Building comparison
head to head
Lara Croft GovsPortal
Portal asks more than Lara Croft Go, and the gap is execution.
Lara Croft Go
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Turn-based board-puzzle distillation of Tomb Raider's traps and tombs.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
Lara Croft Go leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Lara Croft GoPortal
Axis by axis
Execution1 vs 4
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Lara Croft Go
Turn-based taps, zero dexterity
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
Reads0 vs 0
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Lara Croft Go
Hazards move on fixed rules
Portal
No adversary modeling player.
Variance1 vs 0
Lara Croft Go leans a little harder on variance, though the gap is small.
Lara Croft Go
Everything visible on the board
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.
Lara Croft Go
Each level is a solvable movement 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.