Ghostrunner developer One More Level is making a first-person soulslike titled Valor Mortis. Announced during the opening show of Gamescom 2025, the upcoming game promises a dark fantasy reimagining of the Napoleonic Wars, blending an already dreary setting with otherworldly horrors and layered mysteries.
One of the promo gameplay screenshots forValor Mortis, revealed by One More Level during Gamescom 2025 Opening Night Live. Polish studio One More Level is best known for the Ghostrunner series, released over a three-year span ending in late 2023. With an average OpenCritic score of 80, the mainline Ghostrunner games are among the most universally acclaimed action platformers in recent years, particularly among the non-family-friendly offerings.
A Soulslike Wrought in Horror and History
On August 19, One More Level unveiled its latest project, Valor Mortis. A first-person soulslike embracing historical fiction, the title was announced with a two-and-a-half-minute trailer premiering during Gamescom 2025 Opening Night Live. The video primarily focuses on establishing the game's distinctive setting: early 19th-century Eastern Europe, during Napoleon’s bloody—though inomplete—conquest of the Old Continent. Valor Mortis will have players take control of William, a foot soldier of the French Imperial Army who falls on the battlefield in the opening moments of the game, but is then mysteriously brought back to life.
As William returns from the dead, he discovers a plague-ridden Europe filled with monsters and other sorts of horrors. Infected by the mysterious Nephtoglobin substance, the resurrected soldier is forced to harness the matter's supernatural effects in order to confront both internal corruption and external horrors lurking all around. The game's very title is derived from this premise: "valor mortis" translates from Latin as "the bravery of death" or "death’s courage."
"After Ghostrunner, we knew we had the foundation to create an FFP (first-person perspective) title, but this time in a soulslike genre," One More Level CEO Szymon Bryla said in a prepared statement. Though impactful from a player's perspective, this genre shift ostensibly did not push the Polish developer far beyond its comfort zone; between God’s Trigger and Deadlings, Ghostrunner and Warlocks vs Shadows, One More Level has consistently delivered mechanically challenging and overall difficult games since its 2014 beginnings.
Valor Mortis Promises 'Brand-New Take' on Soulslikes
Valor Mortis is planned to deliver a "brand-new take on the soulslike experience," incorporating various elements of the popular genre while simultaneously drawing from One More Level's own opus, the company said. Motley influences aside, compared to the frenetic pace of the Ghostrunner games, the upcoming soulslike will be a deliberately slower experience, emphasizing precision of movement and methodical play over pure momentum. Valor Mortis is targeting a 2026 launch for PC and the current-gen non-Nintendo consoles. It will be published by Lyrical Games, a Lyrical Media subsidiary.
