head to head
Risk of RainvsS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Risk of Rain leans Optimization (Practiced Mastery); S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl leans Execution (Twitch Chaos).
Risk of RainS.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Axis by axis
Execution6 vs 6
Even - both lean on execution about the same.
Reads0 vs 1
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl leans harder on reads: A-Life NPCs roam but never model the player adaptively
Variance6 vs 6
Even - both lean on variance about the same.
Optimization7 vs 6
Risk of Rain leans harder on optimization: Item stacking and time-pressure routing is solvable.
Two games can score the same on an axis and still test it in very different ways - read each rationale, not just the number.

