head to head
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is reads, and it is a single point.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
Logistics as gameplay - planning routes and cargo loads across hostile terrain.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
Immersive sim aboard Talos I where build and route choices dominate.
Death Stranding: Director's Cut leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Prey (2017) leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Death Stranding: Director's Cut
Balance management over terrain takes constant light input
Prey (2017)
Wrench and Gloo timing modest.
Prey (2017) leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Death Stranding: Director's Cut
BTs and MULEs follow predictable scripted behaviours
Prey (2017)
Typhon AI scripted, not adaptive.
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Death Stranding: Director's Cut
Timefall and terrain hazards are mappable once seen
Prey (2017)
Mimics and resource spawns randomized.
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Death Stranding: Director's Cut
Route planning, load balancing and infrastructure ARE the game
Prey (2017)
Neuromods, builds, station routing deeply solvable.
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.