head to head

Medieval II: Total War cover artvsSimCity 4 cover art

Medieval II: Total WarvsSimCity 4

Medieval II: Total War leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); SimCity 4 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION2 /10READS1 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION9 /10
Medieval II: Total WarSimCity 4

Axis by axis

Execution2 vs 1

Medieval II: Total War leans harder on execution: real-time battle micro is modest

Reads1 vs 0

Medieval II: Total War leans harder on reads: campaign AI is exploitable and mappable

Variance3 vs 3

Even - both lean on variance about the same.

Optimization9 vs 9

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

Medieval II: Total War

full breakdown

SimCity 4