SPAWNED FROM MODS

FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS THESE IMPRESSIVE GAMES WERE BORN

TEAM FORTRESS 2

■ Counter-strike and Team Fortress 2 have shared histories: both had a heritage in Quake modding, both were released as mods for Half-life and both had their mod teams hired by Valve and incorporated into the company and went on to become one of the most recognisable shooters in gaming history.

DEFENCE OF THE ANCIENTS

■ Built on Warcraft III’S engine and leveraging its hero character system to build an Rpg-like multiplayer experience, Dota became so widely popular that it would directly lead to the creation of League Of Legends, Dota 2 and from there countless other MOBAS in a craze reminiscent of the RTS boom of the Nineties.

THE FORGOTTEN CITY

■ While not as well-known as some of the others in this list, The Forgotten City is a narrative-driven murder mystery Skyrim mod set in Ancient Rome. We won’t spoil it, but know that in 2016 it became the first ever mod to win a Writers’ Guild award for its script, and was released as a standalone game in 2021 to unanimous praise for its story. Play this one.

THE STANLEY PARABLE

■ Playing as the eponymous Stanley, you’ll navigate the corridors of his office trying to figure out why, suddenly, he’s all alone. The twist is the fact that Stanley’s actions are constantly being narrated by an ethereal voiceover, and through that, a deeperthan-you-expected twisting and mysterious metanarrative unfolds. Not bad for a Half-life 2 mod.

DAYZ

■ Dean Hall created a mod for Arma 2 that proved to be so popular that it would end up overshadowing the base game it was built on. Dayz was a zombie survival mod built on Arma’s hyper realistic military gunplay, and was a direct precursor to the once-trendy battle royale subgenre of shooter.