Building comparison
head to head
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and SpacevsValiant Hearts: The Great War
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A comedy point-and-click testing lateral inventory-puzzle logic and nothing else.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A heartfelt WWI puzzle adventure following four lives through the trenches.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Valiant Hearts: The Great War leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and SpaceValiant Hearts: The Great War
Axis by axis
Execution0 vs 1
Valiant Hearts: The Great War leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
Pointing and clicking has no dexterity bar
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Gentle timing in a few chase sequences
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
No adaptive opponent in a comedy adventure
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
No opponent
Variance1 vs 1
Same score on variance - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
Puzzle states are visible or discoverable by poking
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Fixed puzzles, fully visible
Optimization5 vs 4
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Sam & Max: Beyond Time and Space
Inventory-logic puzzles are the entire solvable test
Valiant Hearts: The Great War
Simple inventory and environmental puzzles with set solutions
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.