head to head
vs
AthenavsBlack Mesa
Athena leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Black Mesa leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
AthenaBlack Mesa
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 6
Athena leans harder on execution: Brutally unforgiving jumps and combat timing define the arcade challenge
Reads0 vs 0
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance2 vs 2
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization5 vs 6
Black Mesa leans harder on optimization: Route, resource, and encounter knowledge
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.