Red Orchestra Ostfront 41-45 Mods

[Elly Ker]

ManyPC games are able to be modified, and when game developers support this and provide tools for creating modifications (mods), wondrous things can happen. It is not uncommon for modders to create total conversion modifications that are equivalent to an entirely new game, and often times these mods are even better than AAA games in the same genre (not surprising given how AAA games are generally lower quality).

Sometimes, such mods become full games themselves. Game studios notice the quality of the mod, hire the creators, and create a new version out of it that is released as a game. Other times, the modders themselves create a studio and go on to improve upon their mod and release it as a game. In fact, the top three most played games on Steam every day began as mods, and these games/mods are featured below. In this article, we present a list of popular video games that originated as mods.

The original mod was made for Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2004), and like many other UT2004 total conversion mods it released the same year as the game itself. Truly the golden era for multiplayer gaming as UT2004, thanks to mods, became almost an infinite number of games in one within a year of its release.

Black Mesa was one of the most anticipated and most famous mods of all time. It is an unofficial remake of Half-Life, a classic FPS game. The mod was eight years in the making, and the wait was worth it. The release was more polished than most AAA games although far from perfect in stability, but was otherwise exactly what it should have been; the revered classic remade on a better engine with better graphics, physics, sound, and AI, but the core game and its plot and all dialogues were left intact. Thanks to Valve for allowing this to happen.

In 2015 it became an Early Access game, which was completed in 2020. The game version uses a newer version of Source engine, has improved and refined visuals (including models) and AI, includes multiplayer, and includes the mod Surface Tension Uncut by default. It also benefits from Steam Workshop integration, and the missing chapters (Xen chapters, the last five of the original Half-Life) are only present in the full game version.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the best selling, most played games of all time, and it began as a mod for Half-Life way back in 1999. The mod was so popular that it became a full fledged game a year later, after Valve hired the creators. This game, referred to as Counter-Strike 1.6, was ported to XBOX in 2003, but the franchise never achieved anywhere near the same level of popularity on consoles.

Yet another multiplayer shooter that began as a Half-Life mod until Valve hired the creators, Day of Defeat was one of the earliest multiplayer WWII shooters. The mod predates both Call of Duty (2003) and Battlefield 1942 (2002).

As with Counter-Strike, the popularity of Day of Defeat skyrocketed when a sequel (actually a remake) was released on Source engine. This sequel is called Day of Defeat: Source which released in 2005. Source engine has always been one of the best engines for multiplayer shooters, and this was especially true around the time of its inception, hence the popularity. As usual, this mod remains available on ModDB.

Day of Defeat: Source remains the most recent game in this franchise. Undoubtedly, some players feel a sequel is long overdue. To those looking for a sequel or rather spiritual successor, get the game featured on the very next page of this article.

Day of Infamy was initially a mod for Insurgency, which was initially a mod for Half-Life 2. So what we have here is a bit of modception. It is a multiplayer FPS set during WWII. The CQB gameplay is reminiscent to Call of Duty and Day of Defeat, and of course Insurgency as well which is a modern warfare equivalent. Like Insurgency it has class based gameplay (also present in most modern PvP shooters) and many different modes, including both co-op and PvP, in addition to shooting mechanics that are far better than most shooters. These mechanics include bi-pod deployment, aiming deadzone when not aiming down the sights (making aiming down the sights much more important), and more realistic recoil and aim sway.

At only $20, the game is a tremendous value. Lots of weapon variety and the ability to play as soldiers belonging to different armies improves longevity and diversity. As with Insurgency it is extremely moddable, and like any good multiplayer shooter includes a free dedicated server application with highly customizable parameters.

This was an obvious pick for this article. DayZ is one of the most popular games in recent years, a real trend starter. This mod turned game has more clones than perhaps any other game! For a mod to be so influential is an amazing statement for gaming. It introduced the persistent world survival FPS concept to the world, spawning a new genre essentially which is now a popular one. Ever since DayZ became a full game (outselling Arma 2, the game it was initially made for), many new games came about trying to copy it.

The Insurgency mod released in 2007, the same year as Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare which popularized modern warfare PvP shooting more than any other game. But this mod is one of many that surpasses its AAA counterpart. It focused more on realism than most games at the time, although it is by no means extremely hardcore. A nice balance achieved. Spray and pray is ineffective due to more realistic recoil, aim sway, and the aiming deadzone present when not aiming down the sight (your fire is not directed to the center of the screen).

In 2014 it became a full fledged game with so many improvements, especially mechanical ones. This combined with its moddability, free customizable dedicated servers, and superior engine make it one of the absolute best in class when it comes to smaller scale multiplayer modern warfare shooters. It includes many different game modes for both co-op and PvP gameplay.

Killing Floor is just one of hundreds, if not thousands, of total conversion mods for Unreal Tournament 2004. But it is one of few that became its own game and then game franchise. Killing Floor is a cooperative survival FPS franchise, in which players fight mutants (AI) in waves. Killing Floor is all about blood and gore, and also modded content.

Natural Selection 2 is the one that became a full game. It is one of the best supported games of all time, being released in 2012 and constantly receiving patches based on user feedback, new content for free (items/equipment, constructs, skins, maps), and engine updates including a DX11 renderer when it shipped with DX9.

No More Room in Hell is a hardcore zombie co-op game, having both a wave-based survival mode (like Killing Floor) and objective based survival like the campaign of Left 4 Dead. Its emphasis is on realism and teamwork, from shooting mechanics to melee mechanics down to item mechanics (like how voice chat has range limitations that are circumvented by having a walkie-talkie). You can even become infected and turn into a zombie, but you lose control over your character when this happens and are treated as being killed (put into spectator mode). The gameplay design and execution are both wonderful, and objectives often have a bit more depth and challenge than the Left 4 Dead games while remaining logical.

Post Scriptum is a mod that was made for a game (Squad) that conceptually began as a mod. It was a WW2 mod for Squad, although from what we can gather never actually released as a mod and instead became a game from the get go. This game is a hardcore tactical combined arms PvP shooter that ultimately traces its lineage back to Battlefield 2: Project Reality mod, but more on that below.

Another award winning mod. In fact, the reason it became a game is because it won a modding contest that granted the team a free license to Unreal Engine 2.5. Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a very clunky game, but its sequel is one of the best war themed PvP shooters ever made. Rising Storm/Red Orchestra 2 is two games packaged as one, a tremendous value especially when you add on the free mod called Heroes of the West, which as the name implies adds the Western European front from WWII, on top of the already existing Eastern European front and Pacific front.

This franchise has yet another sequel with Rising Storm 2: Vietnam which features helicopter gameplay, so it is as if we finally have worthy sequels to Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield: Vietnam with actual improvements rather than the reductions shown by recent Battlefield games.

This entry follows a continuing trend on our list; successful mod acquired by Valve to become an extremely popular game. Like the aforementioned Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Dota 2, Team Fortress 2 is one of the absolute most played, most popular games on the planet. Like Dota 2, it is Free 2 Play, which along with its item transactions is why these two games generate more money for Valve than the rest of their titles. These two games are also part of the reason why Valve stopped focusing on game development, as they are content with the exorbitant returns here.

But Team Fortress was initially a mod for Quake, not any Valve game. That did not stop it from becoming a Valve game three years later though. Many versions of Team Fortress mod, including v1.0, can still be found on ModDB.

Inspired by Gloom, a Quake 2 mod released in 2002, Tremulous bares some similarity to Natural Selection, but that is said to be coincidence. It is free of charge and has over 3 million downloads. Like Natural Selection, it pits a team of aliens vs a team of humans, and both of them build various structures on the map.

Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 is a team-based multiplayer shooter set, as the name suggests, on the brutal eastern front of World War II, where the Russians and Germans fought a brutal war of attrition. While that setup probably sounds pretty familiar to those of us who've played games such as Battlefield 1942 or even Call of Duty, Red Orchestra manages to differentiate itself. The game offers a hardcore gameplay design that weeds out the arcade-shooter crowd with a meticulous attention to realism, albeit sometimes just for the sake of it.

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