For me Mechassault 2 was the most disappointing game ever. It's not that its a bad game. It actually included some very good idea's that resulted in more complex game play than the original. Why was it so disappointing?

1. It followed Mechassault 1 and there was a lot of hype about the new features, many of which didn't work well, see below.

2. The game was slower and felt sluggish.

3. Mech choice was removed. A killer for many

4. The game effects were not as pretty - contrast the weapons for example.

5. Maps looked half finished.

6. Games could became too dependent on the VTOL 

7. It got overwhelmed by the Halo2 release. 

Why did the game turn out this way? The two things I have heard are:

1. They run out of money. I have heard this in a couple of times, one of the developers claiming Microsoft withdrew/reduced funding.

2. performance problems on the original Xbox. I heard they did

Like I said at the start it is not a bad game, it just lacks the pace and excitement of the first and many of the new features didn't quite make the grade.

1. VTOL - a great idea reasonably well done, but should have been made to be optional.

2. Neurohacking - Nice idea but I thought the execution a bit lame. Perhaps because I have old arthritic fingers and found it hard to do. Again, this should have been optional

3. Battlearmor - this was a big improvement on the Elemental in the first.

4. Conquest. Another great concept that didn't work in practice, mainly because of palyers shifting to the stronger teams, leading to an inevitable  .

5. More vehicles - I suspect this was at the price of speed, so it too was stupid.