head to head
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty asks more than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the gap is execution.

Optimization · Practiced Mastery
A sprawling open-world crime epic with RPG-style character stats across a whole state.

Optimization · Practiced Mastery
Threading precise inputs through scripted guard gauntlets aboard a controlled and memorisable facility.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery).
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty leans clearly harder on execution.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Flying school and drive-bys need decent hands
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
First-person aim and guard reaction windows demand precise input
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Gang AI is scripted, never adaptive
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Guards radio for backup on scripted triggers, not adaptive tactics
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Territory wars and traffic add light randomness
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Alert timers and item pickups create some hidden-state tension
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Stats, gym, weapon skill, and routes reward systematic play
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Chokepoint memorisation and radar manipulation are learnable and repeatable
A matching score does not mean a matching test. Two games can both sit at 10 on execution and demand completely different things of you - which is why the reasoning above matters more than the number beside it.