Top 10 Breakthrough PC Games

[Final-Fan]

Kenryoku_Maxis said:
Also, I'd like to point out, while it may seem that all units in Starcraft are 'unique', they are...sort of.  Marines are still comperable to Zerglings, who are still comperable to Zelots.  And etc on down the line.  They all have unique abilities and Str/HP, but they still serve the same purpose for their specific race.  And that's what makes Starcraft work.  All three races are in a triangle balance with each other (though Terran is arguably overpowered).  Why is it so bad that AOE3 has similar units, when there's 14 different races?  Or do we have to make up a different kind of swordsman for French troops than Spanish?  After you go beyond 4 races, balancing becomes an issue.  Again, that's how Starcraft works so well, because it stuck to 3 races.

I'm not going to try to comment on "StarCraft vs. AoE/CoH" because it's trench warfare and I don't even know the other ones too well.  And to be honest, it's been a long time since I played StarCraft.  Nevertheless:

Your assertion that Zerglings/Marines/Zealots are all 'basically the same' just because they're the cheapest basic combat unit is just wrong.  Zerglings require different tactics to use effectively compared to using Marines of Zealots.  Marines can shoot at air units while the other two can't, and Marines are ranged and the other two aren't.  Ranged fire is a HUGE difference -- not just because a ranged unit gets "free" hits before the other unit closes, but because it's easier to gang up without having to be physically adjacent to the target.  The Zealot, meanwhile, although behaving similarly to the Zergling, is a massively stronger unit.

I'd say the Hydralisk is closer to being a counterpart to the Marine than the Zergling is, or rather the Marine is in between the two of them in power.  Which just proves that there is no direct equivalent.  You can't just use the same tactics with another race. 

It's true that with huge numbers of races, balancing completely different unit types would become an unreasonably difficult task to ask of a game maker -- but why does that give the game a pass?  It's their fault for insisting on tons of races, knowing that that would be a consequence.  Or you can argue that the unique units/abilities that the races DO get make up for it when there are so many to pick from -- but if so, say that instead of making excuses.