Mod Spotlight: Best of 2011
By Kyle Mann | December 31, 2011 | Features | No comments | Share
2011 was a great year for games and free modifications alike. From navel-gazing philosophical explorations of what player choice means in games, to co-op zombie shooters and unofficial Deus Ex continuations, the mod community certainly didn’t fail to impress this year. For our final Mod Spotlight of 2011, let’s take a look at a handful of the year’s best. These mods come with our unqualified recommendation, and you ought to procure them as soon as possible. Before next year please.
Portal 2: The Core
It’s amazing how quickly Source engine modders start hacking together fantastic levels and games–The Core was released just a little under six months after the original game came out. With such quick turnaround time, you might have expected the team to cut some corners, but instead the mod simply shines with polish (or is that just the blood of failed test subjects?). All-new GLaDOS lines, puzzles even tougher than Portal 2‘s, an innovative new “single-player co-op” approach: these are just scratching the surface of this shockingly great mod. Give it a try if you’ve exhausted the base game’s already amazing campaign.
Deus Ex: 2027
It’s tough to imagine a higher standard to set for a project than “make a prequel to Deus Ex“. Yet that’s precisely what the Project 2027 team did, aiming to create a faithful prologue to the classic role-playing shooter. The result was stunning: a free game that captured the spirit of the original without feeling the need to tack on all sorts of modern trappings and silliness. 2027 plays and feels like a true Deus Ex entry, from the emphasis on player choice right down to the interface and futuristic setting. The mod just exudes quality, and since it’s absolutely free should not be missed by any series fan.
Source: Dual Reality
Of all the mods I’ve played this year, this one has far and away the most innovative ideas. Introducing a strange dimensional-hopping structure for its puzzles, Dual Reality is reminiscent of the original Portal in the fresh inventiveness of its clever design. Puzzle elements are scattered between two different dimensions, so in order to flip all the right switches and open locked doors you’re forced to jump between the two versions of each chamber, taking control of androids placed on each side of the rift. You know what? It’s a lot easier to understand if you’d just go grab the free mod at ModDB and give it a try.
Source: Resistance and Liberation
As the big name first-person shooters debuted their most recent entries this fall, Red Orchestra 2 quietly went live, offering a more grounded, demanding take on war than the popcorn flick titles dared to. In that same vein, Resistance & Liberation takes a pseudo-realistic approach to World War II action. A virtually non-existent HUD means you’ve got to pay attention to your surroundings and how many bullets you’ve got left. A punishing damage modeling system means a bullet or two can down you. While I’m always up for a good arcade shooter, there’s something the Battlefields and Call of Dutys can never quite match: the intensity of lying in a field for ten minutes, tension palpable in the air–only to have a squad rush and kill you in a couple of seconds as you desperately radio for help.
Half-Life 2: The Stanley Parable
There are entertaining mods, like many of the above, and then there are games like The Stanley Parable. It’s best to simply play the game, rather than have anything spoiled for you, but as a basic overview know that it’s a commentary on games, decision-making, free will, determinism, and more. It’s not very often that a game, let alone a free Half-Life 2 mod, tries to tackle such weighty subjects, but The Stanley Parable does so with flying colors. It should only take a half-hour or so to reach all the different endings, so be sure to give this one a try.
There you have it: the mods we at DeltaGamer most deserve recognition this year. What wonders the mod community will whip up for us in 2012 we don’t know, but we can only hope it’s somewhere near as good as the past year. Go ahead and check out the rest of our featured mods here. Now if only Black Mesa Source would make an appearance…
