The opening night at Gamescom 2025 was truly powerful, but the pre-show also presented us with some interesting novelties, such as Valor Mortis.
Have you ever heard of the studio OneMoreLevel? Maybe it rings a bell right from the start, but it’s unclear exactly where. Let me help – Ghostrunner and Ghostrunner 2. Hardcore FPP slashers set in a cyberpunk world. Wall running, brutal combat, high replay value, and most famously – you get hit, you die.
From Cyberpunk to… Apocalyptic French Revolution?
It might seem that the ideal strategy for OneMoreLevel would be to continue what is already well-known to them in the established Ghostrunner formula. And here comes the Valor Mortis trailer.
From the trailer, we learn that we will step into the shoes of a fallen French soldier – William. As seen in the cinematic teaser, the world is overtaken by a kind of plague that transforms people into terrifying monsters, akin to Outlast 2 or RESIDENT EVIL 2 – like the smaller cousins of Nemesis.
The evolution of gameplay known from the previously mentioned studio games is very intriguing. We still remain “in the skin and eyes” of the main character, we still fight using melee weapons, but the similarities essentially end here.
Our arsenal is expanded with firearms, a stream of fire from the hand like in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt when we max out the Igni sign, a quick backward dash similar to that known from the Dishonored series, the parrying of attacks, which little can be written about yet; I hope it will be a significant mechanic in the combat system, implemented in a similar way to Sekiro, Lies of P, or Stellar Blade, and we also see that combat will require us to aim and hit the enemy’s weak points.
Of course, one of the bosses was shown. Here we encountered a large bruiser who borrowed a few limbs from his fallen comrades. As soon as I saw his pose, he reminded me of the Chromatic Lancer from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
There are several segments where the boss throws corpses at us, rips something from the ground, or performs basic attacks – and that’s good news. It shows that bosses will have a wider range of moves than just a light attack, quick attack, grab, drop to the ground. It’s always more interesting than fighting the proverbial “bullet sponge” – I’m looking at you, The Division 2.
Graphically, everything is in place, the world setting is something new, so extra style points, combat looks dynamic and complex. Let’s hope for an engaging story and a good character development system, and we have a title worth adding to the wishlist.
The release of Valor Mortis is planned for 2026, without a specific date at the moment. The platforms this title will appear on are PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. Additionally – if the title caught your interest, I encourage you to visit the product page on Steam and sign up for the playtest! Vive la révolution, or something like that…