Special Effects Failure: The populated urban areas in the first game are satellite photos put on top of a mostly flat plain. While the texture fidelity was above average for the time, this was way before things like bump mapping existed to add any sense of depth so all of the buildings, save for a handful of large ones made from actual polygons, are all completely flat. This may be why only the first game takes place on Earth.
Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Shockwave 2 has wide open maps instead of a linear path for each mission, two more vehicles in addition to the fighter that behave differently, a measure of freedom in mission order, a longer and more fleshed out plot including a larger cast of named characters, and better production values.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The game's FMV cutscenes were around VHS quality. This doesn't sound impressive today (and played back on a hi-def TV they look astoundingly grainy,) but at the time, it was much better looking than the Sega CD's efforts and looked better than the video on many Playstation launch titles. The Omaha's bridge is almost entirely done with green-screening, even the consoles the characters interact with, but the compositing holds up well today.
