Building comparison
head to head
Impossible CreaturesvsPortal
Impossible Creatures asks more than Portal, and the gap is reads.
Impossible Creatures
Optimization · Pure Optimization
RTS where you splice animals into custom armies before battle begins.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Impossible Creatures leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Impossible CreaturesPortal
Axis by axis
Execution4 vs 4
Same score on execution - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Impossible Creatures
Standard RTS micro and army control
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads5 vs 0
Impossible Creatures leans clearly harder on reads.
Impossible Creatures
Human opponents counter your creature picks
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance2 vs 0
Impossible Creatures leans clearly harder on variance.
Impossible Creatures
Scouting hidden enemy combinations
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.
Impossible Creatures
Creature-combining army design is deeply 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.