Is Insanity mode too easy? No replay value?

This is what I am worried about. I feel like I am leveling up too quickly, and am about to obtain some of the strongest weapons in the game. If it's a fair challenge for me now---still as a beginner to the mechanics---then it will likely only get easier. Hopefully enemies will get stronger and more varied (not just throwing more Kett at the player), but it sounds like this is not likely to be the case.

Well, it obviously depends on your build. I have tried three fairly long starts.

With my first build as an incinerate/EnergyDrain Technician, I found it straightforward at hardcore, switched up to insanity shortly after Eos and still worked fine.

With a TackClaok/SniperRifle Infiltrator, I had huge problems on insanity. Observers being a big problem. Not my favourite build.

With a CombatFitness/SniperRifle/Turbocharge Soldier, I found insanity tough in places but managed to plough through without having to reduce difficulty. Soldier seems one of the stronger builds; unlike ME3.

Have not tried a biotic build yet.

In "new game plus" on ME1 you could get those spectre weapons and actually hold down the firing button the whole time and take out anything in seconds. ME2 insanity felt more manufactured though because it felt like they just added more shields and armor. I liked combat in ME3 better then MEA though. I hate having to pump so much into common soldiers

I'm On hardcore for first play through and I already find just that being harder than the original, so I can't agree on the previous games offering a challenge and this one not doing it. I guess it'll differ person to person, it's kind of hard to say what game can be objectively harder when they play different from each other and other players will pick up on it differently.

Initially, I just put one point into Assult turret, just to have a third power.

The plan is to follow up later with filling up Overlord, Cryo beam and Invasion. So:

against armour, we have Incinerate/Cryo beam.
against shields, we have Overload/Energy Drain.
against bosses, ?/?/Invasion.

Maybe Flamethrower/CryoBeam for crowd control, but not sure if this really works?

For a pure Tech build, I feel points spent outside Tech are wasted and need a really good reason to spend there.

I played through on Insanity to test myself and it's the right difficulty for a challenge without being unfair. My biggest headache was constantly reviving my squadmates, but I had chosen tactical cloak from the start.

I wish it was tweaked for more one-hit kills and less bullet sponges.

On my NG+ I lowered the difficulty so I could test the powers without the fear of death looming around the corner. But honestly I play for the universe/story. The combat is a huge plus.

Energy Drain takes down shields as well. Energy Drain's advantage from my viewpoint is that it can act as both a detonator or primer with the level 5 choice. So if you pair with Incinerate which also can act as a primer and detonator with a level 6 choice you get great flexibility with just the two powers.

Incinerate is great against armour, and Energy drain against shields. By choosing the order you can set up either fire or tech combos.

I am not completely sure of the details, but I am acting on the assumption that tech combos are good against shields and fire combos against armour.

Invasion weakens rather than kills, so only use on Insanity and/or against difficult to kill bosses. The more hits you need to take down a boss, the more useful Invasion becomes.

UPDATE (4/29/17): Well, I'm afraid to say the game is now broken. After having completed a few planets and leveled up a few times, things have gotten just way too easy---so much so that I still have 30 unused skill points that I have not put into anything (I don't need to). I can pretty much 2-shot most enemies now. There is just no challenge anymore to the game, now that I am past the mid-way point. The enemies are all the same; its just wash rinse and repeat.

So for those of you who want to know how to break the game on insanity, here is what I did. Nothing special here. Basically just focus on 2 things; 1) damage output, 2) health and shields;

WEAPONS

• Black Widow Sniper Rifle - I have found the Black Widow to be the best balance between shear damage and clip size... You want to level this gun up as quickly as possible. Level 1 is not powerful enough. Level 3 or higher will suffice.

SKILLS
COMBAT:

• Sniper Rifles (max out) - This will increase your damage output tremendously (be sure to choose +25% clip size, to add an extra bullet).
• Combat Fitness (max out) - This will turn you into a tank, able to absorb more bullets

TECH:

• Tactical Cloak (important!) - Cloak is the most important skill to have, since it allows you to reset any engagement and find better cover. Max out this tree as quickly as possible.
• Overload - (or some other ability that can take down shields)
• Team Support - makes your team even more tank'ish

ARMOR

• Remnant Armor - gives you a big boost to health and shields

That's about it. Like I said, nothing special here; just focus on 2 things, 1) damage output, 2) health and shields. Once you max these categories out, then you will be ridiculously OP---so much so that the game will become boring (at least to me, since there is no challenge now).

I kept dying on hardcore on my first playthrough and a few battles had to be repeated many, many times until I got through them.

I'm doing a second playthrough from scratch (not New Game +) and having a waaayy easier time, though.

Weird. I do the opposite. I take down shields with guns and then just combo them once their shields are gone and they are toast. I messed around with singularity and awful lot and I really like it because you can combo shielded enemies with it.

My latest build is centered around the Dhan and BW. I get up to 5 shots with Dhan @ about 1500-1750 damage a pop. (Rank IV and V respectively) My BW had 8 clip size and hovers around 1400 damage with powers active.

I will say I do miss singularity because its so good for hitting kett just as they are dropping from the drop ship. its great when you can hit 3 enemies at a time and double combo them to wipe them all out very quickly.

My insanity run went well

I used a piranha shotgun. I added the seeker plasma system and bio converter augmentations with a couple of kenetic coils to the weapon. I added weapon damage to my melee weapon to increase the damage for my shotgun.

I used the deadeye armor. It has increased weapon damage, damage resistance and headshot damage. I added damage resistance augmentations. For helmet, legs and arms, I added biotic damage increase.

I put points into turbocharge, cloak and charge. Turbocharge increases rate of fire and damage. Cloak helps regenerate health faster and increase weapon damage.

my melee weapon is the kett varkash. Not only does it do melee damage, but adds burn damage as well. Very good for finishing off the enemy.

I use the Andromeda explorer profile.