I know most of the Bethesda RPGs have massive mod support, and there’s games like Minecraft that have more mods than anyone can imagine. I would consider those games pretty playable in their vanilla states. Would you say there are any games that were “saved” by modding? Or that are still kept alive by thriving modding communities? What are some of your favorite mods?
minecraft for sure
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Half of the problem IMO is Java edition runs so poorly mods are necessary to play the game most of the time. And there’s so many quality of life mods that should be base game but Mojang just doesn’t seem to care about.
Definitely Minecraft, you can turn it into a completely different game
I know I’m a minority in this, but I unironically prefer vanilla Minecraft, it’s simple in a good way 😅.
I love minecraft mods so much. I play BetterMC now which is essentially a Vanilla+ mod pack but even though it doesn’t turn minecraft into a different game I love how it makes the game feel less repetitive
Another vote for RimWorld, though I want to point out that the game is perfectly playable without mods, too. It is not uncommon to see someone with hundreds of mods, but the vanilla game is just as fun. People have logged thousands of hours without mods.
The ~700 mods in my current playthrough (and ~700 more inactive) strongly upvote this post.
One of the best goddamn games of all time, only made continuously better by folks like Owlchemist, Oskar and the Vanilla Expanded team, jptrrs … so much amazing work went into that community.
Yeah I logged hundreds of hours before I downloaded any mods, and even then I usually only do QoL ones to keep it as close to vanilla as possible
Late to this post but to me it’s Minecraft. It has such an insane amount of replayability and can be turned into a totally different game depending on the mods and whatnot.
For sure, playing through Create: Astral with my partner atm. So many good modpacks out there that completely change the game
Thanks to you I discovered this modpack. It seems amazing!
Glad to hear it, I love the more mechanical approach to automation that Create has. Just built our first windmill
Aside from the obvious minecraft… Arguably I’d say Factorio. They have a robust, feature-rich modding API built into the game that allows for relatively easy, wide ranging game play mods to be made very stable, and the number of mods has exploded as a result. The base game is amazing, but mods exist that quite literally triple the amount of game play and in some cases completely overhaul it into a totally new game. The support is amazing, and I wish more game companies could operate as efficiently as Wube does.
RimWorld. It’s amazing what people can do from QOL to whole new factions or weapons. Amazing and the dev is very helpful during updates to try and not break mod support. Just blown away.
Hell there are multiple mods that add whole new planets. I was so surprised that was even possible considering it seems like the game was made to only be able to handle one.
CounterStrike started as an Half-Life mod
KSP (Kerbal Space Program) with mods changes sooo much
The mods added so much new content, that in my case, it created a “mod fatigue” situation, where I had installed so much mods that the game would start to break very easily, and I also would no longer enjoy the game for what it is. But recently, I tried playing it again, this time restraining my use of mods, and it was awesome !
Mods can be pretty good, but overmoding is quite tiring :')
The overmodding is always my downfall xD I ignore the “add one mod at a time…” advice, break everything or accidentally add something really annoying, then don’t know which mod is the problem haha
The worst, is when you begin to remove mods, and then, the real breakage of the save files begin !
I know it’s not as rich or developed as the Fallout or Skyrim franchise, but my fun little time waste Stardew Valley is greatly enhanced by mods.
The base game is incredibly fun and simple, but even the most basic mods enhance the “quality of life”, making some of the more surface time eating elements easier. But then you have entire new world maps, NPC’s, quests and full DLC-esque mods such as STV Expanded almost a must-have for long term players.
As an FYI, I’d highly recommend the game to even the most hardcore gaming aficionados. It’s refreshingly amusing and low-key, so when Elden Ring has you ready to throw your controller at the TV, it’s a nice mental break.
Plus the guy that created it learned how from scratch and coded the whole thing solo- the source, the sprites, even the music. And every upgrade and addition he’s made over the years, easily 2-3 DLC’s themselves, he’s given away for free. Support indie devs!
I completely agreed. Stardew Valley always hit that sweetspot of looking for something hard but not TOO hard.
I am looking forward to update 1.6 since CA has said the update is more about making modding ever easier which will 100% keep this game alive for a long time through community support.
Oh my god I never knew Stardew Valley mods existed 0.o but that makes so much sense! I’ll have to try these next time I inevitably return to that game.
He’s making a game called, iirc, Haunted Chocolatier now. Who knows when that’ll come out, but I want it. :)
Edit: for people who like Stardew, I recommend Sun Haven and both Portia games (My Time at Portia and My Time at Sandrock). They’re all three a little rough around the edges, but I’ve had a great time with all of them, without their being clones of Stardew at all.
Some I’ve modded besides what you said (Bethesda RPGs would be like, 8 games or something for me) would be Cities Skylines, Deus Ex, Factorio, Stardew Valley, Mount & Blade, Terraria, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, Stellaris, Oxygen Not Included, Project Zomboid, Darkest Dungeon, Kenshi, Battletech.
Factorio is one that adds absolutely tons of content through mods. Some change the game pretty significantly too
Mods are almost a must with Stardew Valley. There are so many QoL improvements to be had, world expansions and automations to remove some of the tedious busy work.
Skyrim
That’s a Bethesda game. (Just fyi since OP said they already know about Bethesda games)
I played vanilla Stardew Valley once, and now I’m on my second go around, and I’ve installed a bunch of qol mods so that I don’t have to keep checking the wiki and my collections to see if I should keep or sell this item I got because I don’t know if I need it for an achievement, and now I have a notification that it’s an NPC’s birthday and I can just check to see if I own or am carrying an item they have. It just makes the game less stressful for a completionist like me.
Minecraft is an obvious answer of course, but there are some other really good games out there that get made much better with mods. Some of my favourite examples of this would be Star Wars Battlefront II (2017) with the cool hero mods and bot mods, and then Ghost Recon Wildlands with the amazing First-Person mod.
While not “saved” by modding, Kerbal space program is certainly not as interesting.
KSP visual mods make it so much more beautiful
KSP is a perfect example of a game that doesn’t need any mods to be an enjoyable experience (albeit a steep learning curve), but is SO enhanced by them. The visual mods give you breathtaking views to keep you going, while the parts mods (especially the science parts mods) add additional direction and goals beyond the stock games initial appeal of just figuring out rocket science and orbital mechanics. The KSP community is one of the best communities I’ve ever been a part of on the internet, and I’ve been around since early dialup modems.
Just from a percentage standpoint, the Frackin Universe modpack adds so much to the Starbound experience which is otherwise relatively simple and something you only really play through once. There’s like two or three extra Starbounds’ worth of content, although that can make it overwhelming when starting out
