Action
Dead Space™ 3
The first 3 hours are a test
Gets good by 3h almost every game dips in hours 2–3
Fully opens up by 15h rated like by long-time players
Reach the ending 32% of players who started
Started playing 79% of owners
Steam reviews 72% positive of 15,222
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 2 reviews are negative (60%); after 15h it's 1 in 6 (18%).
- Fully opens up by hour 15.
- The opening is criticised more than in 89% of games we track.
- 32% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Space Odyssey” (Survive your first spacewalk) and “Critical Mass” (Recover the shuttle): from 85% to 53% of starters.
- 79% of owners got the first achievement.
When it gets good
Share of positive reviews by how many hours the reviewer had played when writing the review.
before it gets good opening up fully opened up
Based on all 15,346 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 295 reviews: 14.5h for positive, 6.2h for negative. Almost every game is rated lower in the first 2–3 hours: that window includes refunds and quick first impressions. What matters is how deep the dip is and how fast the game recovers.
Where players quit
Share of players who started the game and reached each story milestone. 100% is the most common achievement (79.2% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Stranger in a Strange Land Complete the Prologue. 100%
- Space Odyssey Survive your first spacewalk. 85% −15
- Critical Mass Recover the shuttle. Most players quit here 53% −32
- Snow Crash Reach Tau Volantis. 50% −3
- Intestinal Fortitude Defeat the Hive Mind. 41% −9
- Hydra Kill the Snowbeast. 40% −2
- Together as One Reassemble Rosetta. 36% −3
- Infernal Machine Reach the Alien Machine. 34% −2
- Shoot for the Moon Defeat the Moon. 33% −1
- Get On My Level Complete the game on any difficulty setting. 32% −1
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (58)
story milestone ending side
- Stranger in a Strange Land Complete the Prologue. 100%
- Space Odyssey Survive your first spacewalk. 85%
- Strapped Craft a Weapon. 81%
- Circuit's Edge Add a Circuit to a Weapon. 76%
- Overpowered Healing Use quick heal to heal yourself 20 times. 65%
- My Buddy Retrieve Resources from a Scavenger Bot at a Bench. 63%
- Critical Mass Recover the shuttle. 53%
- Snow Crash Reach Tau Volantis. 50%
- Intestinal Fortitude Defeat the Hive Mind. 41%
- Hydra Kill the Snowbeast. 40%
- Full House Craft a Weapon with 2 Tools, Tips, and Attachments with all Circuit slots filled. 39%
- Together as One Reassemble Rosetta. 36%
- Infernal Machine Reach the Alien Machine. 34%
- Space Ace Shoot at least 70 targets during the ride to Tau Volantis. 34%
- Shoot for the Moon Defeat the Moon. 33%
- EMT Craft a Large Med Pack. 32%
- Get On My Level Complete the game on any difficulty setting. 32%
- From the Jaws Save your Co-Op partner from an execution by killing the attacker. 32%
- Share and Share Alike Use the RIG to give an item to your Co-Op partner. 32%
- Slow Mo Kill 50 enemies while they are in stasis. 27%
- Metal Detector Successfully deploy Scavenger Bots to 15 Resource Areas. 26%
- Close Encounter Kill 10 alien Necromorphs. 24%
- Go for the Limbs! Dismember 500 limbs from living enemies. 21%
- RIG Master Fully upgrade your RIG. 19%
- Master Plan Create a Blueprint that needs at least 2000 resources worth of parts and Circuits to build. 17%
- Blast Corps Kill 30 enemies with explosion damage. 16%
- Shootbang Kill 30 Soldiers with head shots. 15%
- Empty Chamber Kill 30 enemies using melee strikes or a melee Weapon Part. 14%
- Payback Kill a Soldier by TK'ing a grenade or rocket back at them. 12%
- Get to the Chopper! Escape from Tau Volantis to the Terra Nova. 11%
- Dropping Acid Dissolve 50 enemies with acid. 10%
- Bad Moon Rising Complete Dead Space™ 3 Awakened. 10%
- Heretic Kill the Unitologist Cult Leader. 9.6%
- Under a Buck Shoot the deer head trophy in the Admiral's Quarters. 9.5%
- Ghosts of the Past Face all of Carver’s demons by completing all Co-Op only optional missions. 8.2%
- Medic! Revive your Co-Op partner 10 times. 7.3%
- The Explorer Complete all optional missions. 6.2%
- And Then We Doubled It! Dismember 1000 limbs from living enemies. 5.8%
- Just the Tip Craft a weapon using a MK-II Weapon Tip. 5.1%
- Hungry Reach the pump room of the Waystation without alerting any Feeders. 4.9%
- Architect Share a Blueprint with your Co-Op partner. 4.3%
- Electric Lawnmower Kill 30 enemies using an electrified Ripper blade. 3.9%
- Aliens Collect all Alien Artifacts. 3.2%
- There's Always Peng! Find Peng. 3.2%
- True Believer Allow the Unitologist Cult Leader to survive. 3.0%
- The Librarian Collect all Logs. 2.9%
- Epic Tier 4 Engineer Complete the game in Classic Mode. 2.5%
- Gun Collector Collect all Weapon Parts. 2.4%
- The Professor Collect all Artifacts. 2.4%
- The Armorer Collect all Circuits. 2.4%
- Weedkiller Kill 5 Cysts in the Biology Building with a single poison gas cloud. 2.3%
- Survivalist Complete the game in Pure Survival Mode. 2.3%
- Supercharger Finish charging the reactor in under 90 seconds. 2.3%
- Drill Sergeant Complete the Drill Room without taking any damage. 2.0%
- Heaven Can Wait Stasis your Co-Op partner when he is downed to slow his bleed out timer. 2.0%
- Aren't You Thankful? Complete the game on Hardcore Mode. 1.9%
- Axes High Kill 30 enemies using Fodder axes. 1.9%
- Pure Lunacy Complete Dead Space™ 3 Awakened in Pure Survival Mode. 1.9%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-18.