Building comparison
head to head
BanishedvsPlague Inc.
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Banished
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Harsh village-builder; balance population, food, and winter.
Plague Inc.
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Strategy sim about evolving a pathogen to outpace the world's cure effort.
Banished leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Plague Inc. leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
BanishedPlague Inc.
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 0
Banished leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Banished
no mechanical layer
Plague Inc.
Tapping menus only
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Banished
no opponent
Plague Inc.
World response is algorithmic, not adaptive to you
Variance3 vs 3
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Banished
weather, disease events
Plague Inc.
Spread events and cure pace fluctuate
Optimization9 vs 8
Banished leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Banished
population ratios and food planning
Plague Inc.
Evolution-point timing strategies are largely solved
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.