ME:A Ending Thread (EXTREME SPOILERS)

Yeah. I still have some hopes that they'll announce a sequel in the future, with ryder and the crew of course.

Yeah, regrettably they lock away the Cryo Bay post-Meridian which is weird but probably an oversight.

Regarding the ambassador choice it's just as ME1-do-over as the rest of the plot.

In concept here is the plot of Andromeda:

Inciting incident: Mentor and subordinate figure goes on a dangerous mission where something went wrong; Mentor dies, but son receives information of a mysterious alien key but they don't know how it works yet.

Exposition: Son goes to the hub of all species and becomes the next all-powerful leader figure. He doesn't expose any Saren but gets to know "the council" and is told to go out and do a range of open-ended tasks in order to advance the main goal of unlocking the secrets of their device.

On first world Son meets Asari Archeologist who has been researching the remnant race, not the Protheans but the Remnant (words mean the same), and to their surprise the thing they have been attempting for a great time is instantly solved by the mysterious powers of the protagonist.

We go explore other planets which gives context to the lore, and we meet the enemy. The player faces the main game goals and obstacles that roughly define the general game experience,

Confrontation: The protagonist and co. Find the base of the enemy's operations only to find that the Salarians are there and that the base is a breeding ground for experimenting on them, and you face a mutated Krogan. The protagonist is left with a "big dilemma" of whether to save one party or the other in their rush to escape while setting off their risky master plan. Instead of squadmates you choose between the Salarians and the Krogan on the base,

"Point of No Return": In "defiance of the leadership's decisions" we all but mutiny and go to the world where the remnant alien vanished to, Meridian, and discover that, shock and awe, a thought to be progenitor race of Heleus, the Angara are in fact not the progenitors but a long gone race that decided their fate.

Point of no return for real: You return to Meridian only to find that the Main Bad guy and his cohorts have entered the central hub of your species' society, and must find a way to get there. Then you find a real old remnant uh... space ship which had such awesome concept art that BioWare didn't dare to cut it. Space battle ensues with enemy ships.

Climax: You land on an Ilos-esque planet inside Meridian and drive the nomad through wondrous sights and vistas before approaching the ominous central room in which the main Bad is attempting to unlock the powers of the Remnant and doom the cluster to his/their might. You kill him and prevented defeat. The Heleus cluster is saved for colonization.

Epilogue: You choose a new "council" figure for the future endeavours of the Initiative.

So it is similar, a bit too much at times. It references ME1 in big or small ways at every turn which explains why this might be the best structured plot BioWare has produced since working with EA.