head to head
vs
Descent IIvsNeed for Speed: World
Descent II leans Execution (Practiced Mastery); Need for Speed: World leans Execution (Practiced Mastery).
Descent IINeed for Speed: World
Axis by axis
Execution7 vs 6
Descent II leans harder on execution: Six-degrees-of-freedom dogfighting demands serious spatial control
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.