Valor Mortis Arrives October 13: A Napoleonic Soulslike with Game Pass and a PS5 Trial

One More Level, the studio behind Ghostrunner, has locked in a date for its next project: Valor Mortis launches October 13 on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. As reported by Gamereactor Spain, the announcement comes after the game was confirmed to have gone gold and be ready for launch. This isn't a vague window or a generic quarter: it's a specific day on the calendar, and it's just around the corner.

What stands out isn't just the when, but the how. The full game lands on Xbox Game Pass on day one, and PlayStation Plus subscribers will be able to try it for 90 minutes, with the bonus that their progress carries over if they decide to buy it afterwards. Add a $39.99 price tag across all platforms, and the strategy is clear: the publisher wants to get the game into as many hands as possible in the middle of a packed release season.

What You Need to Know

• Launches October 13 on PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5.
• Available on Xbox Game Pass from day one.
• 90-minute trial for PS Plus subscribers, with progress that carries over when you buy the game.
• Priced at $39.99 on all platforms, with an estimated length of around 20 hours, according to Polygon.
• It's a first-person soulslike set in Napoleon's army and published by Lyrical Games.

A Soulslike in Napoleonic Uniform

The premise steps away from the gothic castles and fantasy kingdoms the genre usually favors. You play as William, a fallen soldier who comes back to life as a plague turns his comrades-in-arms into monsters. The progression system revolves around two resources, Catalysts and Ambers, which are used to unlock abilities and tweak your character's stats, suggesting some room to shape your own playstyle.

The first-person perspective is perhaps its most distinctive feature. Soulslikes have almost always been built with the camera behind the character, where reading animations and spacing feels more natural. Bringing that formula into first person is a considerable design challenge, but it's also exactly the kind of territory where One More Level already proved itself with Ghostrunner.

How It Arrives on Each Platform

It's worth putting the trial in perspective. If the campaign runs around 20 hours, an hour and a half amounts to less than a tenth of the game. It's a first taste, not a substantial chunk of the adventure. On the other hand, Polygon notes that Lyrical Games set the $39.99 price specifically to compete with the flood of titles releasing over these weeks.

Our Take

Our team likes the bet. A modest price, a reasonable length and the option to play at no extra cost on Game Pass are strong arguments when the fall lineup is squeezing both your wallet and your free time. For serious players, a soulslike of around 20 hours with customizable progression is fertile ground for replays, build optimization and, if the combat has the precision you'd expect from this studio, opening the door to speedruns.

That said, we're skeptical about the PS Plus trial. In a soulslike, the first 90 minutes rarely tell the whole story: it's the phase where you learn the controls, die a lot and barely scratch the surface of the progression system. Judging whether first person works in demanding fights with so little time could be unfair to the game and frustrating for the player. Keeping your progress helps, but it doesn't fully make up for such a short window.

For content creators, day one on Game Pass is a double-edged sword. Lots of people will be trying it at the same time, which drives interest in guides, first impressions and challenges, but it also saturates the space within hours. If you're going to cover it, our advice is to stand out: no-leveling challenges, build comparisons using Catalysts and Ambers, or breakdowns of how dodging feels in first person compared to the genre's classics.

What Do You Think?

Valor Mortis arrives holding some strong cards, but the big question is still whether first person fits a demanding soulslike. Will you give it a shot on October 13 or wait to see what the community says? Let us know in the team chat or on our Discord.