The Battlezone series back in the 90’s took two vastly different genres - the First Person Shooter and the Real-Time Strategy - and mashed them together in a fantastically quaint Frankenstein-like manner that in the face of all odds turned out to be a great gameplay hook. Not a whole lot of games have done that since, which is why a full graphical remaster of Battlezone II released this year as Battlezone: Combat Commander filled that same niche once more.
The remaster, which left pretty much everything save graphics untouched, recaptured the wonder of the original title and quickly accrued a large player base. Thanks to full Steam Workshop integration, a lively modding community sprung up in no time, with the still warm-out-of-the-over title boasting a large mod library already. Battlezone, on its own, is already a blast, but plenty of oft-praised games have taught us that everything can be improved with mods, so we’ve collected some of the best.
Battlezone: Combat Commander Mods - Old vs New
Download From Steam Workshop
Created by: Nielk1
Ah, yes, the wonders of modding. Back in 1999 you had the original game, then in 2018 the remaster was released with mod support only so that someone can go and import all the original '99 models and textures into the new game, so that the remaster looks like the old game. Magnificent! The models appear and separate factions from the stock ISDF and Scion, and while it seems like a joke on first glance, it also proves that the future may hold custom faction mods.
Battlezone: Combat Commander Mods - HD Soundpack
Download From Steam Workshop
Created by: BlackHawk
This mod replaces most of the sound files in the game with ones edited to be clearer, cleaner and sometimes modified. While the first two aspects are a universal improvement, it's up to you to decide whether the actual changes to the sounds are better. Weapon discharges got the most attention in this regard, though minor tweaks will be audible in others too. It's not a major overhaul or anything, just a small adjustment that does a long way to improving your enjoyment of the game. It's compatible with all modes, and pretty much every other mod.
Battlezone: Combat Commander Mods - Remodeled Furies with Recycler Variant
Download From Steam Workshop
Created by: Rocket3497
This mod adds two new units that can be built by both factions. The Fury unit has a regular, offensive variant as well as a recycler variant, and is a powerful war machine which seems particularly effective against AI opponents. The mod is fully compatible with all game modes, and can be used in multiplayer.
Battlezone: Combat Commander Mods - HUD: Cut Corner Colorize
Download From Steam Workshop
Created by: Nielk1
While the graphics of the 1999 game were remastered, the UI remained untouched, and... it shows its age, to say the very least. This minor mod attempts to make things better without any radical changes. More color is added to make things easier to navigate, and the colored backdrops for the menu options were altered somewhat to be more sci-fi-esque and less blocky and plain.
Battlezone: Combat Commander is still a real fresh release, so as time goes on we'll be seeing a whole lot more mods worthy of being on this list, but the community needs to be given some time to get things truly rolling.
