Building comparison
head to head
Portal 2vsThe Room 4: Old Sins
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Portal 2 demands more execution; The Room 4: Old Sins demands more variance.
Portal 2
Optimization · Pure Optimization
A first-person puzzle game where seeing the solution is the whole skill.
The Room 4: Old Sins
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Methodically decoding intricate fixed mechanisms hidden in a puzzle dollhouse.
Portal 2 leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); The Room 4: Old Sins leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
Portal 2The Room 4: Old Sins
Axis by axis
Execution3 vs 1
Portal 2 leans clearly harder on execution.
Portal 2
Portal placement requires some precision but timing is lenient.
The Room 4: Old Sins
Twisting mechanisms onscreen takes no dexterity
Reads0 vs 0
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.
The Room 4: Old Sins
A fixed dollhouse of secrets; nothing adapts
Variance0 vs 2
The Room 4: Old Sins leans clearly harder on variance.
Portal 2
Puzzles are deterministic with no randomness.
The Room 4: Old Sins
Mechanisms are hidden information until discovered
Optimization9 vs 7
Portal 2 leans clearly harder on optimization.
Portal 2
Solving the puzzle's logic IS the entire game.
The Room 4: Old Sins
Each puzzle box is a deterministic mechanism to decode
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.