12 Great Total-Conversion Mods To Make Your Old Games Feel Brand New

Total-conversion mods are one of the coolest things about the PC gaming community. Creative and ambitious amateur game developers look at games we love and see things they want to improve, stories they want to tell in that world, and files they want to dig through for missing pieces. Some all-timer games began life as total-conversion mods; Stanley Parable was a Half-Life conversion mod at first, and so was Counter-Strike. Dota was previously called Defense of the Ancients and began life as a (very, very popular) mod for Warcraft 3. DayZ, the multiplayer zombie-survival game, was a mod for Arma III, the complex soldier simulator. All of those games are massive hits in their own rights. Total-conversion mods can introduce an entirely new world to explore with its own story, bring fan-favorite stories and properties into an existing game’s framework, or act as a sequel to a game that won’t get one anytime soon.

Below, we run through some of the best total-conversion mods for a variety of games, including Skyrim, Doom II, FTL, Fallout, and others. For more great ways to spend your time on a PC, check out our picks for the best PC games and best free PC games, as well as the best mods for The Sims 4, Elden Ring, and Stardew Valley.