Valor Mortis Review: Great Parries, Shaky Hitboxes So Far

What Valor Mortis is

You play a soldier of Napoleon's army who comes back from the dead in a Europe eaten by plague. The Steam page calls it a "first-person action soulslike from the creators of Ghostrunner," and the combat is what you'd expect from the genre: block, parry, break the enemy's guard, then finish them. A sword and a pistol share the screen, and the supernatural powers fill the gap between them.

The launch post promises a 20-hour campaign. Push Square's reviewer rolled credits at about 18 hours, Saving Content's took over 20, and our Valor Mortis how long to beat page tracks the numbers as they come in. It came out on October 13 (release date details) on Windows through Steam, plus PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Our price and PC specs page has the full requirements table.

Screenshot: Valor Mortis official launch trailer (Lyrical Games YouTube channel)

The official launch trailer shows you the pitch faster than we can describe it. At 0:09 a blade goes straight through a soldier's chest. At 0:49 the camera points a pistol down a dark stone corridor toward a tall figure under a red-lit arch. The end card at 2:17 lists Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC and Xbox Cloud, and carries an Xbox Game Pass badge, so check your Game Pass library before you buy.

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What works

The parry is the whole game, and when it lands it feels great. Clean parries break an enemy's posture and set up a finisher, and players who like Sekiro or Lies of P keep naming those games in their reviews. One Steam reviewer who finished the campaign in 32 hours recommends it "especially if you like exploration and tight level design more than punishing bosses" (review).

It's also kinder than the genre usually is. The most upvoted positive review on Steam, from a player who says he isn't usually a soulslike fan, lists what won him over: "no boss runbacks, checkpoints are frequent, you can PAUSE THE GAME, all mechanics are clearly explained" (review). If the death loop is what pushed you away from soulslikes before, this one asks for less.

Screenshot: Valor Mortis official launch trailer (Lyrical Games YouTube channel)

The setting helps too. Plague villages, Napoleonic uniforms and body-horror monsters are a nice break from yet another ruined medieval kingdom. Il Platinatore counts ten main boss fights across eleven chapters, and our Valor Mortis bosses guide goes through them in order.

What doesn't

Hitboxes. This is the big one. The most helpful review on Steam is negative, and it says the game is held back by "the completely nonsensical player hitbox" (review). Other negative reviews say the same thing in different words: attacks that look like misses still hit you, and a game built around precise parries can't hide that. The developer clearly heard it, because the October 21 patch opens with hitbox changes.

Bugs. The patch notes double as a list of what went wrong at launch. Bosses that stop attacking, a boss fight that ended after the first phase, a fight you could cheese from a rock pile, and soft locks if you and the boss died at the same moment. If your save is still stuck, the studio says its support team can send replacement saves for each chapter.

Screenshot: Valor Mortis official launch trailer (Lyrical Games YouTube channel)

No map, no reason to replay. The levels loop back on themselves, and one negative review points out there's no map to keep track of where you've been (review). After the credits there's nothing left either. "once you beat the game thats it, nothing else to do," one player wrote in an otherwise positive review that asked for New Game Plus or boss rematches (review).

Performance. The October 16 hotfix fixed common crashes and added a warning for outdated GPU drivers. If you played the Playtest or the old Demo and still get stutters, the developer suggests deleting GameUserSettings.ini in AppData\Local\ValorMortis\Saved\Config\Windows.

What the October 21 patch changed

The developers ask players to tell them whether combat feels better now and say more patches are on the way. A few reviews posted after the patch already describe parry windows and hitboxes as fair, but it's too early to call the problem fixed.

Our take

Buy Valor Mortis now if you like parry combat, can put up with a few launch bugs and want something that doesn't look like every other soulslike. It's a fair price for a campaign around 20 hours, and players who finished it say the late upgrades make the last stretch easier than the opening chapters. If you're on Xbox, look for it on Game Pass before you pay; our PS5 and Xbox page has the console prices.

Wait if hitboxes are the reason you're hesitating. The October 21 patch is the first real attempt to fix them, and one more update will show whether it worked. And if you need a reason to replay a game, there isn't one yet: the Deluxe Edition's story DLC isn't due until next year. Our Valor Mortis guide has the release details, and the weapons guide covers what you'll pick up along the way.

How we checked this

We read the Steam store data, the launch post, the October 16 hotfix notes and the October 21 patch notes for App ID 2828710 on October 22, 2026. The Steam review summary (language=all, purchase_type=all) and the most helpful and most recent English reviews were pulled the same day; quotes link to each review. Trailer timestamps and stills come from the official launch trailer on the Lyrical Games YouTube channel. We did not play the game for this review, so the verdict is built from the developer's notes and player reports.

References

• Valor Mortis on Steam: price, platforms, description and review summary.
• Valor Mortis is available NOW: launch post with the 20-hour campaign and Deluxe Edition details.
• Hotfix (October 16, 2026): crash fixes, driver popup and the settings file tip.
• Patch (October 21, 2026): hitbox, boss and side quest fixes.
• Valor Mortis Official Launch Trailer: Lyrical Games YouTube channel.