head to head

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 cover artvsSerious Sam: The First Encounter cover art

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2vsSerious Sam: The First Encounter

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 leans Execution (Pure Mechanics); Serious Sam: The First Encounter leans Execution (Pure Mechanics).

EXECUTION9 /10READS0 /10VARIANCE2 /10OPTIMIZATION4 /10
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2Serious Sam: The First Encounter

Axis by axis

Execution9 vs 8

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 leans harder on execution: Twin-stick dodging in dense swarms is the core test

Reads0 vs 0

Even - both lean on reads about the same.

Variance2 vs 2

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization4 vs 4

Even - both lean on optimization about the same.

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

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2

full breakdown

Serious Sam: The First Encounter