Building comparison
head to head
Anno 1800vsPortal
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Anno 1800 demands more variance; Portal demands more execution.
Anno 1800
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Beautiful 19th-century city-builder ruled by production ratios.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Anno 1800 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Anno 1800Portal
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 4
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Anno 1800
pausable, no twitch
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads1 vs 0
Anno 1800 leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Anno 1800
AI scripted, not adaptive
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance2 vs 0
Anno 1800 leans clearly harder on variance.
Anno 1800
minor trade fluctuations
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Optimization10 vs 8
Anno 1800 leans clearly harder on optimization.
Anno 1800
supply chains and ratios are the game
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.