ActionRPG
Shadows: Awakening
Give it 10 hours
Gets good by 10h then rated almost like by veterans
Fully opens up by 15h rated like by long-time players
Reach the ending 9% of players who started
Started playing 80% of owners
Steam reviews 75% positive of 2,506
What the data shows
- In the first 2 hours 1 in 2 reviews are negative (46%); after 15h it's 1 in 6 (16%).
- Fully opens up by hour 15.
- 9% of players who start reach the ending.
- Most players drop off before “The Great Escape” (Successfully escape Thole): only 35% of starters get there.
- 80% 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 2,523 Steam reviews in every language. Median playtime in a sample of 294 reviews: 24h 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 (80.2% of owners), so people who bought the game and never launched it don't count.
- Started playing 100%
- The Great Escape Successfully escape Thole. Most players quit here 35% −65
- Arachnophobia Defeat the Aphotic Spider Queen and her minions. 35%
- The Lord of Suffering Acquire the Reaper sword. 25% −10
- Catch This! Defeat the Scorpion King. 18% −8
- To be continued... Complete Book One. 15% −3
- We Must Become Stronger Defeat Evanger. 10% −5
- We Deserve to Die Defeat Valkarin. 10%
- The End? Complete Book Two. 9% −1
story milestone ending biggest drop-off
Story milestones were labeled by AI from achievement names and descriptions; mistakes are possible.
All achievements (45)
story milestone ending side
- First Day Earn second level. 100%
- I Command Thee! Unlock the Ishkai Sniper soul. 52%
- Arachnophobia Defeat the Aphotic Spider Queen and her minions. 35%
- The Great Escape Successfully escape Thole. 35%
- The Lord of Suffering Acquire the Reaper sword. 25%
- Novice Reach level 10 with any Puppet. 24%
- Specialist Max out one of your Skills with any Puppet. 23%
- Catch This! Defeat the Scorpion King. 18%
- To be continued... Complete Book One. 15%
- Devourer of Puppets Unlock 8 Puppets in one playthrough. 13%
- Unstoppable Destroy 1,000 environmental objects. 13%
- Skilled Reach level 20 with any Puppet. 12%
- Mastered Reach level 30 with any Puppet. 10%
- We Must Become Stronger Defeat Evanger. 10%
- We Deserve to Die Defeat Valkarin. 9.9%
- Harmony in Parsimony Have 300,000 gold available to spend. 9.1%
- The End? Complete Book Two. 9.1%
- Rat Plague Cleanse the world of 100 rats. 8.9%
- Demise of the Demontamer Defeat Aknush. 8.5%
- The Last Greyclaw's Staff Recover the Shaman's Staff. 7.0%
- Dracon Tamer Unlock Draconian. 6.2%
- Liberate Corwenth Have Darius liberate all of Corwenth from the demon invasion. 6.1%
- Relics of the Fallen Activate All Cenotaphs. 6.1%
- Nobody expected this... Equip a character with a full set of the legendary Inquisition armor. 6.0%
- Raid the Imperial Tombs Learn the secret of Evia's death. 5.1%
- Believer? Or Sucker? Throw 999 silver into the well in the House Cellar. 5.0%
- Veteran's Day Avoid fighting the Werewolf Berserkers. 4.5%
- Zaar Gets Lucky! Have Zaar fulfill his most fervent desire. 4.5%
- Insecticide Kill 1,000 vermin-type enemies. 4.4%
- Espionage Successfully infiltrate the Penta Nera's convocation. 3.5%
- Wood 'n' Wasp Unlock Wasp and Wood Elemental. 3.5%
- Restore House Malfagon Have an old friend rescue House Malfagon from its enemies - and it's own ambition. 3.4%
- Glorious Erudition Learn all about the Heretic Kingdoms by reading every book. 3.0%
- Regain the Guild Return Kalig to the head of the Guild of Steel with at least one of the mercenaries surviving. 2.7%
- Angel Purify your form; perfection is your playground. 2.1%
- Realm of Indecision Switch between Shadow and Mortal Realm 10,000 times. Did you forget something? 2.0%
- Beguile the Serpent Wyrm Avoid fighting Graabak. 1.9%
- Darius and Falon Unlock Darius and Falon. 1.9%
- Sympathy for the Sura Talk to Korshak having slain no-one that Falon knows. 1.7%
- Devil Revel in the gloom; sate those base desires! 1.4%
- Git gud! Lose 100 Puppets. Lose, or misplace? 1.4%
- The Heretic Kingdoms Complete the game on Extreme difficulty. 1.4%
- Oldschool Complete Both Books in Oldschool Mode. 1.2%
- The Eye of Worlds Witness all three main endings. 1.2%
- Got Gud Complete the game on at least Hard difficulty with no puppet deaths. Because reasons. 1.1%
Steam page Updated: 2026-10-19.