Valor Mortis Review Summary

A unique Napoleonic soulslike with smooth, enjoyable first-person combat, but poor PC optimization, stuttering, hitbox issues, and clunky combat and animations hurt it.

Enjoyable and smooth gameplay: The game plays well and offers a pleasant, enjoyable experience with smooth and fluid gameplay. Combat feels super fluid and weighty.

Solid performance and optimization: The game runs smoothly at 4K with high frame rates and no major issues. Optimization is on point and performance is solid.

Satisfying parry and posture system: Parries, blocks, and posture mechanics feel natural, responsive, and insanely satisfying, with beautiful finisher animations. The system is often compared to Sekiro.

Excellent first-person soulslike combat: The first-person perspective works remarkably well for a soulslike, with combat that feels amazing and plays better than third-person. It proves that first-person view can work for Soulslike combat.

Beautiful gothic visuals: Graphics are beautiful, with a dark aesthetic design that is visually a triumph. The world and atmosphere are also praised for their beauty.

Poor performance and optimization: Many players report severe frame drops, stuttering, micro-stutters, and crashes across various hardware configurations. Performance issues often persist even after lowering settings, and frequent shader compilation adds to the frustration.

Poor PC optimization and stuttering: The PC version suffers from poor optimization, causing constant stuttering and frame drops even on high-end hardware. This severely impacts the gameplay experience.

Hitbox and collision issues: Hitboxes are often misaligned, with enemy attacks having ghost range and player hits not registering properly. Collision bugs cause players to get stuck or fall through the map.

Technical issues and crashes: Players encounter numerous bugs, crashes, and technical problems such as game not launching, fatal errors, freezing, and save corruption. These issues severely impact playability.

Clunky combat and animations: Combat often feels clunky, with stiff animations, lack of weight, and poor hit feedback. Attacks feel like they lack impact, and the overall combat lacks fluidity and precision.

First-Person Soulslike Combat: Combat merges first-person shooting with soulslike mechanics such as parrying, dodging, and stamina management. Many reviewers highlight the unusual blend of FPS perspective and soulslike challenge.

Parry And Dodge Core: Parrying and dodging are repeatedly cited as the central combat mechanics. Players describe perfect parries, perfect dodges, blocking, and posture as key to success.

Stamina Limits Combat Actions: The stamina system restricts the number of attacks and early-game offensive options. Reviewers note that players can only perform about four swings before stamina depletes.

Genre Mashup Inspirations: The game blends mechanics from Bioshock, Dishonored, Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Sekiro, and Ghostrunner. Reviewers frequently compare its systems to these titles.

Difficult Tough Enemies: Combat is described as difficult with tough enemies. Reviewers emphasize that enemy encounters require learning and adaptation.

Stuttering and frame drops: Many players report stuttering and frametime spikes, especially during traversal or in forests. The issue persists even on capable hardware and at low settings.

Smooth performance on good hardware: Many players with high-end GPUs report smooth and stable performance at high resolutions and settings, often exceeding 60 FPS. Frame generation is noted to work well.

Mixed optimization quality: Opinions on optimization are split: some find it well-optimized and smooth, while others experience poor performance and heavy stuttering. The game can run well on high-end systems but struggles on mid-range hardware.

Frequent shader compilation: Shader compilation occurs repeatedly on launch, when starting a new game, and on exit. It takes a few seconds each time and is often noted as annoying.

Game crashes and launch failures: Multiple users report crashes, especially when starting a new game or during cutscenes, as well as fatal errors and the game not launching. These issues can prevent play entirely.

Broadly Recommended Game: Many reviewers recommend the game across a wide range of phrasing, from casual endorsement to enthusiastic praise. The consensus is that it is worth trying and generally delivers a satisfying experience.

Strong Soulslike Appeal: Multiple reviewers highlight the game as a solid fit for souls-like fans, especially those wanting a first-person challenge. It is described as a good entry point without being overly punishing.

Price and Sale Advice: Reviewers frequently discuss pricing, calling the full $40 price a steal at times but also recommending waiting for sales or patches. Some suggest buying around $25 or getting it on sale later.

Bugs and Patch Concerns: Several reviewers advise waiting for patches before buying or continuing, citing bugs that harm the experience. Some plan to refund until fixes arrive, while others suggest using the refund policy if impressions are negative.

Refund and Caution Advice: Some reviewers strongly advise refunding or not buying at release, often due to bugs or unmet expectations. Others suggest a cautious approach, such as trying within the refund window or waiting for fixes.

Community fair range: $40.00 - $60.00.

Game completion: 25.0h.

Story completion: 20.0h.

Session length: 3.0h.

Players describe early enjoyment driven by novelty, level design, and pacing that fades once the familiar Soulslike template, repetitive combat, and rough technical execution dominate. Praise is real but mostly confined to first impressions and systems rather than a late-game payoff.

Friction: Very slow first-time launch before the game runs smoothly; Repetitive combat; Weak hit feedback; Combat and technical execution described as imprecise once the novelty fades; Familiar, exhausted Soulslike template that offers little beyond novelty.

Unlock drivers: Performance stabilizes after the initial launch period.

Soulslike Veteran Challenge-Seeker: Learns boss patterns, accepts repeated deaths, and seeks hardcore or NG+ challenges. Motivation: Mastering punishing soulslike combat and overcoming repeated death. Stance: buy.

Soulslike Newcomer: Plays through the early hours, learns genre basics, and forms first impressions. Motivation: Experiencing a soulslike for the first time and enjoying the learning curve. Stance: buy.

Exploration and One-More-Level Player: Plays long sessions focused on exploration, unlock hunting, and repeated boss attempts. Motivation: Exploring the world and chasing the next unlock or boss victory. Stance: buy.

Performance is strongest on Windows 12-15GB VRAM and Windows 16GB+ VRAM systems, mixed on Windows 8-11GB VRAM, and weakest on Windows <8GB VRAM where crashes and stuttering dominate.

Windows 12-15GB VRAM: positive. Reviews report smooth performance, high frame rates, and stable operation at 1440p/4K with only isolated optimization complaints.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: mixed. Reports are split between solid FPS after updates and severe crashes or poor framerates at 1440p and 1080p low settings.

Windows <8GB VRAM: negative. The cohort mostly reports crashes on launch, heavy stuttering, and major frame drops, with only limited success using upscaling.

Steam Deck: The available reviews suggest the Steam Deck experience is largely seamless. One user explicitly praised playing on Steam Deck, and another reported acceptable performance on older hardware with upscaling. No review mentioned required Proton Experimental toggles, external launchers, small text, or unreadable UI. However, there are general concerns about stutter and bugs on PC and Linux (UE5), which could potentially affect the Deck but do not rise to the level of requiring tinkering or indicating a broken state per the scoring criteria.

Linux and Proton: The filtered reviews contain almost no actionable Linux/Proton evidence. One user speculates that stutter could be Linux-related but frames it as a general UE5 issue, and another reports playable performance with in-game upscaling. There are no reports of launch failures, anti-cheat blocks, Proton switching, or required Linux-specific workarounds, so the available evidence indicates low Linux friction.

Dishonored and Soulslike Influences: Frequent comparisons are made to Dishonored and various soulslike games such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. The game blends first-person immersive sim elements with soulslike combat.

Combat and Difficulty Balance: The combat is compared favorably to soulslike games, with a parry system that some find less precise than Sekiro. Difficulty is noted as easier than Ghostrunner and more forgiving than some soulslikes.

Reasonable Launch Price: Reviewers consistently praise the game's fair and democratic pricing, often calling it a steal at $40 or 150 PLN. Many note it offers great value compared to AAA titles.

Napoleonic Historical Setting: The game is set during the Napoleonic Wars and Restoration era, with an alternate history twist where Napoleon won at Waterloo. The 19th century France setting is noted as fresh and rare.

Ghostrunner Developer Pedigree: Many reviewers highlight that the game is developed by One More Level, the studio behind Ghostrunner. This connection builds expectations for quality and similar design DNA.