head to head

Black Mesa cover artvsTenchu: Wrath of Heaven cover art

Black MesavsTenchu: Wrath of Heaven

Black Mesa leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).

EXECUTION6 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE2 /10OPTIMIZATION6 /10
Black MesaTenchu: Wrath of Heaven

Axis by axis

Execution6 vs 6

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance2 vs 3

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven leans harder on variance: Enemy layouts shuffle between difficulty layouts

Optimization6 vs 7

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven leans harder on optimization: Perfect no-detection routes are fully learnable

Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.

full breakdown

Black Mesa

full breakdown

Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven