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Mods that Drastically Improved Games (to the point they became "Essential")

SOLDIER

SOLDIER

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
11,339
Everyone knows about how mods can add a ton of QoL features and/or enhancements to games, but I'm mainly curious about the mods that actually proved to be essential to a game, to the point that it would even arbitrarily raise a game's score: let's say a 6/10 game now becomes a 8 or 9/10 game thanks to just a couple of really essential mods.

I had the idea for this thread with Sonic Frontiers. I don't have the game myself, it sounds like it's getting a lot of praise despite some flaws, but it also looks like modders are already at work at adding some huge improvements to the game's physics and other mechanics that needed some tightening up. It makes me curious if the results will actually transform that game from "very good" to "excellent" once it's done.

So I'm interested in reading your picks for games that were shy of excellence but then reached that point thanks to mods. I especially want to know about games that were busted or downright unplayable until modders did the work that the devs didn't.

I already know about some of the most infamous examples like KOTOR II adding in a ton of cut content, or how Dark Souls had its low texture resolution fixed within the day by Durante, or how Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines is literally unplayable on modern PCs without the unofficial patch. Those are the kinds of examplesI want to know about.
 
Fat4all

Fat4all

Woke up, got a money tag, swears a lot
Member
Oct 25, 2017
93,110
here
tyxb7fgriox11.jpg


mods make the best game ever even better
 
Wrexis

Wrexis

Member
Nov 4, 2017
21,258
Doom 3 without the duct tape mod in the 2004 release was literally unplayable to me.
I think later versions of the game (2010+) actually had it patched in officially?

EDIT: 2012, in the BFG Edition.
 
AuthenticM

AuthenticM

Son Altesse Sérénissime
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
30,140
I don't know if these count, but a ton of fan patches that can be found on https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Home for older games. I very much recommend bookmarking this website.

As for actual mods:

www.nexusmods.com

OOO - Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul - Updated

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is an overhaul mod that aims to make Oblivion a much more interesting, challenging, realistic, and dangerous place, and also offers great rewards for the daring adventurer,
www.nexusmods.com www.nexusmods.com

www.nexusmods.com

Oblivion XP Update

This is a full update to SirFrederik's Oblivion XP mod. It fixes numerous bugs and takes advantage of some of the functions available in the newer versions of Oblivion Script Extender. This version of
www.nexusmods.com www.nexusmods.com

Do not play Oblivion without either of these mods.
 
snausages

snausages

Member
Feb 12, 2018
10,371
Halfway through Morrowind, you need the cliff racers mod

Not at the start, cause cliff racers actually drop useful shit. But later on, when you can fly and jump over mountains, you need to shut up those motherfuckers at least a little bit. Even Bethesda agree.

That's it tho, that's the only Morrowind mod you really need, other than maybe running in Open MW. Miss me with all that oversaturated graphics mods crap
 
Tambini

Tambini

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,392
Unoffical bug patch (every Bethesda game)

AuthenticM said:
As for actual mods:

www.nexusmods.com

OOO - Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul - Updated

Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul is an overhaul mod that aims to make Oblivion a much more interesting, challenging, realistic, and dangerous place, and also offers great rewards for the daring adventurer,
www.nexusmods.com www.nexusmods.com

www.nexusmods.com

Oblivion XP Update

This is a full update to SirFrederik's Oblivion XP mod. It fixes numerous bugs and takes advantage of some of the functions available in the newer versions of Oblivion Script Extender. This version of
www.nexusmods.com www.nexusmods.com

Do not play Oblivion without either of these mods.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Was going to mention these two as well, I enjoy vanilla Oblivion but these mods do make it a better game
 
BK0X

BK0X

Member
Oct 28, 2017
587
Resident Evil 5 is extremely buggy in Steam and pretty much unplayable. Capcom didn't even bother to fix it.
The mod fixes all of the issues, and it's pretty much essential if you want to play it co-op with a friend.
 
Walnut

Walnut

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 2, 2017
879
Austin, TX
Sonic Adventure DX - Dreamcast Graphics Mod

The changes they made for the GameCube version of the game are baffling. The game ages so much better with the original graphics
 
Rodney McKay

Rodney McKay

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,220
There's a mod for Majora's Mask 3DS that fixes a lot of the issues people had with that version. Works on modded 3DS's and 3DS emulators.

Project Restoration - Majora's Mask 3D patch to get the best of Majora's Mask

Project Restoration is a patch for Majora's Mask 3D that restores mechanics from the original game and adds QoL improvements and fixes to make the game more enjoyable.
restoration.zora.re

Stuff like the Zora swimming, the Deku's hop speed, some of the changes to the bosses the 3DS made (like the big eyeballs), etc.
 
Azerth

Azerth

Prophet of Truth - Chicken Chaser
Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,196
theres been like a dozen ark mods that everyone would run. some even got added to main game
 
McNum

McNum

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,196
Denmark
XCOM: Long War for XCOM: Enemy Within.

And if you think that's a little too hardcore, which is probably is, Long War Rebalance for XCOM: Long War.

What it does is give you twice the amount of base classes for soldiers, increase squad size, split the MEC classes into eight as well, add fatigue after battle so you can't just send in the super soldiers every mission, change the defeat condition to losing the entire world and give you the option of retaking conquered nations, and finally, the aliens got upgraded both in tactical mode and in strategic mode where they now have resources and plans of their own that you can attempt to counter.

It is telling that several of XCOM 2's upgrades from XCOM:EW had their origins in Long War. Though not a fan of Long War 2 for XCOM 2.
 
Taco_Human

Taco_Human

Member
Jan 6, 2018
4,238
MA
www.definitive-edition-project.com

Home | D.E.P

The Definitive Edition is an ambitious project that aims to fix and improve the old and buggy PC ports of Rockstar's titles. We've released mods for the most successful video games published by Rockstar Games, including the Grand Theft Auto series, Bully, Manhunt and The Warriors. #D.E.P #GTA...
www.definitive-edition-project.com www.definitive-edition-project.com

Mods for the original PC versions of the GTA trilogy, Bully and a few other of those era Rockstar games. These mods work on the Steam deck with some extra work. Once I tried out Vice City on the deck, hours flew by with playing the smoothest and stable 60 fps goodness, it was def worth it. Works well with San Andreas as well, might do another playthrough of that soon.
 

Deleted member 12429

Banned
Aug 19, 2022
1,103
The community patch for Gothic 3 was eventually included in the retail release turning an unfinished broken game into something that I greatly enjoyed. I know Gothic fans hate Gothic 3 regardless, but it's a pretty magical game to me and the community patch helped a lot with that.
 
RPGam3r

RPGam3r

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,561
None are essential. I don't really like playing with mods beyond quick throwaway experiments.
 
Santini

Santini

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,618
Circle of Eight and later, the Temple+ mod for Temple of Elemental Evil.

www.moddb.com

Circle of Eight mod for The Temple of Elemental Evil

A bugfix, rules compliance, and expanded content modification for Troika Games' 'The Temple of Elemental Evil.'
www.moddb.com www.moddb.com

www.moddb.com

Temple+ mod

Temple+ is an engine enhancement mod for Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil, including: Fixes for hardcoded bugs, Engine Modernization, UI improvements, and brand new Features!
www.moddb.com www.moddb.com
 
GlitchyDegree

GlitchyDegree

Prophet of Truth
The Fallen
Dec 4, 2017
5,494
Start Me Up Redux for Fallout 4.
www.nexusmods.com

Start Me Up Redux - An Update for Alternate Start and Dialogue Overhaul.

A Continuation of the 'Start Me Up' - Alternate Start and Dialogues Overhaul. Bug Fixes, Additions, Patches and UFO4P Forward Compatibility.
www.nexusmods.com www.nexusmods.com

This mod gives you different starting options and locations. So now you can actually somewhat role play (what a concept) as someone that isn't a cis straight person. It even removes references of your character having a kid or being a pre war vet/lawyer.

There are mods like this for all of Bethesda's RPGs, but this one is the most important to me since the vanilla start of Fallout 4 is heteronormative garbage.
 
PaulloDEC

PaulloDEC

Visited by Knack
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,425
Australia
The first thing I'll always do when I want to play the original Doom is download the Smooth Doom mod. It feels absolutely authentic to the original look and feel, while greatly enhancing the overall experience (IMO).
 
gozu

gozu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,374
America
Beat Saber is amazing with mods. The modded game on PC is 10 times better than the original version. Maybe 100 times better.
 
CrazyHal

CrazyHal

Member
Nov 1, 2017
1,327
There's 2 Elden Ring mods that had the deflect mechanic of Sekiro to the game. Right now it's kind of wonky but hey still pretty awesome.
 
Exposure

Exposure

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,656
This thread's going immediately run into the Long War problem where people suggests [mod that radically overhauls everything] without considering the idea that maybe a mod that radically overhauls everything may result in a gameplay experience that's actively detrimental for some people.

Just because a game uses a few ideas from it and does not mean the whole thing was an automatic upgrade from the base game.

Like Oblivion's actually another great example in this thread even: OOO's honestly way too much for a first time experience. You're doing yourself a disservice because half of OOO's background is "you are familiar with Oblivion", which is obviously not the case if you're installing it for your first time playing the game.

EDIT:

However to fit in with the thread:

The Toy Box mod for WOTR. It's basically a swiss army knife of impromptu alterations that you don't need to use but Owlcat will certainly make you want to use unless you're specifically someone trying out a masochist playthrough, but chances are you will go "please let me just cheat my way through the crusade mode this is agonizing", and Toy Box will gladly enable you to raise the largest army of all time before you have to rebuild it anyway in Act V.
 
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Angst

Angst

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,431
Rodney McKay said:
There's a mod for Majora's Mask 3DS that fixes a lot of the issues people had with that version. Works on modded 3DS's and 3DS emulators.

Project Restoration - Majora's Mask 3D patch to get the best of Majora's Mask

Project Restoration is a patch for Majora's Mask 3D that restores mechanics from the original game and adds QoL improvements and fixes to make the game more enjoyable.
restoration.zora.re

Stuff like the Zora swimming, the Deku's hop speed, some of the changes to the bosses the 3DS made (like the big eyeballs), etc.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
This is absolutely the definitive way to play this game.
 
Angst

Angst

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,431
youtu.be

HDR: Update v0.11.16 Trailer

-HDR version 0.11.16 is here!-It's been over a month since our last beta and this one has plenty of new mechanics and character rebalances to play around wit...
youtu.be youtu.be

HDR is the best way to play smash.
 

Zedelima

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,726
There's a mod for Total WAr medieval i think thats called "third age"
It turns the entire game in a Lord of the Rings total war, it is really cool
 
Foffy

Foffy

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
16,395
Fallout and Elder Scrolls are absolutely unplayable games without mods, full stop. You're just getting a bad experience with vanilla.

To name some specific ones of different games though, the Style Switching mods for Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Yakuza 6 are essential. You get Kiryu's traditional moveset when he only had just one, plus the movesets from 0 as well as the new Dragon Engine one unique to K2 and 6. They also fix Majima Saga by giving him all of his moves and options from 0 as well.
 
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