The previous two Abe games had a darker, deeper feel to them. The environments gave you a feeling of endlessness. For example, in AE, FeeCo Depot's background gives you the sense that this is one big enchillada, and I've only seen part of it. The grandoise architecture, the spanning ironworks, it all had a grand feel to it.
And then in MO, all industrial areas were, well...compact and bland.
Obverserve:
Now, those screenshots are genuine works of brilliance and depth, each unique. Now, compare those to MO and, well...
We got shafted.
Fortunately, Stranger did return a lot of that atmospher to the series, but neither match the feel of the first two.
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Reports of my death have been somewhat exaggerated.
"Is my species of consequence to you now, Mustang? Did you really want my position that badly? Although I can appreciate the vanity of ambition, you should have spent more time planing. Even if you had somehow pulled this off, the counsil would have found you out, and they'd never let an assassin back into their fold." - Pride, FullMetal Alchemist