head to head
vs
Dark DeceptionvsMiddle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Dark Deception leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Dark DeceptionMiddle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 5
Dark Deception leans harder on execution: Sprinting maze corners ahead of pursuers needs clean movement
Reads1 vs 1
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance4 vs 4
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization5 vs 6
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor leans harder on optimization: Intel gathering and exploiting known weaknesses solves fights
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.