Building comparison
head to head
Heroes of Might and Magic IVvsPortal 2
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Heroes of Might and Magic IV demands more variance; Portal 2 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 2
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A first-person puzzle game where seeing the solution is the whole skill.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal 2 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Heroes of Might and Magic IVPortal 2
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 3
Portal 2 leans clearly harder on execution.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
no real-time physical skill needed
Portal 2
Portal placement requires some precision but timing is lenient.
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 2
No opponent; puzzles are static.
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 2
Puzzles are deterministic with no randomness.
Optimization8 vs 9
Portal 2 leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Heroes of Might and Magic IV
army building and economy near-solvable
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.