Building comparison
head to head
BanishedvsPortal
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Banished demands more variance; Portal demands more execution.
Banished
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Harsh village-builder; balance population, food, and winter.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Banished leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
BanishedPortal
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 4
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Banished
no mechanical layer
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Banished
no opponent
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance3 vs 0
Banished leans clearly harder on variance.
Banished
weather, disease events
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Optimization9 vs 8
Banished leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Banished
population ratios and food planning
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.