Do not make it 3rd Person... the whole game is supposed to be about immersion and actually being afraid of falling, leaping into the unknown and seeing the consequences of failure first hand.. no-one cares about a 3rd person character.. it doesn't feel the same.
I liked the story in the original, OK.. it wasn't an epic 'bringing down the gov' story people may have been led to believe, you were just trying to save your sister. It ended perfectly for me, objective accomplished and open ended for a sequel.
The forced combat was the most annoying thing.. there's no way Faith would be able to go toe to toe with heavily armed dudes like that.. sure, she dies easily.. but a room full of heavy armoured guys is not realistic. How about Gangs with knives, rival runners, real cops/detectives.. No Machine Gun totting rambos please.
I LOVED the colours.. running outside in a brightly lit place made it for me. I played it in the winter when it was dark outside.. it made me long for the summer. Also, the colours meant something. The bright colours also were a great contrast to the grim totalitarian political regime..
The music was awesome too..
Make it more open (others have said the same), have multiple routes to achieve the same objective.. let the player use the level instead of just following it.
Also, make the loading seamless. If GTA can do it, ME can.
Real engine based cut scenes.. They don't have to be 1st person.. Mass Effect told a good story with their cinematics but if half-Life taught us anything, you can get the player more involved by showing them what's happening in the background than by showing them a movie.
Make the bags relevant. ME1 had them just as collectables, you could miss them out entirely.
There is no need for multi-player - Parkour is a solo activity anyway.
That'd do it for me.. Make this game!.. I will buy it.
