ICBM: Escalation

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 1,488 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 299 reviews: 25.5h for positive, 12.8h 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 (30.7% 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 (82)

• No More Lies Completely destroy an enemy faction after they betray you 100%
• 2 Minutes To Midnight Score 2000 points in 2 minutes 97%
• Homecoming Denied! Destroy 20 units being carried by another unit in a standard game 91%
• The Sentinel Win a standard game with more than 90% of your original population alive 58%
• The Final Frontier Have at least 5 active satellites and no surviving enemy satellites at the end of a game. 53%
• Back In The Day Win a game without researching anything higher than Tech Level 2 49%
• Eat The Rich Win a game without ever researching a GDP-increasing tech 46%
• School's Out Finish the Tutorial 41%
• Countdown to Extinction Use the nuke that starts the countdown timer 37%
• Soldier On! Have a single army successfully occupy 5 different cities 36%
• Rust in Peace Have the top score when the endgame countdown finishes and the war ends 35%
• Symphony of Destruction Kill 50M people within 5 minutes of starting a strike plan 35%
• A Tout le Monde Have the top score when the world falls into nuclear winter 33%
• Set the World Afire Detonate over 500 warheads in one game 32%
• Trust Win a game after starting an alliance that lasts at least 2 hours and never breaks 30%
• Aces High Shoot down 200 planes in air-to-air combat in one game 29%
• The Sick, The Dying and The Dead Unlock experimental bio/chemical weapons and win the game 28%
• Endgame Be the last surviving faction 27%
• Sweating Bullets Drop 100MT of cobalt or salted weapons in one game and win 25%
• These Colors Don't Run Have an army division survive in enemy territory for 30 mins without leaving 24%
• Exercises In Futility Destroy 25 nuclear-armed units before they can attack in one game, bombers included 22%
• Killing Is My Business Starting at Tech Level 5 or earlier, unlock every research, production and espionage tech and win the game 22%
• Satellite 15 Build and deploy a DEW Satellite. 20%
• Brighter Than A Thousand Suns Successfully hit a city with a 100MT bomb 18%
• Sea of Madness Have at least 5 SSBNs survive until the end of a game and win 18%
• The Punishment Due Win a game after being the first one to be nuked or invaded 18%
• Hangar 18 Start at Tech Level 5 or earlier and unlock every technology in the aircraft tree and win the game 18%
• Some Heads Are Gonna Roll Unlock every ground force upgrade, plus Novichok 2000 and advanced tactical nukes in a standard game 17%
• Peace Sells... Sign a global ceasefire 16%
• Cremation Kill 95% of a 20M+ city's population in 5 seconds 15%
• My Bones To The Sea Destroy 50 naval units in one game and win 15%
• Time Is A Ghost Win a regular Standoff Mode game in less than 3 hours 13%
• Turbo Lover Land 20 hits on cities with Sub-Orbital Bombers in a standard game and win 12%
• The Scorpion Betray your alliance and win the game 12%
• Be Quick Or Be Dead Eliminate every enemy faction within an hour of using your first nuke 11%
• All Guns Blazing Have 20 armies in an enemy territory at the same time 11%
• King Nothing Win with less than 30% of the world's population surviving 9.8%
• Lost In Space Destroy 10 enemy satellites in one game 9.4%
• Shadow of Death Drop over 50 nukes with stealth bombers and win 9.4%
• Electric Eye In a standard game, have 20 spy satellites active at once and win the game 9.1%
• Holy Diver Destroy 8 ships with a single attack submarine 7.8%
• A Gruesome Time Kill 1M civilians with chemical weapons in a standard game 7.5%
• The Trooper Destroy 100 army divisions with your own army divisions 7.2%
• Run To The Hills Go to DEFCON 1 for 30 minutes straight and win the game 6.8%
• The Evil That Men Do Massacre over 10M people with armies and win the game 6.8%
• With Hearts Towards None Be the only faction to never join an alliance and win in a standard game 6.2%
• Hell On Earth Choose violence and beat the original single-player campaign. 5.9%
• Age of Excuse Win a game without ever agreeing to a diplomatic agreement 5.2%
• From Yesterday To Ashes Win a standard game without ever researching weapon modernization 5.2%
• Conquer or Die! Win a game by capturing every enemy territory 4.6%
• Breaking The Law Massacre 200K civilians, use 300+ chemical weapons and deploy 20MT+ of cobalt/salted weapons in one standard game 4.2%
• Calling The Rain Drop 150 nukes from multirole aircraft in one game and win. 4.2%
• Nightmare Win a single-player game on Nightmare difficulty 3.3%
• We'll Be Back! Destroy 10 enemy units with one spec-ops team 3.3%
• Angry Again Be the first one to be nuked and kill 20M people within 60 seconds of it happening 2.9%
• Down With The Sickness Kill 100M people with Medusa Fever and win the game 2.9%
• A Dangerous Meeting Use over 200 nuclear artillery shells against enemy armies in a standard game and win 2.6%
• ...But Who's Buying Launch a nuke within 10 seconds of a global ceasefire ending 2.6%
• American Psycho Win as North America on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 2.3%
• Road Racin' Kill 10M people with bomb trucks in one game and win 2.3%
• Screaming For Vengeance Completely destroy an enemy faction within 30 minutes of them nuking you for the first time 2.3%
• The Legacy Get the hidden ending in campaign. 2.3%
• Tornado Of Souls Launch 100 warheads (including MIRV heads) in 30 seconds 2.0%
• Wake Up Dead Destroy 10 early warning systems in one game 2.0%
• Crusader Win as Europe on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.3%
• Devil's Island Win as Asia-Pacific on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.3%
• Genghis Khan Win as East Asia on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.3%
• Land of Confusion Destroy 8 of any combination of intel or research centers in one game and win 1.3%
• Welcome To The Jungle Win as South America on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.3%
• Afraid To Shoot Strangers Win a survival match with the lowest number of kills 1.0%
• Blackmail The Universe Reach 250% Espionage and buy and sell intel to every faction in the same game 1.0%
• Day of the Dead Win as Central America on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.0%
• Elephant Man Win as Sub-Saharan Africa on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.0%
• Eye Of The Tiger Win as Central/South Asia on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.0%
• Face In The Sand Win as Middle East-North Africa on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder (single-player) 1.0%
• Russian Roulette Win as Russia on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 1.0%
• Thirteen Invitations Finish 13 multiplayer games 1.0%
• World Of Hurt Win as all 10 factions on Atomic Earth on Unforgiving or harder with standard settings (single-player) 0.7%
• Evil Play 50 games to completion 0.3%
• Kill The King Destroy 3 central command bunkers in a single game 0.3%
• My Last Words Kill at least 1 million people after being forced to surrender 0.3%
• Suicide Solution Destroy an invading army using a bomb truck 0.3%