Building comparison
head to head
Crazy Machines 3vsOuter Wilds
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is variance, and it is a single point.
Crazy Machines 3
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A physics-contraption puzzle about engineering Rube Goldberg machines.
Outer Wilds
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A knowledge-based mystery solved by mapping a deterministic solar system.
Crazy Machines 3 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Outer Wilds leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Crazy Machines 3Outer Wilds
Axis by axis
Execution2 vs 2
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Crazy Machines 3
Placing parts has no twitch component
Outer Wilds
Light piloting, mostly forgiving
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Crazy Machines 3
Solo puzzle - no adaptive opponent
Outer Wilds
World is fixed; nothing adapts to you
Variance2 vs 1
Crazy Machines 3 leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Crazy Machines 3
Physics deterministic but chains feel lightly chaotic
Outer Wilds
Loop is deterministic once understood
Optimization9 vs 9
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Crazy Machines 3
Engineering a working contraption is the whole game
Outer Wilds
Pure knowledge puzzle - solve the system
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.