head to head

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain cover artvsTotal War: Attila cover art

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom PainvsTotal War: Attila

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); Total War: Attila leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).

EXECUTION5 /10READS2 /10VARIANCE3 /10OPTIMIZATION7 /10
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom PainTotal War: Attila

Axis by axis

Execution5 vs 5

Even - both lean on execution about the same.

Reads2 vs 3

Total War: Attila leans harder on reads: AI factions follow scripted migration paths; human play adds reads

Variance3 vs 5

Total War: Attila leans harder on variance: Hunnic migration pressure and disease outbreaks add meaningful campaign unknowns

Optimization7 vs 8

Total War: Attila leans harder on optimization: Settlement razing decisions and horde economy optimization form the core

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

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

full breakdown

Total War: Attila