With the release of Fallout 3, the post-apocalyptic role-playing game series was no longer the same as before.
Gone were the days of isometric views and complex RPG rules, and welcome were the days of first-person combat and exploration.
With an expanded experience, also came expanded modding options.
Being such a sprawling game, there was plenty of room for modders to have some fun. Plus the Fallout 3 modding scene is so active, that the game is still receiving mods today that try to keep the game fresh.
Picking a handful for this list was a very difficult task. But I love the Wasteland so much, that I’ve ventured out of the Vault of the vanilla game to bring you the very best must-have Fallout 3 mods.
If you’re a huge fan of mods, you really can’t skip the incredibly useful Fallout 3 Mod Manager.
This mod doesn’t just provide a way to keep track of all the mods currently installed for the game… it also prevents failed installations from messing up your game.
Plus it can upgrade mods automatically and even turn them on and off at will.
And if you’re a modder, the Mod Manager also provides some useful tools that will make your quest to change the Capital Wasteland much easier.
Fallout 3 followers see an increase in their happiness of over 150% after their leader installs the Followers Relax mod, a study from the Roosevelt Academy reveals.
The Followers Relax mod changes the basic “Wait” AI package from “Guard” to “Sandbox”.
This means your followers will not just stand there once they’re told to wait… Instead they’ll move around the immediate location and even interact with the environment.
They really look like normal people now, don’t they?
Even in 2008, Fallout 3 was far from being the best looking game out there.
While locations were alright, human characters definitely were not.
Fallout 3 Redesigned fixes the appearance of most NPCs in the game by redesigning their facial structures, and removing the weird skin tone that made humans look like another monstrous byproduct of the nuclear holocaust.
Note this mod is not compatible with others that change NPCs, so make sure to deactivate this to avoid messing up your game if you install some others.
Time for some painless renovation work, Vault Dwellers!
The Megaton House and Theme Overhaul mod brings a complete internal and external redesign of the Megaton House.
This includes new furniture that better matches the new design, and a brand new basement featuring weapon displays, Armory Storage, and all those facilities you expect to find in a post-apocalyptic house.
But you’ll have to work to get into the basement: complete the mini-quests and enjoy the benefits of renovation.
Sydney is an extremely faithful companion, and one that has a lot to teach players.
Sadly, she stays with us for a very short time. But modders are here once again to save the day!
And to save a beautiful friendship.
The Sydney Follower mod allows you to make Syndey a follower, introducing new dialogues, side quests, and more stuff that’ll let you get to know this character better, and receive her aid whenever needed.
She doesn’t even feel tacked on, as all new dialogues are fully voiced and complete with lypsynch. Modders give what Bethesdoesn’t.
Maps are very important in sprawling role-playing games. But sometimes, it seems like developers forget that a well-detailed map only makes the game better.
While the Fallout 3 map is more than decent, it pales in comparison to the new, highly-detail map introduced by the Better High Detail Map and Icons.
The tweaks are pretty lengthy so it would take a while to list them all… just do yourself a favor and check out the mod page, you’ll be impressed.
You get perfectly balanced gameplay, and someone changes it up. You get decent graphics, but someone thinks they can do better. And we thank them for it!
NMC’s Texture Pack is an amazing pack that brings new, high-quality textures for terrain, trees, interiors, exteriors, and most vehicles.
This effectively improves the game’s visuals considerably, no matter if you’re playing on an old laptop with a 720p resolution, or on your brand new 4K monitor.
I don’t know about you, but I think energy weapons in Fallout 3 are pretty bad.
In the vanilla game, that is.
Energy Weapons Advanced completely overhauls the behavior of energy weapons by tweaking damage, critical hit rate, status effects, fire rate, and more.
It also brings new weapons lifted from the first two entries of the series, plus Fallout Tactics, into Fallout 3. I think in the attempt to heal you from the most dangerous sickness of the Capital Wasteland: nostalgia.
Now that energy weapons have been made awesome, Fallout 3 has become even more awesome. But there’s still something missing.
The Energy Visuals Enhanced brings that oomph factor that the Fallout 3 energy weapons lack.
It introduces 32 new animated critical kills, plus new enhanced projectiles, new animated impacts, new textures for all laser and plasma weapons, new sounds, and pretty much anything you can think of that can improve the feel of these weapons.
Tenpenny Tower is an already majestic location in the Capital Wasteland. But anything can be made better.
This Tenpenny Tower Reborn mod tries to improve pretty much everything regarding the iconic location, from visuals to quests and events that happen inside of it.
Without spoiling anything, we’ll just say that a quest with a very sad outcome has been tweaked so you’ll have the chance to end things in a much better way!
If you want to make the many weapons in Fallout 3 feel unique, this Weapon Mod Kits is worth snagging.
It’s a modification that works in conjunction with the Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition mod, to introduce the ability for you to… well, mod mod weapons.
You can do this with stuff like silencers, extended magazines, auto-fire mechanisms, and more.
And each weapon mod also improves weapon durability, so you really have no reason to skip this mod as soon as you start the game: you’ll be thankful for it later.
Do you know what I really like in role-playing games?
Having multiple interface options. The same ones Fallout 3 is missing.
With the game’s vanilla user interface not being particularly customizable, the DarNified UI is a true godsend. Because it adds smaller fonts, better clarity for items in lists, scaling of several elements, plus other visual changes that makes everything cleaner and much more functional.
I didn’t buy a 4K monitor to see letters take up half the screen, after all!
Don’t worry, I haven’t just gone mad. I’m talking about FOOK 2, the Fallout Overhaul Kit, which adds hundreds of new items, high-quality retextures, and many new gameplay features to boot.
Great care went into the creation of the new gameplay mechanics here, as they’re perfectly balanced and fully integrated into the game.
Take a deep dive into the Fallout universe lore with one of the best quest mods ever released for Fallout 3.
A Note Easily Missed allows you to learn more about the lives of several different individuals before the nuclear holocaust happened, and the world changed forever.
This mod features a lot of reading and a lot of puzzle-solving.
So it may not be for everyone.
But it is worth a shot for those who enjoy the series lore.
Given the state of the Capital Wasteland, you may think that regular weapons wouldn’t be enough to take down all these pesky mutants.
Oh, how wrong you are.
20th Century Weapons proves how a good old fashioned AK-74, a Desert Eagle, or a Remington M-24 are more than enough to show anything in Fallout 3 that you really mean business.
And it couldn’t be any other way, with over 900 new weapons at your disposal: surviving the post-atomic apocalypse has never been more fun!
But I have to admit that the green tint looks horrible, no matter how you look at it.
Thankfully, you don’tt have to put up with it thanks to modding.
Fellout is a weather and lighting mod that gets rid of the awful green tint, and makes a few tweaks to give the Capital Wasteland a slightly different feel that’s closer to our own world, but still rather ominous.
It’s a feeling that most Fallout 3 players will appreciate, as it’s way more pleasing to the eye.
It took a long time, but Vault 101 finally opened its door and established contact with the outside world.
But did this influence the life of its dwellers? Time to find out.
Vault 101 Revisited is among the best Fallout 3 quest mods ever made.
It features a story that doesn’t stray too far from canon, but still gives players ample possibilities on how to deal with the new quests and steer the destiny of the Vault.
Highly recommended, especially if your character is strong enough to deal with the dangers ahead.
ThisCombat Overhaul mod, which is an add-on for the Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition mod, introduces tons of combat changes which aim to make the game way more hardcore.
There’s nothing more hardcore in a first-person game than a dynamic crosshair which grows and shrinks to show your current weapon’s accuracy.
Fallout 3 Wanderers Edition isn’t just a simple mod that’ll spice up your experience for a few minutes, then return you to the vanilla game.
No, it’s a massive overhaul. And one you’ll not want to play without once you try it.
Listing all of the changes here would take quite a while. Definitely check out the mod page for more details, but as a quick overview: the Wanderers Edition changes the game’s fundamental mechanics, while keeping a very tight balance to present an experience that’s radically different from the vanilla game.
As the saying goes, seeing is believing! Absolutely give this one a try.
Not just for the mutants that prowl all over, but also for the inordinate amount of bugs you have to deal with.
And no, I’m not talking about insects.
The Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch brings a lot of fixes to both the base game and the DLC packs. And it restores cut content, or at least the stuff that can be integrated properly into the game.
There’s actually plenty of it, so if you know the Wasteland like the back of your hand, this mod will improve your next playthrough on a lot of different levels.
