head to head

Darkest Dungeon II cover artvsX-COM: UFO Defense cover art

Darkest Dungeon IIvsX-COM: UFO Defense

Darkest Dungeon II leans Optimization (Systems & Chaos); X-COM: UFO Defense leans Optimization (Systems & Chaos).

EXECUTION0 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE7 /10OPTIMIZATION8 /10
Darkest Dungeon IIX-COM: UFO Defense

Axis by axis

Execution0 vs 1

X-COM: UFO Defense leans harder on execution: Turn-based; only inventory clicking

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance7 vs 6

Darkest Dungeon II leans harder on variance: road events, tokens, and relationship rolls vary runs

Optimization8 vs 8

Even - both lean on optimization about the same.

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

Darkest Dungeon II

full breakdown

X-COM: UFO Defense