Valor Mortis Developers on Gameplay, Inspirations, and the Game’s Core Message — A VGTimes Interview at gamescom 2026

At gamescom 2026, VGTimes spoke with representatives of Polish studio One More Level, which is preparing to release Valor Mortis, a first-person action RPG with soulslike elements, on October 13. The studio is already well established in the action genre: its Ghostrunner duology was well received and earned a following among fans of challenging games. Valor Mortis, however, represents something new for One More Level.

Michal Azarewicz, the studio's brand manager, shared with us some details of the Valor Mortis setting and gameplay, as well as told us which games the developers were inspired by.

VGTimes: Tell us in general terms about the plot of Valor Mortis.

Michał Azarevich: The game is set in an alternative Europe where Napoleon Bonaparte won the Battle of Waterloo and established control over all of Europe thanks to a supernatural element that he somehow managed to acquire.

You play as William, an Englishman who fought on Napoleon's side in the International Legion, which was formed from soldiers from the countries conquered by Napoleon. William died in one of the battles, but then he woke up on the battlefield. The other soldiers don't know him; they attack him and look very strange, as if they've undergone some kind of mutation. A plague is raging in the villages, and William needs to figure out what's going on, why he's there, and where he got his special abilities.

VGTimes: There are many souls-like games on the market right now. What do you plan to do to stand out from the rest?

Michał Azarevich: The main difference between Valor Mortis and others is that you play in the first person, not in the third, as in most games in the souls-like genre. This is our unique approach to the genre, and judging by the feedback we received after last year's announcement of the game at gamescom, it has paid off. Players note that this is something new and interesting, and they want to try the whole game to see if we got everything right.

Among the elements familiar to all souls-like fans, our game features a stamina recovery system, its own version of "bonfires," and so on. When you die, all the resources you've collected remain at the spot where you perished — they can be collected.

But when you're playing in first-person mode, you need to be more careful and pay closer attention to what's happening around you, because enemies might be hiding around the corner. If you don't notice them, they'll attack you from behind, and you know how that will end. Furthermore, the pace of combat itself is different from that in third-person games.

At the same time, we didn't want to change everything so that players wouldn't have to learn everything from scratch. That's why we kept many elements that players remembered from other Souls-like games.

VGTimes: Tell us about the features of the combat system and how you integrated them into the historical setting.

Michał Azarevich: You will have melee weapons (sabre, rapier, two-handed sword) as well as firearms (pistols, muskets, etc.). But they will look and sometimes behave differently, because nefthoglobin — the supernatural element that Napoleon uses — also affects technology. Therefore, the pistol will look and fire a bit differently.

William will also have access to transmutations — abilities that he will discover in himself during his journey. For example, you'll be able to shoot fire from your hand or use a grappling hook to move faster. Or you'll be able to attract and repel objects.

Thus, we give players a variety of tools so they can fight enemies, navigate levels, and search for secrets we've hidden in different parts of the map. For example, those who love Metroidvania will notice that there are areas on the map that they won't have access to at the start of the game. Later, if they obtain the necessary transmutations, another weapon, or something of that sort, they will be able to return and explore places they couldn't reach before.

VGTimes: What about the bosses? Will we be fighting Napoleon?

Michał Azarevich: For now, it's a secret; we can't reveal all the details of the plot. Let's just say that our story unfolds in an alternate universe, but it contains many historical elements that players will recognize. Perhaps in a somewhat altered form, but they will be present in the game.

VGTimes: What souls-like games inspired you?

Michał Azarevich: Let's start with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. We were also inspired by Demon's Souls and, of course, the Souls series as a classic of the genre. A little bit of Mortal Shell 2, which we are currently playing, is a very cool game. There are also Lies of P, in terms of the two-weapon system, and Bloodborne, in terms of pistol shooting and how it is used in the game as a whole. The pistol in our game is not only a weapon, but also a tool for performing other tasks. In general, these are the main sources of inspiration for the game. Besides them, we can also mention Dishonored, Bioshock and other games.

VGTimes: It seems to me that in Bioshock, more attention is paid to the visual style rather than the gameplay, right?

Michał Azarevich: One of the first abilities you get in Valor Mortis is a flamethrower. People who saw flames shooting out of a character's hand in trailers or during gameplay demonstrations would immediately remark: "Oh, it's just like in Bioshock!" I would say that this reaction is partly due to the rather dark atmosphere of our game. In this sense, Valor Mortis is close not only to Bioshock, but also to Resident Evil Village, Dishonored, and horror games in general.

The game is intended for players over 18 years old, so it won't be too flashy. On the contrary, we want to talk about war and its victims, about how power corrupts people — and not just in the sense that someone might turn into a mutant or a monster, but about how power changes people, forcing them to make specific decisions. So the game has serious themes that we should all think about.

VGTimes: Thank you for the interview!

Article by Rodion Ilin and Evgenia Zavyalova.

VGTimes has been operating since 2011 and over that time has attended dozens of exhibitions and festivals, where our journalists have gathered a wealth of exclusive material. For example, in 2019 we attended a closed showing of Cyberpunk 2077 at gamescom, in 2017 we prepared a photo report from WG Fest, in 2020 we were at the largest gaming event in Central Asia — CAGS, and we have visited IgroMir several times, where we met Hideo Kojima and other famous developers. In 2024 we traveled to the Land of the Rising Sun for TGS 2024, where we were amazed by the scale of the Tokyo event. In 2025 we witnessed one of Asia's premier gaming exhibitions — ChinaJoy in Shanghai. We also made it to the Thai edition of gamescom 2025 in Bangkok, and at the start of this year attended CES 2026 in Las Vegas and later Computex 2026 in Taipei.