Starcom: Unknown Space
Give it 1 hour
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours almost 1 in 2 reviews are negative (41%); after 20h it's 1 in 19 (5%).
- Fully opens up by hour 20.
- Few early reviews, so this is a rough estimate.
- 25% of players who start reach the ending.
- The biggest drop-off is between “Rescue” (Evacuate the Outpost) and “The Machine Stops” (Shutdown the Raider Factory): from 96% to 78% of starters.
- 95% 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 4,541 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 300 reviews: 30.9h for positive, 20.6h 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 (94.8% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Unknown Space Enter the Wormhole. 100%
- Rescue Evacuate the Outpost. 96% −4
- The Machine Stops Shutdown the Raider Factory. Most players quit here 78% −17
- My god, it's full of stars Activate the Polyhedral Artifact 73% −5
- The Emissary Follow the Emissary. 63% −10
- A Diplomatic Mission Find the Missing Diplomat. 54% −9
- Bones of the Dead God Find the Bones of the Dead God 46% −8
- No Place Like Home This is definitely no place like home. 43% −3
- What lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed Enter the unstable universe. 29% −14
- The End Finish the game. 25% −4
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (23)
story milestone ending side
- Unknown Space Enter the Wormhole. 100%
- Rescue Evacuate the Outpost. 96%
- Explorer I Complete 10 planet anomaly surveys. 82%
- The Machine Stops Shutdown the Raider Factory. 78%
- My god, it's full of stars Activate the Polyhedral Artifact 73%
- Explorer II Complete 50 planet anomaly surveys. 66%
- The Emissary Follow the Emissary. 63%
- Soldiers of Fortune Bribe the Ermyr. 59%
- Explorer III Complete 100 planet anomaly surveys. 57%
- A Diplomatic Mission Find the Missing Diplomat. 54%
- Bones of the Dead God Find the Bones of the Dead God 46%
- No Place Like Home This is definitely no place like home. 43%
- Tomb of Ock Juk Solve the mystery of Ock Juk's tomb. 31%
- What lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed Enter the unstable universe. 29%
- Lost in Space Find a Freighter off the beaten path. 25%
- The End Finish the game. 25%
- Fear the Reaper Kill the Void Reaper ship. 21%
- Unfinished Business Destroy the cargo debris after returning to Starcom space. 13%
- Pale Blue Dot Visit Earth. 7.0%
- Secret Ending Follow the Generation Ark into the unknown. 6.0%
- Death by Misadventure Get killed by the cargo spill. 5.3%
- Shield Shove Open the shield station another way. 3.4%
- Sailing to Byzantium Meet with the Byzantium. 3.1%