Building comparison
head to head
Age of Empires II: HD EditionvsPortal
Age of Empires II: HD Edition asks more than Portal, and the gap is reads.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A real-time strategy game where mastering build orders and economy management decides most matches.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Age of Empires II: HD EditionPortal
Axis by axis
Execution5 vs 4
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
click speed and micro help but secondary
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads4 vs 0
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans clearly harder on reads.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
predicting human opponent strategy and timing
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance2 vs 0
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans clearly harder on variance.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
minor map and resource randomness
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Optimization9 vs 8
Age of Empires II: HD Edition leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Age of Empires II: HD Edition
build orders and economy are near-solvable
Portal
Pure puzzle-solving optimization.
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.