Space Marine 1.5

25.6 hours

18/21

5310

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Ninglors Log 431

March Progress:
7
PPU monthly:
done
March Additions:
3

Games finished this week:

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist

105 hours, 50 of 50 achievements
Present from 2025

TASOMACHI: Behind the Twilight

12 hours, 11 of 11 achievements

My Douchey Boss Has a Gentle Twin Brother?! - BL Visual Novel

3 hours, 3 of 3 achievements
F2P

Whispered Secrets: Into the Beyond CE

3 hours, no achievements

Won/Gifted Games:
Bought Games:
Currently playing:

So much from me :3
Have a lovely week!
Queen Ninglor

For Pickers. Just copy paste and complete the data :)

* [GAME#1](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#1-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#1-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#2](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#2-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#2-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#3](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#3-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#3-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#4](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#4-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#4-HLTBTIME
* [GAME#5](http://store.steampowered.com/app/GAME#5-ID/) - HLTB Time: GAME#5-HLTBTIME

• Applicants’ guidelines
• Pickers’ guidelines
• FAQ

February 2026 Update

Next update (works only on profile page)

Activated: 12/2025

Hades (Q3 2020) ⭐️⭐⭐⭐⭐

Beaten after: 2 months

Rogue-lite Action
47h | 36 of 49 (73%)

⇱ Click to show summary⇲

The good 👍
- Good combat where each weapon is well-balanced and not feel like a placeholder, action is well paced, and it's easy to learn the ropes
- Good variety of enemies, and if we feel that game is too easy we can modify the difficulty level
- Optional God Mode, where game applies 20% damage reduction, and it goes up by 2% each time we die (up to 80%). It allows people who are not great with combat, but still want to explore the story, to play the game. (But it would take devs months to implement, and I would feel less special if someone else would enjoy game I am pro at!!1!!! Shouted the exclusion crowd)
- As per the point above. There is surprisingly a lot of story here. Sure, we want to beat the final boss and reach our mum. But all the Gods have their own personality. Sidekick characters like Dusa or Nyx are well worth talking to. Game made me even go and watch some Greek mythology videos and read wiki on it 🤣
- First attempts to escape were taking me close to an hour. After beating the boss for first time it dropped to 40 min. Which is good when we have only a bit of time to spare
- Run can be resumed at checkpoints between biomes. If we beat Tartarus (1st biome), we can exit game from next chamber (which act as healing-up/shop) and resume from the same spot. Which allows for even shorter 10-minute sessions with the game
- Game doesn't have animated cutscenes, but voice acting makes up for it. It is excellent and allow characters to have a lot of emotions. Even when they may have 2 - 3 sprites total
- So many upgrades. Permanent that offer active and passive bonuses. Weapon upgrades. Trinket modifiers. If you like (like me) game where you noticeably grow stronger (and not just know the mechanics better) this game is perfect.

The bad 👎
- We progress story only when we die, as NPCs in house of Hades will have only one new dialogue... it forced me to die on purpose just to progress their storyline 🤣 I stopped to die much after I beat the main boss for the first time...
- If you are not into learning NPCs backstory game can get repetitive fast. Only 3 biomes, each with 10 or so enemies 2 min-bosses and one boss.

Conclusion:

I enjoyed it very much. And I will most probably still go back to it to get true ending, complete rest of side quests, and get all achievements. Good mix of combat, persistent upgrades, story, progression. And even when information about Zagreus is very limited in Greek mythology, I will treat him canonically as son of Hades and Persephone, raised by the Night, being pal with Megaera and having Achilles as his combat teacher 😎

---

Details

📘 Story ☐ Bare-bone ☐ Average ☑ Good

We play as Zagreus, son of Hades, the prince of the Underworld. We are on the mission to escape, reach the surface and find our mum. Sounds simple, but to reach mid-ending we need to beat game 10 times. And even more if we want to reach the true end. Which is fine, as there is a lot of backstory, interesting NPCs interactions, Gods interactions which keep the game interesting.

🔄 Gameplay loop ☐ Boring ☐ Average ☑ Good	If you don't care about backstory the gameplay can be quite repetitive. It is easy to learn the enemies patterns, and later on, with enough passive upgrades, you won't even die until you reach 3rd main boss or end game boss. After each death we end in Hades house, place which act as a hub area where we interact with other NPCs, upgrade our character, select weapon for the next run, upgrade the house with cosmetics. Like I said above, whole run takes 30 - 45 minutes, but it's possible to stop mid-way in area between biomes.
🪄 Abilities ☐ Basics (walk, jump etc.) ☐ Magic / powers ☑ Advanced combat	At it's core we have main and special attack, dash and shooting-projectile abilities. But then each ability can have a God's blessing. We find them as rewards for clearing the map, and there are so many possibilities. Main attack can shoot lightning (Zeus), have higher crit chance (Artemis), push enemies away (Poseidon), freeze enemies (Demeter), deflect projectiles (Athena), weaken enemies (Aphrodite), deal delayed damage (Ares) or deal DoT (Dionysus). That is just for the main attack. Boons for special dash and shooting area also all unique. That creates huge ability once we get a hang of it. Only issue is that which gods we encounter, and which boons are available is random. Second part are passives. More health, extra damage for backstabbing enemies, more dashes, higher chance to get specific loot etc. Those are all bought with experience points gathered during runs.
🎮 Controls ☐ Clunky and stiff ☐ Adequate ☑ Fluid and enjoyable	Controls are very fluid and enjoyable. We move fast, dash through obstacles, attack enemies, dash away. Enemies don't reach us even when it seems like we were in the clear. Learning how to use evade-dash (right before we are hit) to avoid damage is satisfying. Game is isometric, and there is no jumping.
📇 Inventory and menus ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Over complicated	There are no real menus. We can select keepsake and weapon before the run. There is one menu where we buy mostly cosmetic decorations for the hub area. And then during run we can bring up button that shows details of our current abilities.
🥊 Combat 🏹 ☐ Boring and generic ☐ Average ☐ Good ☑ Great	Combat is good, thought can get repetitive. Shield and boxing gloves are extremely close weapon, sword is close range. Spear is medium-range and bow + gun are long range. Even when I generally prefer long range weapons, here it is easier to play with close range. I beat the main boss first time with the shield, by having Athena ultimate ability (invincibility for a few seconds) allowing me to punch the boss extremely fast. Rinse and repeat 🤣 As abilities during run are randomised, we can sometimes end with weird (but still workable) combos. Like shooting thunders or seeking arrows on attack with fast-hitting weapon can deal tons of damage. While having the same boon on slow-loading bow is kind of useless. Getting Poseidon boon that pushes enemies away while attacking makes sense with long range weapons, but not much with shield.
🤖 Game AI ☐ Brain dead ☐ Really basic ☐ Average ☑ Smart and responsive	Enemies are smart. They will move off-screen if they can attack us with long-range attacks, which forces us to close distance. Close range enemies will position themselves, so we can't easily shepherd them and beat into pulp. First two biome bosses are easy. 3rd is annoying, as there is one long-range enemy and one close-range one. Final boss is close range with big area sweeping attack. Each of those bosses require a bit of different technique, especially at the start when we are weak and can easily die.

💸 Microtransactions ☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.)	🏆 Achievements ☐ None ☐ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☑ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☑ Require multiple playthroughs	💾 Save system ☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves
📊 Performance ☐ Can run on potato ☑ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster	🌌 Graphic ☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☑ Good ☐ Beautiful	🔊 Sound ☐ Nothing to remember ☑ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☑ Music flows well with the action
🦚 Customization options ☐ Resolution, volume only ☑ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options	🧭 Map ☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel	Details:

2026 yay! A new year a new start, so no measuring games from last year, but hopefully I will soon make a post, with some stats on games from year 2025 (if I dare to count them all)

Games added in January 2026

• Detroit: Become Human
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 48 achievements

• Slay the Princess — The Pristine Cut
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 131 achievements

• Fossil Corner
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 12 achievements

• Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 62 achievements

• Deadlight Director’s Cut
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 32 achievements

• Accident
  

  0 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Old Man's Journey
  

  0 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Everybody Wham Wham
  

  0 hours playtime

  no achievements

• Strange Antiquities
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 22 achievements

• ContractVille
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 77 achievements

• FIND ALL 9: Fantasy
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 80 achievements

• Bookshop Simulator
  

  0 hours playtime

  no achievements

• WYRMHALL: Brush and Banter
  

  0 hours playtime

  0 of 15 achievements

Games added: 13
Games won: 2

Also got DLC for Contract Ville, Glas Masquerade and Coloring Pixels

Any recommendations will be appreciated as always :)

• Overclocked
  

  4 hours playtime

  13 of 36 achievements

First thing you’ll want to do in this platformer is go to the options and turn on “Dedicated Dash Button.” Without that enabled, the controls are unresponsive because a quick tap of the X button will only do a basic punch that stuns enemies and breaks a rarely-occurring shield. To actually defeat enemies, you have to HOLD the X button for a bit in order to activate your dash punch. What’s extra frustrating is that you also have to do this with your ground punch–which the game never tells you also requires holding the button, but is still required significantly more than basic punches since its shockwave disables various switches and kills certain enemies that are immune to your punches. Turning on the Dedicated Dash Button option makes the game significantly more manageable and enjoyable since it makes the X button always do a dash punch no matter how quickly you let go, and you can always push the Y button to do those basic punches in the rare events they’re actually required (though there’s still a noticeable delay between pushing the button and the attack actually happening–a delay that can get you killed sometimes).

The level design starts off maybe a bit too basic, but the difficulty curve is pretty solid. Each level requires defeating all enemies before the goal unlocks, which is annoying both at first and in level 6-2 where the path splits and its not clear which way you’re supposed to go first (which is the top route; it dead-ends with two required drones), but all enemies die in just one dash-punch, and the game is usually pretty good about putting enemies in your way so that even doing basic progression means you can’t overlook them. Also, killing an enemy gives you an extra dash-punch before you have to land, and many levels are built around chaining dash-punching enemies to keep yourself from falling. That said, dash-punches send you further than the edge of the screen, so the game has a bit of a blind-jump problem: it isn’t uncommon to be caught off guard by something you weren’t expecting and end up dying as a result. Sure, levels are only a minute-or-so long, but it’s still an issue. The optional Challenge levels are particularly bad about this: the fifth one ends by requiring you to dash-punch upward, hitting three drones and using your last dash-punch to get above some hazard walls, but if you start your dash-punch at the peak of your jump, you’ll end up killing the second and third drones in the same dash-punch, leaving you no way to get the height required to reach the goal. You just have to remember that’ll happen and fall down a bit after the peak of your jump before dash-punching.

Sure, holding X stops your fall for however long you keep charging your dash-punch, and you can push the B button to cancel that charge and start falling normally without spending your dash-punch, and you can then re-hold X after the cancel to stop yourself again as needed, but 1) it’s very easy to forget that mechanic exists (I beat the entire main campaign without it), and 2) it only helps when falling, not when dash-punching in any direction–which is where a lot of the game’s blind jumps are.

Another annoying thing is that, sometimes, instead of having a linear stage, the game has an arena level where you have to fight waves of enemies. However, once again, all enemies die in just one hit, so these levels aren’t too annoying and generally do a decent job at not killing the game’s pace.

What’s more annoying, though, is the fact that the vast majority of the bosses are wait-to-attack, but even though you die in one hit, you still get sent back to their first phase even if you reach their second or third. Did you think you had to jump under the fourth boss’s wall of missiles, only to get blindsided by another wall of missiles coming at you from the other side of the screen? No time to experiment; back to the start of the fight. The only boss that ISN’T a wait-to-attack boss is the final one, and while that fight is much more engaging and fun than the others, the boss does still activate a shield for the length of one attack after each time you damage him, and some of his attacks can hit you while you’re unable to really do anything if you dash-punch at him at the wrong time.

By the way, unlocking challenge levels requires doing extra objectives in the main levels (which you’re not told what they are until after you beat the level), so although I did beat the challenge levels I unlocked, I didn’t replay levels to get any more of them.

Overall, the game does have some issues, but it’s free and has plenty of fun parts, so I can recommend it.

The Crew Motorfest

7.5/10

33.9 hours

45 of 50 achievements (90%)

#398
#8 of 2026
March 10, 2026

Still true to my fleeting new year motivation (each year), I am currently trying to rack up some shorter games to play a bit different from my usual background noise. For this, I activated two keys from a puzzle-based Humble Bundle. Just to find out that these puzzle games also eat quite a bit of time ^^’ At least if you don’t use guides.

• Taiji
  

  27 hours playtime

  12 of 12 achievements

• Patrick's Parabox
  

  19 hours playtime

  22 of 22 achievements

• Uncanny Valley
  

  9 hours playtime

  18 of 18 achievements

Taiji: This is proably my favorite from this batch. Taiji is a logic-based puzzle game which is apparently heavily “inspired” (up to the point of identical mechanics?) from the Witness (which i haven’t played yet but technically have a key). You run around an island with different areas and lots of field puzzles. Meaning you start the puzzle and have a kind of blank piece of paper in front of you with multiple squares. Your goal is to mark some of them white/bright and letting the remaining ones black/dark. For this, you have to understand the mechanics correctly and/or read the surrounding area correctly. Which is probably also the weakest part of the game, getting the entry point. After some very easy early puzzles, you quickly enter the main island. And there it is quite easy to get to an area with advanced mechanics which are hard to solve as you don’t know them. Even if you get into the areas with the easier puzzle, you first have to find the actual entry puzzles, meaning those of the bunch which are meant for teaching the mechanics. It took quite a while until i understood that, so that I had a very frustrating entry. But after getting the hang, it was quite a bit of fun. There are basically two different type of puzzles: mechanic-based (meaning there are symbols on the field which dicated certain conditions you have to fulfil) and area-based (meaning in close vicinity is some kind of landmark you need to “translate” into the solution). The mechanic-based puzzles (four different sub-types) then also start to mix making for some good and difficult puzzles. In addition to this, you have some meta-puzzles for the two endings and the secret area with the most complex puzzles. Achievement-wise you need the endings which are already difficulty enough, especially the one with the meta-puzzles. The secret area is not achievement-tied but I completed it just because I could. And I managed to solve nearly the whole game myself but needed some hints (I think for four puzzles in total like the card one in the gallery, the start of the meta-puzzles, the teleporter there and I think one other).

What I liked especially about the game was that it is purely logic-based as puzzle game. This means at times, I stared at my computer screen, not doing anything, just trialing different options in my brain or searching the starting point of the puzzle in front of me. I didn’t need to experiment around because the solution could easily be confirmed the moment you had it. I knew i was on the right track (minus meta-puzzles which need some leap of faith). I also liked that if a puzzle had a non-unique solution, the game would accept each solution as long as it fulfilled the set conditions. Overall, a very enjoyable and challenging game.

Patrick’s Parabox: And here we have the second puzzle game which I thought, I would like more but didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good game. But it is more on the other side of the spectrum meaning it was less about logic and deduction but more about experimenting and figuring out what I was supposed to do. So, most of the puzzles I had first to check the limitation of my actual moves and then started to solve puzzles mostly based on intuition which worked quite well. Optically and mechanically, the game is messing quite a bit with the brain. It starts timid with simple mechanics and boxes in boxes and then ends up and self-looping boxes and different kind of infinity moves. It was at parts a very weird experience. A good game but different from games like Taiji (close to pure logic-based) or Baba is You (containing both heavy logic-based but also experimenting/intuition based puzzles). I managed to solve about 358 (?) from 364 (?) boxes myself and then gave up for the last six (getting angry because two of these I could have solved myself). Achievement-wise, it is quite simple. You need to solve everything.

Uncanny Valley: My “pride” from this batch similar to Resident Evil 5 from the last batch. I had Uncanny Valley in my libary for a long time and played about an hour years, years, years ago but then stopped for …. don’t know anymore. Seeing it in my Unfinished list, playing with the idea of getting a Completed Rate of 90 % (which I will probably not reach), I decided to give it another try.
The game itself is an “adventure” with some light mystery/horror elements. You have taken a job as guard in a facility and you can patrol around, starting to notice strange things. Between each day, you have nightmares based on your past which happened before the game. All of this sounds more interesting than it actually was. Gameplay is very “shallow” for the most part and most things can be considered events where you have to make a decision which influences the ending. This consequence system is also the most interesting part as some changes here and there can lead to different outcomes (lots of them have to do with death).
What I like was the overall story, the atmosphere, the consequence system. What I didn’t like was that SOME things did not have consequences although they should. And not all consequences are clear. Also, the game is messy. At times the story jumps quite a bit ahead and it may be confusing the first time until you get the overall (not really difficult picture). Worst thing, the game is quite buggy. At times, text can overlap and sequences can jumble if you make a mistake. AND, certain parts of the game (two) can NOT be solved when playing with a controller. If you have a controller remove it from the pc and play with K&M because it is literally impossible to finish the generator puzzle or use the glass shard (although that one seems to be just an alternative route). Achievement-wise, there are five or six achievements for different endings, some for collecting some minor stuff and some for certain plot elements). If you go for all endings, you should get most of the other achievements on the way. However, I needed a guide for three endings to make my life easier. Because each ending needs a new playthrough which can range from 20 minutes for the very quick ones to 90 minutes for the longer ones (especially navigating the subterrain the first time). And there is only one save game which automatically overwrites when you finish one round. So, you have to do the meaningless five minutes at the start over and over again. Despite the game being bugged, all achievements can be obtained in the current version of the game, although some are finnicky in execution due to bugs (“Terminated” with the vanishing enemies for example).

Well, and now back to gaming. More Puzzle Pirates very likely. Maybe a map or two for Crystal Caves HD. Maybe some Wizordum Custom Maps. And then hopefully something different. Need to finish Persona 4 Golden. Only halfway through on my first run. This is probably my next target. And at the same time I will check my Unfinished/Beaten list if there is anything ripe for completion. Or maybe start one of the few remaining unplayed games or buying/activating something new. Still have lots of unused keys ^^’

March Assassination #3 (Backlog)

5.9 hours

None

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Ninglors Log 430

March Progress:
3
PPU monthly:
undone
March Additions:
3

Games finished this week:

Secret Cats - Pirates

0 hours, 2 of 2 achievements

Secret Cats - Halloween

0 hours, 100 of 100 achievements

Secret Cats - Snow

0 hours, 100 of 100 achievements

Won/Gifted Games:
Bought Games:

Secret Cats - Halloween

Secret Cats - Pirates

Secret Cats - Snow
Currently playing:

So much from me :3
Have a lovely week!
Queen Ninglor