Re-fight the galactic civil war with this gorgeous Star Wars Empire at War mod

Last year, when we discovered the Star Wars Empire at War Remake mod, Fraser Brown requested to be frozen in carbonite until it was done. I guess we can thaw him out because I just checked the mod page and hot damn. Not only does this mod update the game to cutting-edge visual standards with new models and effects, it adds new units and deepens the game mechanics. The most recent release, the 3.0 update, brought a whole host of new stuff and graphical improvements to the mod. Empire at War is a strategy game released in 2006, and we still consider it to be one of the best space games on PC.

I’m a particular fan of this mod because of its philosophy: It doesn’t really muck with the core game experience or add too much new material, but it does rework what it needs to and adds (optional) much-needed difficulty. Empire at War Remake has also been given the Mod of the Year award by the ModDB community, surprising literally no-one. It won the same in 2018 as well. Here’s a bunch of pretty pictures of the mod in action:

Image 1 of 4

You can get Star Wars Empire at War and its expansion, which you’ll need for the mod, pretty cheaply on Steam or GOG, just $6.99 for the winter sale. You can check out Empire at War Remake: Galactic Civil War on ModDB, or go straight to the 3.0 update. The mod community also has a Discord server.

Oh, I was going to thaw Fraser out. Maybe I will after a few hours of Empire at War...

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.