Building comparison
head to head
PortalvsThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Neither is simply harder - they are hard in different places. Portal demands more execution; The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind demands more variance.
Portal
Optimization · Pure Optimization
The portal-gun puzzle game whose solutions are everything.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Optimization · Pure Optimization
Classic open-world RPG where stats and broken crafting systems trump twitch skill.
Portal leans Optimization (Pure Optimization); The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind leans Optimization (Pure Optimization).
PortalThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Axis by axis
Execution4 vs 2
Portal leans clearly harder on execution.
Portal
Portal placement timing modest.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Dice-roll combat ignores aim skill
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
No adversary modeling player.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
No adaptive opposition
Variance0 vs 3
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind leans clearly harder on variance.
Portal
Deterministic chambers; no randomness.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Hit chances rolled behind the screen
Optimization8 vs 7
Portal leans a little harder on optimization, though the gap is small.
Portal
Pure puzzle-solving optimization.
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
Alchemy and spellcrafting are famously solvable
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.