head to head
Neither is meaningfully harder - they pose close to the same test. The widest gap is execution, and it is a single point.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A strategy game about damming a fluid enemy with an optimized energy economy.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A first-person puzzle game where seeing the solution is the whole skill.
Creeper World 4 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal 2 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Portal 2 leans a little harder on execution, though the gap is small.
Creeper World 4
Light real-time micro placing and moving units
Portal 2
Portal placement requires some precision but timing is lenient.
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Creeper World 4
The creep flows by fixed simulation rules
Portal 2
No opponent; puzzles are static.
Creeper World 4 leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Creeper World 4
Fluid behaviour is deterministic once terrain is understood
Portal 2
Puzzles are deterministic with no randomness.
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Creeper World 4
Energy economy and frontline routing decide everything
Portal 2
Solving the puzzle's logic IS the entire game.
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.