Building comparison
head to head
Heroes of Might and Magic IVvsPortal
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Heroes of Might and Magic IV demands more variance; Portal demands more execution.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A turn-based strategy game where building the optimal army and economy decides victory.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Heroes of Might and Magic IVPortal
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 4
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
no real-time physical skill needed
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads3 vs 0
Heroes of Might and Magic IV leans clearly harder on reads.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
predicting human opponent strategy in PvP
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance4 vs 0
Heroes of Might and Magic IV leans clearly harder on variance.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
combat rolls and map resources random
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
Optimization8 vs 8
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
army building and economy 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.