Valor Mortis’s Director Explains The Tricky (And Rewarding) Act Of Bringing Souls-Like Into First-Person

Valor Mortis is horrifying, haunting, and absolutely thrilling. At Summer Game Fest 2026, the game from One More Level was able to show off a demo where players explored a corpse-strewn battlefield and found themselves contending with monstrous entities constructed from the bodies of soldiers. With an emphasis on close combat that benefits from tight controls, the experience felt like the happy medium between a BioShock-style first-person adventure and the parry-heavy Souls-like subgenre.

It was overall a very impressive showing, especially because that genre fusion was apparently tricky to really nail down. During an interview with ComicBook at Summer Game Fest, Valor Mortis director Radosław Ratusznik broke down the tricky balancing act he and the rest of the team had to perfect to get the Souls-like/first-person fusion just right and how player responses have proven to be a pleasant surprise.

CB: What surprised you the most about bringing the Souls-like style of gameplay into a first-person experience like Valor Mortis?

Radosław Ratusznik: I think that we were a bit surprised when we learned that we have all these different types of players interested in the game. We did some play tests last year. We did a GamesCom demo last year. We’ve been to several events, so we’ve been observing the players. The funny thing is that we were a bit afraid of figuring out the target audience for our game. Maybe there are not so many first-person lovers who want to play a Souls-like.

Maybe the Souls-like lovers do not want to get into a first-person game. But the funny thing is, we found that a lot of players who were not into Souls-like games and preferred first-person games found it really easy to carry out attacks [in Valor Mortis]. The parrying and blocking mechanics work way differently than they do in games where you see the whole character and the whole animations. It was working for so many people, people who liked both first-person and third-person games.

That was really surprising, but in a positive way. I think that we’re very happy about it. We delivered something that players who bounced off Souls-like games but are very good at shooting stuff can play. We found a space between them where they can prove themselves in Valor Mortis and vice versa for Souls-like players who don’t like first-person games. They’re all there, but they’re not the main mechanic. The shooting is important, and the parrying is important, but we found a happy balance. We’re really happy to offer that to the player.

The rest of our conversation with Radosław Ratusznik continues below, where we discuss some of the inspirations behind Valor Mortis, why they wanted to set a game in the Napoleonic era, and the lessons of Ghostrunner on the new game.

The act of bringing the Souls-like style to first-person is a quietly daunting challenge. Why was that something the team wanted to tackle in the first place?

We’re into creating the best action first-person games. We were very happy with what we achieved with Ghostrunner, but we wanted to move forward to do something else. To be honest, we always dreamed about creating a Souls-like title. I know there are a lot of Souls-like games on the market, but we wanted to do it our way. Not just blindly do everything that’s in those games, but take what fits our vision for the genre and keep that Ghostrunner DNA in there. There are other influences in there, too, games like BioShock and Half-Life.

We also wanted to have something that had a strong focus on melee combat. It’s way more complex than it was with Ghostrunner. We’re mixing in firearms and transmutations that are basically spells; there’s dual-wielding and all these other things. Players can feel like it’s something familiar, but it plays differently. We wanted to make a first-person game with Souls-like elements, not a Souls-like game in first-person. The first-person angle was a core part of the design. The responsiveness, the feeling of immersion, and how you adapt to your surroundings. All of it was crucial to what we wanted for Valor Mortis.

What were some of the biggest lessons you took from your previous games, like Ghostrunner, that you made sure to bring into this one?

First-person can be a tricky thing. Learning the distance and range of your attacks, when to attack or block or dodge, finding the right time to attack, and knowing that it will hit the enemy — the player shouldn’t be thinking about it too much. If you feel that you should have hit an enemy with an attack, the game should allow you. There are a lot of small assets that are helping players. We learned through Ghostrunner that sometimes you need to rotate the camera during the attack for the player. You need the small assets that aren’t taking away control of the character, but are helping you make this hit when you feel that it should hit enemies.

A lot of it was learning how to do it, especially in terms of movement, when the field of view is always changing. You need something special when you want to feel the speed and still see the surroundings. We found some stuff, like facing off with this huge boss, where when you are getting closer to him, your field of view — the camera — is increasing just to see him. It means you have a better chance of adapting to his attacks and being prepared for each of his incoming strikes. It’s the kind of assistance that’s barely visible to the player; it’s very important to be there on a gameplay level.

What was it about the Napoleonic era that caught your attention?

The vision of the world is something that’s very exciting for us. For the most part, I think stories in the 19th century are usually focused on the Victorian era and not the Napoleonic Wars. Maybe there were some strategy games in that era, but not many action games. We think that twisting it with this enigmatic enzyme called “Nephtoglobin,” which is causing all these mutations in parts of the Napoleon army, was a good idea.

Because of the “Nephtoglobin,” Napoleon won at Waterloo, and now he’s conquering the rest of the world. We’re part of his army, and suddenly we end up in a pile of corpses, rising up because of some unique powers. It’s a pretty cool premise! It’s fresh. It’s not repeating the stuff we’ve seen before. We get to have Napoleon, and Vincent Cassel is playing him. We are so happy to have him on board. The rest of the cast is also nice, but we’ll reveal them later. It was all about creating something new, and I think we did that.

Valor Mortis launches on October 13, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.