head to head
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Portal 2 demands more execution; Sid Meier's Colonization demands more variance.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A first-person puzzle game where seeing the solution is the whole skill.

Optimization · Pure Optimization
A 1994 Sid Meier strategy game about building colonial economies and winning independence.
Portal 2 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); Sid Meier's Colonization leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Portal 2 leans clearly harder on execution.
Portal 2
Portal placement requires some precision but timing is lenient.
Sid Meier's Colonization
Turn-based; hands irrelevant
Same score on reads - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Portal 2
No opponent; puzzles are static.
Sid Meier's Colonization
Royal and rival AI behave on fixed schedules
Sid Meier's Colonization leans clearly harder on variance.
Portal 2
Puzzles are deterministic with no randomness.
Sid Meier's Colonization
Random New World maps and native placement vary starts
Same score on optimization - which means the number cannot separate them. The difference is in what each one asks of you.
Portal 2
Solving the puzzle's logic IS the entire game.
Sid Meier's Colonization
Production chains and liberty-bell timing are a solvable economy
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.