Every new soulslike gets compared to Dark Souls eventually, but with Valor Mortis, the comparison is not just fan chatter. The developers at One More Level have said outright that they are channeling the feeling of Dark Souls specifically, the game that arguably started the entire genre. So how close is Valor Mortis really to FromSoftware’s classic, and where does it break away and do its own thing? Here is a proper breakdown.
What Valor Mortis and Dark Souls Have in Common
- The Core Combat Loop Is Familiar
Strip away the setting and camera angle, and the underlying structure of Valor Mortis is very much Dark Souls at its core. You manage a stamina gauge while attacking, blocking, and dodging. Enemies hit hard and punish careless play. Checkpoints called Lanterns work exactly like bonfires, letting you rest, level up, and respawn nearby enemies in the process. If you have spent any time in Dark Souls, Bloodborne, or Elden Ring, these systems will feel instantly familiar.
- Death and Progression Follow the Same Rules
Just like in Dark Souls, dying in Valor Mortis sends you back to your last checkpoint, and the world resets around you. Progression is built around learning enemy patterns through repeated failure rather than raw stat checks, which is the defining trait of the genre Dark Souls popularized. One More Level’s own community team has confirmed this connection directly, describing Valor Mortis as channeling Dark Souls specifically rather than the genre in general terms.
- One-to-One Melee Encounters Take Priority
Despite the extra tools Valor Mortis gives you, previewers have noted that combat still fundamentally comes down to toe-to-toe duels, much like Dark Souls. You are not meant to be juggling a dozen systems at once mid-fight. The core of a fight is still reading an enemy, managing your stamina, and choosing the right moment to strike, block, or dodge, exactly like the games that inspired it.
- Punishing, Memorable Enemy Design
Reviewers have pointed out that Valor Mortis leans into the genre’s tradition of grotesque, memorable enemy design. The corrupted soldiers and horrors you fight are described as reacting to your attacks with real fluidity, giving combat a weighty, satisfying feel rather than the floaty combat you get in some other action RPGs.
Where Valor Mortis Breaks Away From Dark Souls
- The First-Person Camera Changes Everything
This is the single biggest difference, and it is not a small one. Dark Souls and nearly every soulslike since has used a third-person camera, giving you a wide view of enemy positioning. Valor Mortis throws that away entirely and puts you directly in the fight through a first-person perspective. According to multiple previews, this changes the timing, speed, and feel of parries, blocks, and dodges in a way third-person soulslikes simply cannot replicate. Enemies shambling toward you in close quarters are genuinely more unsettling when you are seeing them from William’s own eyes rather than watching from a safe distance.
- Guns and Magic Enter the Mix
Dark Souls has spells and ranged weapons too, but Valor Mortis builds its entire combat identity around dual-wielding a melee weapon alongside a firearm or supernatural power. You can swap a flintlock pistol for targeting weak points, or channel Nephtoglobin, a BioShock-style elemental power that behaves a lot like plasmids, complete with fire attacks that burst from your palm. This gives Valor Mortis a genre-blending feel that reviewers have compared as much to BioShock and Dishonored as to Dark Souls itself.
- A Posture and Parry System Closer to Sekiro
While the stamina management feels like Dark Souls, the blocking system in Valor Mortis leans closer to Sekiro. Blocking builds up a posture meter on enemies, and staggering them through well-timed hits opens the door to devastating follow-up damage. Blocking and striking back to regain lost health is also part of the system, which rewards aggression and precise timing over cautious, defensive play.
- Movement Borrows From the Developer’s Own Roots
One More Level made Ghostrunner, and you can feel it here. Valor Mortis includes dashes and light parkour elements that give you noticeably more mobility than the average soulslike, including Dark Souls itself. This traversal layer adds speed and flow to both exploration and positioning in fights, something Dark Souls never really emphasized.
- A Setting Nobody Else Is Using
Dark Souls built its identity around a decaying dark fantasy kingdom. Valor Mortis instead goes with an alternate history version of Napoleonic Europe, where a mysterious plague has turned soldiers into monsters. You play as William, a resurrected French soldier uncovering a conspiracy behind the corruption spreading across the continent. It is a genuinely different backdrop from anything Dark Souls or its imitators have used, and reviewers have consistently called it one of the more distinctive settings in the genre right now.
So, Is Valor Mortis Basically Dark Souls?
Not quite, and that is the point. The bones are unmistakably Dark Souls: stamina management, checkpoint-based progression, punishing enemies, and a death loop built around learning through failure. But the first-person camera, the gun and magic combat layer, the Sekiro-style posture system, and the Ghostrunner-influenced movement all combine to make Valor Mortis feel like its own thing rather than a clone. If you love Dark Souls but wish it moved a little faster and let you fight from a completely different perspective, this is shaping up to be exactly that.
If this comparison has you convinced, Valor Mortis is worth adding to your list. Head over to Driffle to buy Valor Mortis at the best price, with fast digital delivery so you can jump straight into Napoleonic Europe and see how it stacks up against Dark Souls for yourself.
