Building comparison
head to head
Fieldrunners 2vsPortal
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Fieldrunners 2 demands more variance; Portal demands more execution.
Fieldrunners 2
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A maze-building tower defense about optimizing tower placement against scripted enemy waves.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Fieldrunners 2 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Fieldrunners 2Portal
Axis by axis
Execution2 vs 4
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Fieldrunners 2
Placing towers - no twitch dimension
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads1 vs 0
Fieldrunners 2 leans a little harder on reads, though the gap is small.
Fieldrunners 2
Enemies follow fixed paths, not adaptation
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance2 vs 0
Fieldrunners 2 leans clearly harder on variance.
Fieldrunners 2
Wave composition scripted-but-unknown first time
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Optimization9 vs 8
Fieldrunners 2 leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Fieldrunners 2
Maze layouts and tower mixes are the solvable puzzle
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.