head to head
vs
Descent IIvsDirt 5
Descent II leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Dirt 5 leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).
Descent IIDirt 5
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 7
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads2 vs 2
Even - both lean on reads about the same.
Variance2 vs 2
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization5 vs 4
Descent II leans harder on optimization: Route knowledge, energy management and the Thief-bot are learnable
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.