Building comparison
head to head
Broken Sword: The Smoking MirrorvsHarvester
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is optimization, and it is a single point.
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
Optimization · Light / Casual
A point-and-click adventure where inventory puzzle logic is the whole challenge.
Harvester
Optimization · Light / Casual
A disturbing point-and-click horror adventure satirizing 1950s Americana.
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror leans Optimization (Light / Casual); Harvester leans Optimization (Light / Casual).
Broken Sword: The Smoking MirrorHarvester
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 1
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
no physical skill, point-and-click
Harvester
minimal physical skill, adventure exploration
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
no opponents, puzzle-driven
Harvester
no adversarial adaptive opponent
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
no meaningful randomness
Harvester
negligible randomness
Optimization3 vs 2
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror
item puzzle logic is solvable
Harvester
linear puzzle-adventure logic
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.