head to head

Downwell cover artvsQuake II cover art

DownwellvsQuake II

Downwell leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Quake II leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).

EXECUTION8 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE4 /10OPTIMIZATION4 /10
DownwellQuake II

Axis by axis

Execution8 vs 8

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance4 vs 3

Downwell leans harder on variance: Procedural wells and shop offers vary runs

Optimization4 vs 5

Quake II leans harder on optimization: Ammo and health economy tightly constrains routing through every level

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

Downwell

full breakdown

Quake II