# 9 Best DLCs That Were Even Better Than the Base Game

> DLCs that turned base games into wilder, weirder adventures.
- Title: 9 Best DLCs That Were Even Better Than the Base Game · Polygon
- Summary: DLCs that turned base games into wilder, weirder adventures. Nine video game expansions created unforgettable experiences by taking their main story and…
- Keywords: dlc, video games, expansion packs, gaming, polygon, the witcher 3, fallout new vegas, mass effect 3, saints row 4, borderlands 2, red dead redemption, elder scrolls 4 oblivion
- Source: Polygon — https://polygon.com/best-dlcs-video-games
- Author: Rebecca Corgan
- Published: 2026-10-19T02:24:58+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: dlc, video games, expansion packs, gaming, polygon, the witcher 3, fallout new vegas, mass effect 3, saints row 4, borderlands 2, red dead redemption, elder scrolls 4 oblivion
## Fallout: New Vegas &ndash; Old World Blues
Your brain gets stolen by talking robot scientists and you chase it down in a jar.

> Obsidian’s expansion to the sixth major Fallout game opens with the Courier waking up on an operating table in a secret 1950s research facility called Big MT, missing their brain, heart, and spine.
## Mass Effect 3 &ndash; Citadel
You fistfight a clone of yourself in a museum and throw a dinner party for the entire crew.

> By the time Mass Effect 3: Citadel dropped, protagonist Commander Shepard had spent two full games holding the galaxy together through sheer force of will.
## Saints Row 4 &ndash; Gat Out of Hell
You fly through actual hell on demon wings to stop the president from marrying Satan.

> Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell escalates from there… somehow. Satan has struck a deal with the alien overlord Zinyak, and part of the arrangement involves marrying off the Boss to seal it.
## Borderlands 2 &ndash; Tiny Tina&rsquo;s Assault on Dragon Keep
A teenage bomb expert narrates the entire game as a D&D campaign with a made-up dragon.

> For just one DLC, Borderlands 2 stops being a sci-fi looter shooter and becomes a tabletop RPG, narrated live by teenage bomb expert Tiny Tina as she runs her homebrew “Bunkers & Badasses” campaign.
## Red Dead Redemption &ndash; Undead Nightmare
John Marston hunts Bigfoot and fights zombie hordes in a co-op survival mode.

> Red Dead Redemption spends its entire runtime being a slow, mournful ode to the vanishing American West.
## The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion &ndash; Shivering Isles
You become the new god of madness by winning a jester-and-jailer power struggle.

> Cyrodiil, The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion ’s main setting, is a fairly conventional medieval fantasy province.
## The Sims 4 &ndash; StrangerVille
Your Sim goes grocery shopping in a town secretly infected by a parasitic alien hive-mind.

> The Sims has generally been a chill, cozy game about paying bills, building relationships, and occasionally setting a kitchen on fire.
## The Witcher 3 &ndash; Hearts of Stone
You crash a wedding, fight a man’s reflection, and cut a deal with a merchant who’s running all of existence.

> Most of The Witcher 3 is about monster contracts and continent-spanning politics.
## Outer Wilds &ndash; Echoes of the Eye
A space mystery hides a village that erased its own memory… plus something in the dark that’s stalking you.

> Outer Wilds is a gentle, melancholy game about looping through the last 22 minutes before a sun dies.
## Key takeaway

Nine video game expansions created unforgettable experiences by taking their main story and adding creative, unexpected twists.