The Cave
Give it 5 hours
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 3 reviews are negative (35%); after 10h it's 1 in 25 (4%).
- Fully opens up by hour 10.
- 75% of players who start reach the ending.
- Most players drop off before “What You Always Wanted” (Reached the bottom of The Cave): only 75% of starters get there.
- Only 46% of owners have even the first achievement — the rest barely played.
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 2,949 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 298 reviews: 8h for positive, 2.5h 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 (46% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- What You Always Wanted Reached the bottom of The Cave. Most players quit here 75% −25
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (27)
story milestone ending side
- A Midsummer Knight's Thieve Helped the Knight obtain Excalibur. 100%
- What You Always Wanted Reached the bottom of The Cave. 75%
- Funnier Than a Burning Carnival Enabled the Hillbilly to burn down the Carnival. 69%
- It Belongs In a Museum Came ever-so-close to recovering the Sarcophagus. 67%
- God Bless Us, Every One Stood by and watched as the Twins murdered their parents. 66%
- Such Bad Children Watched Mummy and Daddy's furniture get broken all to bits. 64%
- Prevenge Served as an accessory to the Time Traveler's murder of her enemy's ancestor. 60%
- Shoplifting Saw a postcard stolen from the Gift Shop. 58%
- Grand Theft Karma Played some dubious role in the Monk's murder of his Master. 48%
- Learn to Stop Worrying Shared in the blame for the Scientist's act of mass murder. 47%
- To Soothe A Savage Beast Recorded and played back the elevator music from the Zoo food court. 39%
- Royal Buffet Where did the King go anyway? 23%
- Embrace Impermanence Broke bridges. 21%
- Fire In The Hole 3 die by the Miner's hand. 20%
- Creamed Corn Food-based destruction. 17%
- Win-win-win-win-win-win-win Everyone reached the bottom. 16%
- Hazardous Work Environment Slipped, where wet. 16%
- Well Done Sacrificed oneself for ultimate flavor. 14%
- Corruption Saw the darkness in all our hearts. 14%
- Smells Like Team Spirit Made all three characters smell like a dinosaur at once. 14%
- Remorse Remembered it's wrong to steal. 12%
- Weight of the Beast The scale reveals a baleful figure. 7.8%
- Walk Like An Adventurer Pantomimed an ancient hieroglyph. 7.6%
- Redemption Saw the good in everyone. 6.7%
- The Whole Story Collector of forgotten dreams. 5.9%
- Don't Fill Up On Fortune Cookies Peered into everyone's fate. 4.8%
- Who Wants to Live Forever Got everyone out of The Cave without dying once. 3.9%