What Are The Best Games For Modding and Replayability?
Imagine a world where you weren’t able to mod any games.
It’d be pretty rough, right?
You’d miss out on playing custom quests, with custom weapons, while flying a custom vehicle.
You wouldn’t be able to play brand new, HD overhauls of classic titles.
And you wouldn’t be able to replace all of the dragons in Skyrim with Thomas the Tank Engine. CHOO CHOOOOO!
Of the many mod-friendly games out there, the 10 on this list stand out from the rest because of their moddabilty, the passion of their respective communities, and the quality/number of mods available for them.
These 10 titles are amazing on their own, but are best with mods.
10. Minecraft
Top 5 Minecraft Mods in 2018
You’ve probably heard of a little game called Minecraft. But, if you've been living under a rock for the past 9 years and haven’t heard of this best selling PC game of all time, it’s really to easy sum it up: “Minecraft is a game about placing blocks and going on adventures.” Minecraft is so easy to describe because it’s so beautifully simple. The game’s Lego-like world is just perfect for creativity, experimentation, and modding.
Because the Minecraft modding community has been so vibrant for so long, the variety and types of mods currently available are nearly limitless. Mods that overhaul the graphics by allowing for HD textures, beautiful shading details, and vastly smoother framerate are great ones to start with. After that, there are literally thousands of ways to customize your playing experience: from new enemies and environments to unicorns and hats! (Yes, hats. They’re actually pretty cool).
With these virtual Legos, you don’t have to use your imagination nearly as much as you used to. If you can dream it, yeah there’s probably a mod for that.
Pixel Paradise: Minecraft is all grown up! Look at those textures, those shadows, the lighting details… Could use a little lense-flair though…
Minecraft comes alive: New levels of immersion are now possible in Minecraft thanks to mods. Here is a mod that turns both the single and multiplayer experience of Minecraft into an RPG.
9. Mount & Blade: Warband
Top 10 Mods for Mount & Blade: Warband
Essentially a large-scale battle simulator, reception of the vanilla (original non-modded version) release of Mount & Blade was average overall. But the game came with powerful tools (like innovative combat mechanics and a complex character system) that has supported a thriving modding community for years despite multiple delays of its forthcoming sequel “Bannerlord”.
Fans of the game, a network of history buffs and bedroom developers, quickly began creating mods that vastly improved the repetitive quests, dialogue, and dated graphics. In addition to bug fixes and graphical improvements, many of the most popular mods for M&B are ones that build off of the main premise of the original game— big battles! Napoleon, Viking warlords, zombies, storm troopers… they’re all ready to do battle on the modded fields of Mount & Blade: Warband.
That civil war battle in Skyrim that was a little anticlimactic? Yeah there’s a Mount and blade mod for that.
Custom troops: Here is an example of some of the customization possible. Just think of a battle you’d want to reenact; there’s probably a mod for that.
Sabres of iron or light: Your troops do battle with all kinds of sabres in Mount & Blade thanks to mods!
8. Civilization V
Civilization V let’s play with lots of mods
If you’ve ever wanted to drop a nuke on Ghandi then this is the game for you! If you’ve also wanted to have a lot of fun expanding your empire, advancing your culture, and going head-to-head with some of history's greatest leaders in a turn based strategy game, then this is definitely the game for you.
The Civilization series has been a PC gaming staple since the dawn of PC modding, so it makes perfect sense that the two would work perfectly together. While this isn't the newest iteration in the Civilization series, Civ 5 has the most mods available for it-- thousands in fact, thanks to active modders like you and Steam Workshop support.
While Ghandi is definitely a fun (yet surprisingly evil) opponent in your quest for world superiority, with mods you can challenge a whole host of opponents from games, movies, and anime, in a whole host of varied scenarios. Oh, and there’s a mod for an even more devastating nuke too.
No this isn’t a shot from Elder Scrolls VI, this is someone about to declare war on those sneaky Khajiits.
With mods you can go to war with Lord Gaben and try to stop his master race. You’ll probably lose though.
7. XCOM 2
Gameplay from a heavily modded Xcom 2 campaign
XCOM 2 is another classic game that has been re-done and is better than ever. It’s a sequel, but also a perfectly fine starting point for new players. In this turn-based tactics sci-fi game you are once again the commander of the XCOM military organization. You are fighting as a resistance force against an alien race that has occupied Earth. It is your job to manage your team’s classes (Soldier, Grenadier, Ranger etc.), upgrade their skills, plan your attack, and respond to the enemies counter attack.
XCOM 2 also receives support from Steam’s mod Workshop, which means it’s a breeze to customize. The best mods available for XCOM 2 are ones that allow you to customize your gear and squad, ones that make changes to the AI, and others provide general quality of life tweaks. Other modding options include changing the UI, adding co-op play, or even making the game more like Final Fantasy in its playstyle. But of course, as with the other games in this article, it’s fun to mod-outside-the-box and install some awesome franchise-crossing files too!
Heroes never die! And neither does the fun of cross-game mods.
Here is an example of some of the cool customization that’s possible in XCOM 2 with mods. Oh, and look there’s Tali from Mass Effect 2.
6. The Sims 4
20 awesome gameplay-changing Sims 4 mods for 2018
Sims 4 modders are still going strong at keeping the series alive while they anxiously wait for the 5th game to come out. Which is fortunate for me and the fellow mod-installers who might be reading this, because a lull between versions of games often leads to more creative and detailed mods -- just look at Skyrim!
The fun in Sims 4 comes from doing ordinary things. Or rather, watching ordinary things being done by your Sims is where the fun comes from. So some of the best mods for Sims 4 allow you to watch your Sims doing more real-life-stuff that they aren’t able to do in the vanilla version of the game! Like going to pre-school, prom, and bachelor parties -- in that order too!
Thanks to mods the activity pictured can lead to some “risky” repercussions in-game too!
Watch your Sims go to college! Hopefully with less roommates than real-life.
5. ARMA 3
The 6 most massive overhaul mods in 2018
Much like Mount & Blade: Warband, Arma 3 is a tactical military game that provides all the tools for modders to go crazy. Its predecessor (Arma 2) is also known for its modding community, most notably for the standalone title DayZ which originated from an Arma 2 mod.
Arma 3 mods are easily available through the Steam Workshop, which currently features nearly 53,000 entries in its database. Of which most are scenarios: custom designed and scripted missions.
However some of the most fun can be had by the the ability to play online with mods installed -- something that is often forbidden by many game developers (like Rockstar).
Altis Life mod: Many in the Arma community believe this mod is what GTA Online should've been more like.
Operation Blockhead: If things ever get a little too realistic for you, try this mod that replaces all the soldier models with Legos!
4. The Witcher 3
20 Must Have Witcher 3 Mods with gameplay for each
The Witcher 3 is already an amazing game (probably one of the greatest RPGs of all time), so most people don’t want to mod this title too drastically --- and the mods show this. But that isn’t to say that The Witcher 3’s modding community isn’t serious about what they’re doing.
Modding in the Witcher 3 is mainly to add convenience or freedom to tweak things like the camera, the HUD, inventory, map, fast travel, or access to the console. All of which can function as a nice bit of extra icing on top of an already delicious video-game-cake; whether it be your first or fifth playthrough.
The Witcher 3 with the HUD removed and graphics improved makes for a beautifully immersive experience.
Great games like The Witcher 3 only need little modifications, but sometimes these little things can make a huge difference. Like being able to finally jump in shallow water. Trust me. HUGE.
3. Fallout 4
6 essential mods for Fallout 4
If you haven’t heard of Fallout 4 let me first say that I’m surprised, and second that it’s a post-apocalyptic Skyrim. That’s obviously oversimplifying it a bit, but from a modding perspective it’s actually pretty accurate.
Fallout 4 is another Bethesda-made sandbox of modification heaven. The community is huge, the mods are detailed and diverse, and with the upcoming Fallout:76’s mod support being questionable, there is no end in sight to the depth of Fallout 4’s modding scene.
As Bethesda titles are known to have a few bugs here and there, many of the best mods for Fallout 4 are simply fixes to the plethora of minor issues that Fallout 4 originally shipped with. Other important mods to check out are those that make The Commonwealth feel new and interesting again, while still retaining the same wasteland feel. My personal favorites are the new companion mods. With hundreds of lines of voice acted dialog and new quests, it’s hard to believe these mods are free.
One of the first and still most popular mods for Fallout 4 was a change to the dialog selections, allowing them to show the entirety of what was about to be said, and not just a single, associated word.
Mods like this one keep the same great post apocalyptic essence of the vanilla FO4 while updating the details a bit.
2. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
An excellent example of how much Skyrim can be improved by mods, and how easily it can be done.
Skyrim has been the quintessential, the ubiquitous, the king of modded pc games for years. This game is what we think of when we think PC modding; and the amazing community of passionate bedroom developers responsible for this deserve every bit of this praise.
With tens of thousands of mods available for Skyrim, it might seem pretty daunting to figure out where to begin. But because there is so much quality content out there, excellent mods are right at your fingertips no matter where you look.
Just decide what you want to change about Skyrim, and there is probably an awesome mod that does just that. New quests and companions? Check. Photorealistic HD textures? Yep. Swearing mudcrabs with monocles? Sure, whatever you need.
Some of the many faces of the new and improved Skyrim.
Just an ordinary day in Riverwood.
1. Grand Theft Auto V
Top 10 mods 2018
Not only am I willing to bet you've heard of GTA 5, I bet you own a copy too, given that it's the third best selling game of all time and it only came out 5 years ago.
Gamers are able to achieve some of the highest levels of photorealism in GTA 5 thanks to modders--and also the highest levels of absurdity. Or, a perfect combination of both. And personally, I think this is the highest achievement mods can achieve: to capture the essence of a game, and make it even better.
Just a word of warning: while Rockstar has recently clarified that it will not ban single-player modders, it is not recommended that you use mods in GTA Online.
Yep, that's really an in-game screenshot. No tricks, just mods. Oh and a really beefy GPU or two.
When you’re tired of Los Santos, take Trevor to space and see what kind of mayhem you can create out there too!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this list of the 10 best moddable games--now get out there and MOD!
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