This product is like new. At NexWave Games, like new means:
Additionally, all discs at NexWave Games are carefully inspected and assessed for quality. When discs arrive, we do not accept any that are so badly damaged that they are unlikely to work. We only accept discs with light scratches at most. Discs with scratches are then treated in our professional disc repair machine. By warming the disc and polishing it with soft brushes, these machines can remove a very thin layer from the disc. This removes the layer containing surface scratches and improves the disc’s readability. This ensures the disc works properly, even on consoles with ageing lasers that have difficulty reading games! Great news for the player.
MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf for Xbox Original
MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf for the Xbox Original is a third-person action game set in the BattleTech universe. You once again fight the Word of Blake as a pilot with Wolf’s Dragoons. This time, you do not stay inside one BattleMech throughout. You get out, take over other machines and also use tanks or flying VTOL craft. A battle therefore requires not just good aiming but also choosing the vehicle that fits the next situation.
BattleArmor gives you a smaller, mobile armoured suit with jump jets and a claw. You can use it to grab an enemy robot and force out its pilot through NeuroHacking. Large robots bring heavier weapons, but build up heat when you keep firing. Buildings can collapse under the violence, and salvage helps repair your armour or restore and improve your weapons. The contrast between a vulnerable pilot and a heavy machine is therefore constantly apparent.
The story campaign is for one player. Locally, two players, each with an Xbox controller, can fight in split screen or take on the separate Grinder challenge together. Grinder is about surviving enemies and does not make the story cooperative. This is the original Xbox release, without any promise of Limited Edition extras. The official Xbox Live service ended on 15 April 2010; the former online matches and Conquest world are not offered as working services.
Region and language
Our Xbox Original games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf for Xbox Original includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf
Day 1 Studios and FASA Studio made MechAssault 2: Lone Wolf for Microsoft Game Studios. The Xbox game arrived in North America in late 2004 and Europe in early 2005. The sequel kept MechAssault’s camera behind the robot and its destructible environments. The biggest change concerned the person inside the machine: that pilot could now get out. Changing vehicles during a battle thus became an essential part of the design.
In a November 2004 interview, studio head Denny Thorley explained that players were meant to have more tactical decisions. A heavy robot, a fast light machine and a transport aircraft fulfil different roles. BattleArmor also made stealing enemy robots possible. The developers rebuilt their own engine around Xbox hardware. The story and presentation received more attention without losing the immediate shooting action or the familiar balance between power and mobility.
The online component of the time also grew. Conquest linked matches to a persistent struggle for planets, with groups of players joining a faction. That describes the historical ambition, not a promise of current play: Microsoft ended the official service for original Xbox games in 2010. The solo campaign and local components are therefore the starting point for this release. Within the two main Xbox games, Lone Wolf chiefly marks the shift from one chosen robot to a pilot who can move between different combat machines.
Similar games for Xbox Original
The first MechAssault uses the same world, weapon types and emphasis on destruction on Xbox Original. You choose a robot and keep fighting in it, while Lone Wolf adds getting out and taking over machines. In both games, sustained firing means watching heat. The sequel makes deciding whether to continue fighting or find another vehicle much more important than in the original design.
Halo: Combat Evolved likewise lets you switch between walking and vehicles on Xbox Original. Master Chief uses individual weapons and vehicles such as the Warthog, while Lone Wolf moves into enormous BattleMechs and NeuroHacking. Halo presents most of its fighting through a soldier’s eyes. Lone Wolf keeps the camera at a distance, making the relative sizes of robot, pilot and buildings clearly visible together.
Halo 2 adds forcibly taking enemy vehicles to its shooting battles on Xbox Original. Lone Wolf also lets you steal an opponent’s machine, but builds BattleArmor and the NeuroHacking button sequence around that action. In Halo 2, switching is part of a first-person shooter’s vehicle battles. In Lone Wolf, a small armoured fighter can instead overturn the balance of power between huge combat robots.
Brute Force and Lone Wolf show action from behind the fighter on Xbox Original. Brute Force divides abilities between four squad members, whom you can switch between and give orders to. Lone Wolf uses different vehicles to give one pilot different options. Brute Force supports playing the story campaign together; Lone Wolf’s campaign remains solo and reserves cooperative survival for the separate Grinder challenge.
Star Wars: Battlefront also alternates infantry and controllable vehicles on Xbox Original. You fight as part of an army for command posts and reinforcements. Lone Wolf ties its solo missions to a fixed pilot and repeatedly changing combat machines. Both games make a vehicle feel powerful but not invulnerable. The difference is that Battlefront centres on the battle as a whole, while Lone Wolf explores the relationship between pilot and machine.
