Terra Nova was a great game in the typical mid90ies way: it had even the typical fuckhuge background (I still remember all the blurbs about the Hegemony and the technology and the like). Why it failed, then?
From what I remember, the complaints were twofold. One, was that the game was quite
simplified after playtesting: the original concept for Terra Nova was a fairly hardcore
simulation of power armour fighting, and what we got was a somewhat simplified version (for example, drones would have a far bigger role and weapon/team mate management would have been deeper). Of course, this was an attempt to reach a wider audience, as the fans of a such a niche game would be few, I guess.
The second thing that torpedoed the game was FMVs. I distinctly remember reading intervies were the devs were saddened by the amount of money that was wasted in video sections, money that could not be used to improve the game or to add a MP mode (for a game that would have greatly supported it even at that early age). I mean, Terra Nova could have been proto-Tribes, and Tribes 1 (before skiing was a thing) was pretty much a multiplayer focused Terra Nova.
And that for FMVs that were of arguably low quality and for a muddy and predictable plot that aped Wing Commander (teh TRAITOR). As usual, it's all the fault of Chris Roberts. And the FMV budget, if I remember right, damaged even the
marketing budget.
Not really, unless they don't mess with the content much. Wit htoday's politics, you cannot be sure of that. The game featured a psychic black guy being killed, which is probably "problematic" nowadays.
Terra Nova's """"politics"""" are not as straightforward as the ones in Crusader (Crusader's theme was inspired by the EU and the rampant neoliberalism of the 90ies, as Zurovec himself recalled). Terra Nova has a aggressive almost "Plato-like" Terran super-state fighting a hyper-nationalistic bunch of colonists (that are the good guys), that makes for great sci-fi but poor CURRENT YEAR. Not that anything is clearly explained in the game, of course.