I don’t have much to write about, but half life These days, even if fans are absolutely certain a threequel is coming. I still don’t think Gabe Newell can rate it that highly, but at least he has an army of loyal modders to create new experiences for Gordon Freeman to explore. Most of my gaming time this year has been spent playing through mods, so I was eagerly anticipating ModDB’s annual roundup of the best mods of 2025. We players voted for the top mods of the year, and the results are finally out.
Good news, Half-Life fans. More than half of the top 10 mods are for Valve’s iconic FPS. Sure, it’s a mainstay on our list of the best PC games of all time, but with five entries, Jeremy? That’s insane. Despite all the great Half-Life mods being released this year, it was another game that pushed the classic to the top spot.
For now, I’ll stick with Half-Life. Zero Signal, Half-Life: Insecure, Raising the Bar: Retail, Half-Life Extended, and Diffusion were all voted into the Top 10 MODs of 2025. The latter two were number 3 and number 2 on the list, respectively. And those nominations are completely well-deserved. Diffusion in particular is a complete transformation mod set in its own world, where SWAT soldier James Smith explores a mysterious sand processing facility that’s not exactly what it seems.
However, my favorite is Half-Life: Insecure, which allows you to play through the events of the Black Mesa Incident from the perspective of security officer Andrew Cooper.
However, we also show some love to Not Half-Life mods. The fun Command and Conquer mod comes in at #10. Tiberian Odyssey tells an all-new story set 11 years after the events of Tiberian Sun: Firestorm, while improving graphics, multiplayer, and adding an all-new soundtrack.
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is also getting some love with the fan-made expansion Horn of the Abyss. This nomination recognizes the 17 years of work that went into this mod. Duke Nukem and Quake 2 are also on the list, but the top spot goes to Golden Gate 2: Goddess Heart, a mod for Gothic 2.
In a surprising choice, Goddess Heart completely overhauls Gothic 2: Night of the Raven. The world of Jarkendal becomes Samoa (a fictional island rather than a real country), and the story is told by the Goddess Heart as Morris explores the dark past of the cultists of Hasia.
What’s more, Gothic 2 is also on sale until January 5th (Monday). You can purchase it here. You can also check out the complete ModDB results here. Here are the top 10 as determined by ModDB voters:
- 10. Command and Conquer: Tiberias Odyssey (Command and Conquer: Tiberias Sun)
- 9. Horn of the Abyss (Heroes of Might and Magic 3)
- 8. Zero Signal – An Entropy: Zero 2 Mod (Half-Life 2: Episode Two)
- 7. Voxel Duke Nukem 3D (Duke Nukem 3D)
- 6. Half-life: Unsafe (Half-life)
- 5. Call of the Void (Quake 2)
- 4. Raising the Bar: Retail (Half-Life 2: Episode 2)
- 3. Half-life: Extended (Half-life)
- 2. Diffusion (half-life)
- 1. Golden Gate 2: Goddess Heart (Gothic 2 – The Night of the Raven)
Admittedly, I didn’t expect the Gothic 2 mod to dethrone other mods, but now I have the urge to play it. Maybe you’ve completed the three OG Half-Life mods and still haven’t played them.
