ActionAdventureIndie
Black Mesa
Give it 3 hours
Gets good by 3h almost every game dips in hours 2–3
Fully opens up by 10h rated like by long-time players
Reach the ending at least 41% of players who started
Started playing 61% of owners
Steam reviews 95% positive of 145,297
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 5 reviews are negative (19%); after 15h it's 1 in 30 (3%).
- Fully opens up by hour 10.
- At least 41% of players who start reach the ending.
- Only 61% 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 146,128 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 295 reviews: 18.1h for positive, 13.4h 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 (61.1% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- Limitless Potential Accept G-Man’s offer of employment. ≥41% −59
story milestone ending (most common ending) biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (50)
story milestone ending side
- Brownian Motion Pass the toilet paper to the Scientist in need. 100%
- Convection Refinement Ruin the microwave casserole. 82%
- Gray Matter Propulsion Headshot 20 Enemies with the .357 Magnum. 60%
- Prophylactic Suggested Get overtaken by a Headcrab's ample anterior. 55%
- Anti-Matter Over Mind Kill a Controller without killing any of its mind-controlled Vortigaunt slaves. 46%
- Premature Expulsion Use an entire clip of Gluon ammo in one continuous shot. 44%
- Inflammatory Actions Kill a Headcrab using fire. 42%
- Limitless Potential Accept G-Man’s offer of employment. 41%
- Permeable Infrastructure Use the alternate path in Office Complex. 38%
- Dead Reckoning Kill an Assassin with the .357 Magnum. 38%
- Centripetal Attraction Kill 20 Enemies with the Hivehand. 37%
- Caffeine Extraction Perform surgical caffeine extraction from 20 vending machines. 34%
- Well-Done Cook a Grenade for too long. 31%
- Mega Hertz Kill 5 Enemies with one Grenade. 31%
- Quantum Capacitance Overcharge it anyway. 31%
- Rather an Anticlimax Decline G-Man’s offer of employment. 27%
- Proverbial Tinkerer Interfere with the alarm and laptop in Anomalous Materials. 27%
- Less Than Desirable Consequences Die in the AMS Beam before starting the experiment. 26%
- Calculated Trajectory Kill 10 airborne Headcrabs using the Shotgun. 22%
- Nuclear Fishin' Kill an Ichthyosaur with either the Tau or Gluon. 20%
- PhD in Pacifism Don't kill any Vortigaunts in the Borderworld. 20%
- Remote Detonation Kill a Barnacle with a Satchel. 18%
- Contest Propellant Find the snack supply canister. 18%
- Stealth Technology Escape the Hangar in Surface Tension without alerting the Soldiers. 18%
- Universal Gravitation Get killed by your own Snarks. 18%
- Resonance Procrastinator Refuse to insert the specimen into the Anti-Mass Spectrometer. 16%
- Digital Wizardry Kill 10 enemies with a reprogrammed Sentry. 15%
- Futile Resistance Kill 10 Enemies with Snarks. 12%
- Unified Coupling Theorum Help the Barnacle and Headcrab find true love. 11%
- Kinetic Repulsion Kill a Marine with their own Grenade. 10%
- One Step Ahead Kill 10 Enemies with Tripmines. 10%
- Gonad Glider Get whacked into oblivion in the ledge fight. 9.8%
- Hyper Saturation Conundrum Drown in Lambda Core's coolant. 9.8%
- Our Brains And Your Brawn Assemble all the possible Scientists and Guards at the end of Office Complex. 8.7%
- Ethically Questionable Conduct all of the questionable research experiments. 8.7%
- xen when Wait too long to jump into the Lambda Teleporter. 7.5%
- Following the Rules Use the welcome mat. 6.5%
- Orbital Trajectory Skip the opening Xen island with a secret jump. 6.4%
- Black Mesa Decathlon Winner Escape the Gargantua’s Lair without taking any damage from Gargantuas. 6.1%
- Late for Work Defeat Nihilanth in under 4 minutes. 5.6%
- Doctor’s Signature Deliver the finishing blow to Gonarch with your Crowbar. 5.4%
- Specimen GG Take out all three Healing Crystals in Nihilanth’s Chamber at the same time. 5.2%
- Rare Specimen Send the Hidden Hat to Xen. 4.7%
- Laser Immunization Complete Interloper without taking any laser damage. 4.3%
- The Plan Use Cyanogen to kill Gonarch. 4.3%
- Unquestionably Ethical Don't use the Cyanogen and let the Gonarch live. 3.9%
- Post-Mortem Interval Find each member of the missing research teams. 3.4%
- Prolific Popper Kill all Protozoans in the Borderworld. 3.4%
- The Rarest Specimen Carry the Hidden Hat to Endgame. 3.4%
- Pepperoni Precipitation View the *other* secret ending. 3.3%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-22.