head to head
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
Engineer a pandemic; evolution order is the puzzle.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
The 1996 landmark 4X where you guide a civilization from antiquity to the space race.
Plague Inc: Evolved leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Sid Meier's Civilization II leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Plague Inc: Evolved leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Plague Inc: Evolved
no reflex
Sid Meier's Civilization II
Turn-based clicking only
Plague Inc: Evolved leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Plague Inc: Evolved
world response scripted
Sid Meier's Civilization II
AI civs are exploitable scripts, not adaptive rivals
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Plague Inc: Evolved
country event timing
Sid Meier's Civilization II
Random maps and hut rolls inject early uncertainty
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Plague Inc: Evolved
evolution order heavily solved
Sid Meier's Civilization II
City spacing, trade routes and tech paths are deeply solvable
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.