Valor Mortis is out: the Polish soulslike from the Ghostrunner team scores 77 on Metacritic

Valor Mortis is a first-person soulslike from Kraków studio One More Level, which previously made Ghostrunner. It launched today on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series, and Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play it from day one at no extra cost. It is published by Lyrical Games of Los Angeles, a young company founded in March 2025. The game was due out on 24 September, but the launch was moved to 13 October so that it would not get lost in the crowded September release schedule.

What kind of game it is

Soulslike is a genre modelled on the Dark Souls series: combat is demanding, every mistake hurts, and you make progress by learning how enemies behave. One More Level brings that formula into the first-person perspective it knows well from Ghostrunner. The characters include Napoleon, played by French actor Vincent Cassel. Nergal, real name Adam Darski and frontman of Behemoth, voices one of the mysterious enemies.

What the critics say

Reviews went live the day before launch. On Metacritic the PC version averages 77 from 40 reviews and the PS5 version 81 from 10. Some 74% of reviews are positive and none are negative. According to PPE.pl, the OpenCritic average is around 80. The highest score came from Insider Gaming (9/10), followed by GRY-OnLine (8.5/10), Push Square (8/10) and Eurogamer (80/100). IGN gave 7/10, GameSpot 6/10, and France's Gamekult was the coolest at 50/100.

GRY-OnLine's Maciej Bogusz calls Valor Mortis a successful experiment that is not afraid to use the best ideas on the market. GameSpot's Alessandro Barbosa is more critical, describing it as "an uneven experience that delights as much as it disappoints".

Trouble on PC

The most common complaint concerns the technical state of the PC version. GRY-OnLine lists frame drops, bugs and unfinished animations. Notably, the PS5 version has a higher Metacritic average than the PC one, although it is based on four times fewer reviews. The developers have not yet said when a patch will arrive. Sales figures and the peak number of concurrent players on Steam are not known either.

Prices and the Polish version

In Poland the standard edition costs PLN 149.99 and the Deluxe Edition PLN 199.99. The pricier edition includes story DLC announced for next year. The game was not available for pre-order. The Polish version has subtitles only, with no dubbing.

Also this week

Valor Mortis is not the week's only release. Tuesday also brought Planet Zoo 2 and Deep Dish Dungeon, among others. Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 follows on Wednesday, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Enshrouded 1.0, DayZ: Badlands and Arknights: Endfield on Thursday, and Tales of Eternia Remastered on Friday. Battlefield 6 and Deep Dish Dungeon also joined Game Pass today, while Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and A Plague Tale: Requiem are among the games leaving the service on 15 October.