Stars in Shadow

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 842 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 299 reviews: 42.6h for positive, 7.5h 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 (84.2% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.

Story milestones aren't labeled yet; all achievements are listed below.

All achievements (62)

• One Small Step Establish a colony 100%
• Victory Is Life Win a tactical battle 71%
• Uplift Establish a colony on a planet with a primitive species 65%
• That Which Survives Establish a colony on a planet with a derelict colony 59%
• Cure For Star Harpies Win a space monster engagement 57%
• Stronger Together Get a Minor Faction to join your empire 56%
• Harder Better Faster Stronger Refit a vessel 51%
• Paradise Found Discover Gaia 47%
• Conqueror Successfully invade a planet 47%
• We Come in Peace Destroy a colony with orbital bombardment 46%
• A Shining Planet Colonize a Paradise world 46%
• Come With Me if You Want to Live Assimilate a refugee population 45%
• Liberty Must be Earned Liberate a Pirate-guarded world 43%
• Saturn 3 Create an Outpost at a Gas Giant 40%
• A Harsh Mistress Colonize a Barren world 38%
• Die, Slaver Scum! Defeat a Marauder base 35%
• Some Like It Hot Colonize an Inferno world 35%
• To Dream of Infrastructure Build 100 improvements in your empire 34%
• Population Boom Grow a colony to 25 population (that is not Gaia) 31%
• Per Aspera Ad Astra Colonize 25 planets in one match 27%
• Prize Ship Capture an enemy vessel 26%
• Free To Be You and Me Liberate an enslaved population 26%
• Cool, I Have My Own Terminator Build a Super-Dreadnought 24%
• The Needs of the Many Win a Galactic Council Victory 23%
• Don’t Buy Guns; Hire Men Hire a mercenary 23%
• I Call That Effective Destroy 100 enemy vessels in one match 22%
• If You Kill Enough of Them, They Stop Fighting Eliminate a Major Faction 21%
• Delving Greedily and Deep Build 6 Mines on one planet 21%
• Heraldry Meet the Herald 19%
• Metropolis Build 6 Factories on one planet 19%
• That’s No Moon Build a Dread Star 18%
• Farmville Build 6 Farms on one planet 17%
• Science Paradise Build 6 Labs on one planet 16%
• The Great Bazaar Build 6 Markets on one planet 15%
• Information Singularity Research every standard technology in a single match 14%
• An Impressive Fleet Build 200 vessels in one match 14%
• Galaxian Win a game on a map with more than 80 stars 13%
• We Did It For Science Win as the Orthin Conference 10%
• After Earth Win as Humanity 9.0%
• No More Worlds to Conquer Win a Conquest Victory 8.4%
• Drive the Enemy Before You Win as the Yoral Khaganate 8.3%
• No Kill Like Overkill Build 6 Dread Stars in one match 8.2%
• Foundation of a New Empire Win as the Ashdar Colonials 8.0%
• Harmony Harmonize colonists 7.6%
• Before the Ancient Throne Win as the Ashdar Imperials 6.7%
• Enemy of My Enemy Win an Allied Victory 5.9%
• Triumph of Capitalism Win as the Phidi Combine 5.8%
• Reunited Find and reconnect lost Tinkers refugees 5.8%
• Payback Capture the Gremak homeworld as one of the Ashdar factions 5.5%
• Hardcore Win a game on Hard difficulty or higher 5.3%
• Disharmony De-Harmonize colonists 5.2%
• Now That’s What I Call an Internet Sign 6 different Research Agreements in one playthrough as the Orthin 4.6%
• Market Penetration Sign 6 different Trade Charters in one playthrough as the Phidi 4.4%
• That is the Sound of Inevitability Win as the Gremak Empire 4.0%
• Resistance is Futile Win a game as the Tinkers 3.8%
• Peacekeeper Win an Allied Victory without eliminating any major factions 3.6%
• Nothing Personal Enslave one of your own race’s population 2.9%
• There Can Be Only One Capture Ashdar Prime as the Gremak 2.9%
• Seahorse Mafia As the Phidi, hire mercenaries from 5 different free companies in one match 2.7%
• Imperial Pardon As the Gremak, convince a Marauder company to join your empire 2.6%
• Ironic Win a Conquest Victory as the Phidi 2.5%
• Menagerie As the Gremak, perform Experiments on slaves of 6 different races 1.7%