Soulslikes Don't Work in First-Person — Yet

Valor Mortis falters in converting Soulslike combat to a new perspective

Now that I’ve spent some time fighting the plagued soldiers of Napoleon’s army in Valor Mortis, I’m not sold on its first-person Soulslike bona fides. The difficulty is there, as is the annoying “lose your XP on death” mechanic. But it doesn’t quite translate that distinct combat experience to first-person, and instead shows the limitations of such an endeavor.

Most Soulslikes are played in third-person, a janky camera positioned behind your character. Combat typically involves hacking at opponents with a melee weapon while dodge-rolling to avoid their blows. Sometimes magic or a robot arm, like in Lies of P, offers variety and new ways of tackling opponents.

There’s also a spatial awareness necessary to Soulslike combat that Valor Mortis just can’t capture in first-person. Picture it: You’re wandering through the dusty halls of a Dark Souls castle when you’re overrun by a group of skeletons, any of whom could easily send you back to a bonfire. You dodge-roll out of their way to get into an advantageous position, where you have a clear line of sight on enemies.

Because of its first-person POV, Valor Mortis can’t replicate that. A single enemy may take up the majority of my screen once I get up close and personal to attack him, meaning I have no way to keep an eye on any of his buddies who are also trying to cut me in half. Some zombie-like foes will attack you from blindspots in similar ways to a FromSoftware joint, but an on-screen indicator that an attack is coming lessens the impact. That indicator is almost an admission from developer One More Level that it can’t translate the necessary spatial awareness.

Any attempt at keeping track of foes goes out the window during certain heavy attacks. Player character William doesn’t have the largest arsenal, so I’ve mostly been using the parry-focused rapier in battle. Its heavy attack sends William rushing forward to deal a series of hard-hitting strikes. The downside is that William will end up on the other side of an enemy, and I’m unable to immediately know if I killed that plague-infected soldier or if he’s still standing, ready to strike me down. Sometimes, I also just can’t tell if my blows landed in general as combat lacks the certain weight I’ve come to expect from a Soulslike, especially if not locked on to an enemy.

There’s no dodge-rolling in Valor Mortis — I can only imagine the motion sickness that would create in first-person POV. Instead, a dash quickly zips William out of the way. Annoyingly, dashing uses up what feels like too much stamina, and the lack of spatial awareness makes getting to safety use up more dashes than it should. If there’s water around or fire circling an arena? Oh, you know I’m about to accidentally dodge my way into it and take damage, as keeping an eye on an enemy and the environment at once is too tall of a task.

But where I really find Valor Mortis lacking is with parrying. I’m the Parry Guy around these parts. Put that shit in everything. Yet, in Valor Mortis, it’s not great. Because of the weightlessness of its combat and depth perception issues inherent to first-person POV, timing parries right is more difficult in Valor Mortis than most any Soulslike I’ve played. This is especially apparent during the first major boss fight against General Lothaire, the Eagle-Bearer, a five-armed abomination the size of Absolute Bane. Miss just a single parry, and his standard combo will pound you into paste.

Playing Valor Mortis isn’t all doom and gloom, however. (Though its setting certainly is, with bodies stacked high on 19th-century battlefields.) Valor Mortis adds an element that I hope more Soulslikes developers take note of. Instead of quests being as confusing as hell like in FromSoftware games, requiring you to fly between levels looking for characters in the most obscure locales, it has a handy dandy notebook full of quest details; they’re even divided between main and side quests to easily keep track of them. And while Valor Mortis doesn’t have the most weapons around, I do appreciate that its weapon wheel allows me to use his full loadout of blades, firearms, and magic abilities in the fray.

Valor Mortis’ combat is a good first step toward making a Soulslike work in first-person POV, even if its fights tend to be more confusing than impactful. It does have one innovation, though, that I think all Soulslikes need to adopt: a motherfucking pause button.