ME:A's sniper rifles are far too versatile and powerful

First of all, kudos to Bioware for ME:A. The game's open world format is a breath of fresh air, and I'm having more fun with it than any previous ME title. However, the game feels rough around the edges in a few spots, and one of those "spots" happens to be weapon balance - or the rather glaring lack thereof. Some of the game's sniper rifles in particular seem egregiously overpowered, mainly due to their versatility at all ranges.

In the original Mass Effect, sniper rifles felt somewhat more like... well, sniper rifles. Their exceptionally high zoom and relatively low sustained DPS often made them unwieldy and ineffective at closer ranges compared to assault rifles and shotguns, but the tradeoff was being able to safely pick off enemies at great distances. Sniper rifles had a niche - a specific purpose that they excelled at.

Fast forward to Andromeda, and sniper rifles like the Black Widow, the Valiant, and even the Viper can be effortlessly used to devastating effect at virtually all ranges, even at point blank. Why struggle to bring a single enemy down over a protracted period of time with an entire assault rifle magazine when, for example, you can just whip out your N7 Valiant and quickly plug two or three rounds into its head? Why bother trying to close the distance to use a shotgun like the Piranha when you could've wiped out most of an enemy encampment in that time with a Black Widow? Why bother having any other weapon equipped when you can just slap on a vintage heat sink and decimate everything with a semi-automatic sniper rifle?

I'm currently playing through the game on Insanity, and sniper rifles have utterly trivialized my experience whenever I've used them. Something needs to be done to emphasize their intended role while discouraging their use in CQB -- significantly more zoom, less rounds per magazine, and less damage per shot, perhaps. As it currently stands, many sniper rifles in ME:A are rendering most of the game's assault rifles obsolete. Assault rifles are supposed to be the jack-of-all-trades weapon, but sniper rifles perform better than assault rifles at all ranges, and have completely superseded them.

I hope this issue receives some attention from Bioware. Questionable animations, bugs, and lengthy planetary exit / entry cutscenes are certainly issues, but combat is a huge part of the game, and it deserves to be balanced sensibly.