game, can be depleted very quickly if you're not careful with your blocks and parries. Now, it's not required to parry like a Clair Obscur/Sekiro sicko, but most enemies in Valor Mortis can be killed in one nice slash if you can perfect parry right before they get a hit on you. Otherwise, you can make do with blocking by holding a button and carefully strafing around the enemy with your dash movements.

You have a stamina bar, though, so you don't want to carelessly dodge willy-nilly — it's better to lock on to a target and block while you carefully gauge their next movement. This is the type of game that a common soldier can easily send you back to the grave if you get too cocky, which makes every combat scenario pretty stressful.

Most of the common enemies were on par with you and were solely equipped with a sword, but once you unlock the gun later on, you'll start to also find enemies with guns of their own, which can be really annoying. There were times when I was swordfighting one enemy only to get shot at by a far-off soldier standing on an elevated platform. To get close enough to shoot them, you have to either sprint towards them, hoping not to get blown away, or carefully crouch behind boxes and things until you're in the perfect position.

Once you acquire the first gun (I assume there are more), you hold it with your left hand while holding a sword in your right. This way, you can shoot with the left trigger while also being able to slash away with the right. There's a weapon wheel to switch between your weapons and abilities, and I only gained access to three, but it appears that there are about 7-8 in total.

The third thing we had access to was a fire ability that used a specific resource to shoot flames forward, easily burning groups of enemies. It doesn't kill them immediately, but it does cause burning damage for a few seconds afterward, making for a very satisfying way to deal with multiple enemies at once. It seems like the only weapon so far that can be used without spending resources is the sword, as you'll need to collect ammo to shoot bullets with the gun, and to use the firepower, you'll also need to gather stuff on the ground.

Tough Bosses That Demand Attention

The end of the demo brought me to a proper boss, who is a heavily mutated Napoleon soldier with multiple arms and three guns. Most of the attacks that came from him were projectiles that needed to be dodged at the right time, but then he would also get up close and personal and swing a sword. I was too scared to try and parry the sword attacks and tried to keep my distance, using my gun to shoot glowing orbs on its body while dashing close to slash at it when it was stunned.

I hate to admit this, but I died three times during the fight and eventually ran out of time as my demo ended at the 30-minute mark. For my last run, I got his health down so close to the end, but alas, I failed. I'm usually a guns-blazing type of gamer, so if I took a deep breath and took my time figuring out his attack patterns, I could have beaten him if I had one more chance, but now I guess I just have to wait until Valor Mortis comes out later this year to fully experience it all.

All in all, Valor Mortis seems like it could be on the same level as Ghostrunner, if not better. The combat is extremely satisfying; the parrying mechanic feels like a perfect fit and feels great to pull off; the challenge level is high but not too difficult to get used to; and the optional side areas and collectibles make me want to backtrack to uncover all the secret goodies. From the collection of games I got to play at PAX East this year, Valor Mortis is the one I can't stop thinking about. And if you haven't played Ghostrunner yet, what are you even doing?