head to head

Faces of War cover artvsThief II: The Metal Age cover art

Faces of WarvsThief II: The Metal Age

Faces of War leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Thief II: The Metal Age leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION3 /10READS2 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION8 /10
Faces of WarThief II: The Metal Age

Axis by axis

Execution3 vs 3

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads2 vs 1

Faces of War leans harder on reads: AI and human opponents shift tactics somewhat

Variance3 vs 3

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization8 vs 9

Thief II: The Metal Age leans harder on optimization: Loot routing and tool economy are fully optimisable once learned

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

Faces of War

full breakdown

Thief II: The Metal Age