One of the big questions about "Mass Effect" is how the trilogy of games will work together as one cohesive whole: One of the big questions about the Legendary Edition is how the trilogy of games will work together as one mechanically coherent whole. One of the big questions about the Legendary Edition is how to put the three games together as a mechanically coherent whole. The first game in the series was released in 2007, and significant changes have been made in subsequent releases.

In a blog post released today, BioWare details many of these changes and explains what players can expect from the updated game. While some of the details have already been announced (fewer butt-shooting scenes, improved Mako controls, etc.), others are more detailed, ranging from combat updates to an overhaul of Mass Effect 3's Galaxy at War system.

Overall, the combat changes are probably the most notable, as "Mass Effect 1" plays dramatically differently from "Mass Effect 2" and "Mass Effect 3." The first game was "heavily influenced by traditional RPG mechanics," so an element of randomness in the gunfights was added, and weapons sometimes felt less accurate and reliable than in the sequel, which was essentially a shooter.

"We heard consistent feedback that it was quite frustrating to fire a few shots with an assault rifle and suddenly have the reticle expand across most of the screen, so we decided to tune the mechanics to provide better handling without completely discarding the spirit of the original game. We considered tuning it," BioWare stated.

As a result, the original Mass Effect will receive the following changes in the Legendary Edition:

Other "targeted updates to combat" include:

Mass Effect 2 will also increase ammo drop rates, Mass Effect 1, XP rewards have been rebalanced and the level cap has been eliminated to "more reliably reach higher levels in a single playthrough."

The character creator was revamped to be more consistent throughout the three films, allowing players to continue to have a consistent, customized look throughout the trilogy; the original FemShep design from Mass Effect 3 is now in all three films. It will be the default female option, and if players prefer the FemShep from "Mass Effect 2," that model is also available as a preset.

Further overall enhancements:

Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will not support the multiplayer mode of Mass Effect 3. On a more practical note, the single-player campaign is also affected: online play was necessary to raise the Readiness Rating, which has a significant impact on the fight against the Reapers. It is possible to get the best campaign results without playing online, but it takes a lot of effort. Instead of losing the multiplayer, the Legendary Edition will focus on side content throughout the trilogy.

"If you play only Mass Effect 3, you will need to perform nearly every option available in the game in order to reach an ending that doesn't lead to a major galactic loss," BioWare said. 'Playing the previous two games and carrying over your progress is the surest way to get a good result in the last few hours of the Reaper Wars.' Incidentally, if you played ME3 in the Extended Cut, the Legendary Edition will make it more difficult to prepare for the final battle.

The good news is that the bug fixes and improvements to the paragon renegade system in Mass Effect 2 "make it possible to more reliably complete key scenes that were notoriously difficult to accomplish in ME2 (and that also affected ME3), and thus better prepare for the end of the story with results."

If you want to get to the big end, Mass Effect: Genesis, an interactive comic produced by Dark Horse, will precede Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, so you can see the major plot point choices can be incorporated without actually playing the game.

As for the infamous Mako, I like it the way it is (not for the first time) and its removal from "Mass Effect 2" and "Mass Effect 3" was a major disappointment. That said, I think these changes are acceptable:

BioWare has said that more information on changes to the updated trilogy is forthcoming, including a deeper dive into the graphic updates.Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will be May 14. It is scheduled for release.