Building comparison
head to head
Alice: Madness ReturnsvsThomas Was Alone
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Alice: Madness Returns
Execution · Practiced Mastery
Macabre Wonderland platformer where Alice slices through her own broken psyche chapter by chapter.
Thomas Was Alone
Optimization · Practiced Mastery
A minimalist puzzle platformer about cooperating rectangles, carried by warm narration.
Alice: Madness Returns leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Thomas Was Alone leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Alice: Madness ReturnsThomas Was Alone
Axis by axis
Execution5 vs 4
Alice: Madness Returns leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Alice: Madness Returns
Float-platforming and weapon-switch combat ask moderate precision
Thomas Was Alone
Light precision jumps per quadrilateral
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Alice: Madness Returns
Wonderland enemies attack on fixed tells
Thomas Was Alone
No opponent, narrated rectangles
Variance1 vs 0
Alice: Madness Returns leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Alice: Madness Returns
Hidden collectibles are one-time discoveries
Thomas Was Alone
Levels fully visible and fixed
Optimization5 vs 5
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Alice: Madness Returns
Weapon upgrades and enemy counters are quickly mapped
Thomas Was Alone
Sequencing each character's ability per puzzle
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.