Has MEA became COD?

Here are a few things I think would have improved the gameplay on the different planets.

1. Enemy "zones". Instead of having Kett bases randomly dropped around, have them concentrated in one quarter of the map, as you might expect an army to do...then entering the "Kett controlled zone" would seem more like infiltrating enemy teritory. On Kadara, you could have valleys which were Outlaw, valleys that were Kett, valleys that were Roekar, etc. of course, the Remnant could still be guarding monolith sites all over, but they would be the exception.

2. Variety of (random encounter)enemies. You have, what, 3 types of Kett, basically? 3 types of Remnant, 3 types of outlaw(which is the same as Roekar). And, most immersion-breaking, the same 4 kinds of violent wildlife on every planet. They really could have used a few more. Even some non-violent unique wildlife would help.

3. Gravity. Instead of having the same gravity, tweak it a little so jumps are higher, running is faster on one, slower/ lower on another. Wouldnt change much, but the "feel" would be different.

4. Night/day. Fighting at night could be awesome. Especially if nightvision was a part.

5. I have said this before and got taken to task for it, but I think replays would be more fun if you were limited to two skill sets. You could be biotic/tech, biotic/combat, or combat/tech. I know this kind of goes against profiles, but it would give me more reason to replay the game, to try out the different combos. Right now, I can play all things in one playthrough. Certainly two, with NG+.

6. More Caves. They already have a few caves, they could have added more and made the cave systems longer to add another different "combat map".

Thats all off the top of my head...other thoughts?

Boom! Goes the Father of All Bombs. Well said.

I like that idea! I think when I first heard of the Angara, my exact thoughts were I hope we have a communication thing with them that isn't solved by the magic translator. Earning his trust through learning to understand each other would have also made for an interesting mission. I get a few rare moments, like showing him I learned how to greet like the Angara, or he teaches the Tempest crew Angaran words, but it's still overly "human" I guess is the word. 

I also noticed some Angara speak their own language on Aya, so how does the translator not change it?

Well when you look at ennemy types of the standard mode, there is 6 types of ketts. 8 types of outlaws,  human, turian, salarian, asari, krogan, angara, hydra, sniper rifle. and there is 5 types of remnant ennemies (if you excludes the architects). Which makes 19 but we could also have more.

I agree for most of the points except the fifth one

Kett  dogs can turn invisible, they are bit different than the adhi who can instead interrupt you, but I don't want to spoil you something for the story, did you finished the game? here will be some little spoilers

Because yes there is more than 3 types of ketts, if you include the secret one : anointed, ascendant, behemoth, chosen, destined, fiend, wraith (the attack dog)

for Outlaws, there are the humans, the turians, the sniper rifle, the berserker (krogan), the asari, the salarian and hydra, there is also the adhi which are their attack dogs. In multiplayer they also have an angara among them, I don't remember if we saw them with outlaws in the single player, but they sure are in the multiplayer on the other hand.

For me (and I am coming into this discussion late, but I skimmed most posts), the power of ME1 had fuck all to do with the look of it and everything to do with the novelty of it. It was the tone set by the music. It was the politics of the citadel. It was learning about the different species and engaging with them and making some of them part of your crew. I don't need the whole trilogy to compare to MEA.

ALL FROM ME1
The Quarians - space nomads who went on pilgrimages for the good of their "tribe". Space...fucking...nomads...flying around in a giant fleet, looking for a home? Space nomads with mad skills in tech, who lost their homeworld to their own creations? Fucking Kela-se'lih? What a beautiful idea. What a tragic and beautiful idea.

The Krogan - badass mercs whose culture is dying all around them. Once, they were the badasses of of the galaxy. Now, neutered by science and politics, they are relics. Heartbreaking, powerful stuff.

The Asari - wise, beautiful, long-lived space babes. Weird breeding. (sorry...not a huge asari fan, so I can't gush).

THE VOLUS!!!!! - they have to wear those suits because of the atmospheric composition and pressure of their homeworld. They looked amazing and unique in ME1. They were great comic relief. AND WE NEED A VOLUS SQUAD MEMBER!!! (ok..., I'll stop...)

Salarians and their science, Turians and their code, Elcor and their way of communication, Hanar and their beliefs, etc...

I don't give a crap if it's sand, snow, or jungle...the tone of ME1 and the cool species to meet and interact with and have as part of your crew? THAT is what made ME1 great. And ALL of that came from a SINGLE game.  And on TOP of ALL of that, there is eezo and biotics and the alliance and council and the ship.  All the rest is just window dressing.

And MEA's pretty fluttering curtains do little disguise their comparatively boring, boring, boring ass galaxy.

Edited - took out batarians, drell, and vorcha, as they came in ME2...

Alright, how do you handle one of the many copy paste waste of time outposts scattered all over Andromeda? I mean, how many times do you have to fight the exact same battle before you notice something really broken? Only took me one battle to crack the secret sauce.

Jeckpack discussions we can leave for MP, where there's a little more meat to the gameplay per usual.

As I explained before why the ketts architecture should be different from one another? its the same faction and that is not different from actual human history especially the romans who had the same architecture for their camps, when it was built it was done the same way as the previous one, so if course the things are going to look similar when its about the ketts. It makes sense in the context because its the same FACTION.

And how many kett outpost there is  in all of the game? there is one one voeld an other on Eos, and that is pretty much it, the others are outlaw outpost on eladen and kadara, that are certainly not the same architecture as the ketts.

And Yes there is also small outpost that you sometime do for small quests like saving angaran resistant fighters,  but Any game is a bit repetitive even witcher 3, does the experience feel totally different at the times of a new bandit encampments? Do they all feel completely different from one another? every game has a thing you will have to do over an over, this time its fighting an ennemy in an outposts that totally makes sense to have it a bit similar. 

By the way each ketts outpost give us a different story mission after doing them, (contrarly to other games like far cry where ennemy outposts are purely there for gameplay reasons and don't have a named ennemy like the invictor on Eos), for exemple on voeld you get to meet the angaran AI once you have dealt with the kett on the outposts and have to make a choice about it.

What a beautiful colourful outgoing post. Loved all your points you've brought up. Too bad I missed what you wrote about the other alien races. Think you could humor me and write about them again just like how you originally wrote them?

Only sometimes you do these small outposts, what?! They're like most of the gameplay in this game. And just because so called Witcher III has them too doesn't excuse it for the garbage no thought filler gameplay they provide. Especially when so much of the game is this repetitive cheap outpost junk filler.

And not like the main camps on each planet are much better.

What about the quests of the hackers that want to eliminate AI, the mob war on kadara, the rivalries between krogans (whatever it is the different clan that we have to capture a fiend to make them cooperate or nak morda), meeting the religious angara leader on havarl, the remnant base that give back a balance of the climates, the first human birth of andromeda, the poacher hired by an angara that is a well intentioned scientist, etc. Ah yes apprently these quest don't exists for whatever reasons...

No the outopost are certainly  not most of the game, at least certainly not the way you say it, you overly exagerate their importance. If you are speaking about the respawning kett outpost, you know you can avoid them, do you?