Like the title! I normally am very critical of Expansions, but sometimes they build upon the base game in very unique ways. I love Dead Money for Fallout: New Vegas, it has the sharpest character writing and turns the game into a Survival Horror experience while remaining authentically “Fallout.”
What are y’all’s thoughts?
Red Alert 2: Yuri’s Revenge is a shining example of what an expansion can be. A lot of refined mechanics, better fleshed out factions (plus one new one!) and three new campaigns with just as many FMV cutscenes as the previous iterarion.
Honorable mention and this kinda doesn’t count but Mental Omega is a mod for Yuri’s Revenge that has between 3 to 4 times more content than the base game. There’s a dozen subfactions split between four subfactions and inregrates features from later C&C games while introducing a lot of it’s own stuff. It has some “borrowed” voice lines from other games but there are some units that have original voices which is pretty cool. No FMV video though. It’s suprisingly deep for what it was based off of and it has become one of my favorite RTS experiences.
Side note:
This is such an unpopular opinion of mine but while Dead Money is cool my favorite of the FONV expansions was Old World Blues because of the goofiness of the characters contrasted with the manmade horrors of the big empty. I found Lonesome Road to be meh and Honest Hearts to be uncomfortable with how it seems to embrace the concept of the “White Man’s Burden” uncritically.
This is such an unpopular opinion of mine but while Dead Money is cool my favorite of the FONV expansions was Old World Blues because of the goofiness of the characters contrasted with the manmade horrors of the big empty.
Unpopular? Thought that was the standard! Love for Dead Money was the spicy take, most fans loved OWB or LR to my knowledge.
Maybe things have changed over time, haha
Diablo II LoD, Everquest Ruins Of Kunark + Scars Of Velious, Sims Hot Date + Vacation, STALKER Call Of Pripyat, Half Life 2 Episode 2, Star Wars Galaxies Jump To Lightspeed. All goodies I played through the years that actually added onto the core gameplay of the original games like a good expansion pack should.
I miss the era of expansion packs, miss me with that “dlc” or “add on” nonsense.
Yep, even when it comes to Fallout 4, the fact that Far Harbor was large enough to contain all of the necessary elements to build a cool new cohesive location, expand on playstyles, and provide a complete narrative vs how empty Nuka World and Automatron were is where I draw big inspiration.
Shadow of the Erdtree has frustrating parts, but is ultimately a prime example of an Expansion vs DLC. Same with Phantom Liberty, for the same reasons as Far Harbor.
Not sure if it counts as an expansion, but Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix: introduced critical mode difficulty. The best difficulty mode and combat in the KH series which required you to use every tool in Sora’s toolkit. Absolute kino.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne: I know it brought the controversial clutch claw mechanic, but I played gunlance and could just ignore it lol. G-rank difficulty, a bunch of QoL changes, a great roster of endgame monsters, and endless grinding mode, the Guiding Lands.
Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak: After the really disappointing and lacking Rise endgame, Sunbreak comes out and brings back the monster hunting in Monster Hunter. Weapon balancing, more wirebug moves, insane armor sets and abilities, armor skill customization and rerolls, fan favorite endgame monsters are back, npc followers can join you on hunts, and endless monster grinding is back. Just a complete 180 on the opinion I had on base game Rise, it saved this generation of Monster Hunter.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade: got a lot of great memories playing this since this was the only expansion I was in a chill raiding guild and we got furthest progression on our server. Horde got paladins and I rerolled to Blood Elf paladin, my favorite class. Played a lot of PvP and did well in arena.
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade: got a lot of great memories playing this since this was the only expansion I was in a chill raiding guild and we got furthest progression on our server. Horde got paladins and I rerolled to Blood Elf paladin, my favorite class. Played a lot of PvP and did well in arena.
I mucked around a bit with this at launch, it was my intro to WoW. I only did a few of the dungeons as horde and played a druid. Been meaning to try out a classic private server sometime and see some of the stuff I never got to see on retail.
Total Annihilation: The Core Contingency, back when an expansion pack was something you bought boxed at a store.
StarCraft: Brood War was also nice, but I always liked Total Annihilation more.
dark souls 3’s the ringed city dlc is pretty perfect imo (though halflight is pretty hit or miss)
i’ve never cared about playing the game properly but age of mythology’s titans expansion is great.
warcraft 3: the frozen throne for sure
gonna also say spore: galactic adventures for the meme
