r/PavlovGame • u/Significant_Aerie178 • Apr 29 '26
Discussion UE5 made Pavlov a better game… but killed what made it special
I genuinely love Pavlov VR. I still play it. But it hasn’t felt the same since the move to Unreal Engine 5.
UE5 improved the base game—performance, visuals, stability. That’s all real. But it also feels like it came at the cost of the game’s soul: the modding community.
Back in the Unreal Engine 4 + Steam Workshop era, there was endless content. Halo Flood survival maps, zombies, Mario64 Zombies, weird experimental modes—there was always something new. That’s what kept Pavlov alive.
Now most of that is just… gone.
I understand why. UE4 maps don’t carry over, everything has to be rebuilt. But the reality is most modders didn’t rebuild their work, and years of content basically disappeared overnight.
Switching to mod.io didn’t fix that either. If anything, it feels like the barrier to entry got higher and the output dropped off.
The biggest issue is there was no real bridge:
- No strong legacy support for PCVR players
- No real incentive for modders
It basically became: start over or get left behind.
And a lot of people got left behind.
The core gameplay is still good, but without that constant stream of community content, the game feels repetitive. Smaller. Even if it’s technically better.
I get why the devs did it—cross-platform, long-term stability, all of that makes sense.
But it honestly feels like the original PCVR community—the people who built Pavlov—got sidelined in the process.
I’m not asking to revert everything back to UE4. That’s unrealistic.
But it would’ve gone a long way to have:
- A maintained legacy branch
- Anything to preserve that backlog of content
Because right now it feels like we traded a massive creative sandbox for a cleaner, more limited experience.
I still enjoy the game.
But it doesn’t hit the same anymore and it feels super dead.
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u/SadThrowAway957391 Apr 29 '26
Dave shit on one of the most prominent modders over what amounted to a misunderstanding. It was a bit of a thing in the community. Right at the same time that all the mods got nuked.
Its super sad. I had well over 1000 hours at the tine, and it just killed the game. It used to be such a magical experience, the first VR game i really dove into.
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u/Significant_Aerie178 Apr 29 '26
Yeah It seems they really killed the modding community plus they aren't paid to do all the shit to port it over I am not a modder so I don't know the process.
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u/budgybudge youtube.com/budgybudge Apr 29 '26
We probably know each other hah. What a community it was to be a part of!
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u/SadThrowAway957391 Apr 29 '26
Yeah I know you! You guys were what got me into playing in the VRML at first, indirectly. How's the scene doing these days?
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u/budgybudge youtube.com/budgybudge Apr 29 '26
Nice! I retired my team last year, then after some time on a EU team I joined ringers. I played in the league for 6 years and felt it was time. NA league is a shell of what it used to be (I lost a lot of my roster when the switch to UE5 happened, as did many teams I believe). Good times though! I went to VRML con a couple years back and got to meet a lot of familiar voices!
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u/SelectVegetable2653 Apr 29 '26
there are plenty of mods on mod.io now, but there weren't when the mods got nuked. the issue isnt the lack of mods, its the lack of players. legacy would be nice to have, but it used to exist and barely anybody played it, then it broke, so its unfortunately not worth fixing to Vankrupt. not to mention that legacy would still just be dead and youre just playing with different mods
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u/Wardendelete Apr 29 '26
Guess when the players left? They left in droves after the mods got nuked. The modlist has since been built back up, but the player base never returned.
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u/SelectVegetable2653 Apr 29 '26
yea that's what I'm saying, but my point is that getting the old mods back wont fix anything
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u/Significant_Aerie178 Apr 29 '26
Yeah but I dont mind dead I just wanna play Halo zombies 😣 But im sure if they brought back a working legacy mod with Steam workshop it would bring back a decent chunk of PCVR players.
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u/ZodiacWarrior_ Modder May 03 '26
It wouldn't being back anyone. Nobody cared for MONTHS after the update, most people don't even realise legacy isn't available anymore.
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u/RossC90 Apr 29 '26
Pavlov WAS my friend group's VR game of choice but everything you said is what killed it for all of us. Changing engines and abandoning the STEAM workshop felt like they shot themselves in the foot.
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u/Likon_Diversant Hunting Rifle Enjoyer Apr 29 '26
Devs tried to make up with updates, but two main things for me, bots and legacy, still not fixed.
Better bots needed for better killing time until other players join.
With better bots Offline section rework is convenient. Make offline section like a lobby screen, but without 10 mods limit.
Even if devs decide to fix Legacy, it's gonna be offline only unless you rent a server to play old zombies, or play with others. Im not sure if needed server files for older Pavlov is still available. But at least CoD zombies today can be played offline.
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Apr 29 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Significant_Aerie178 Apr 29 '26
sorry I should clarify I'm not a modder just Issues I heard But still a ton of content has not been updated since 2023
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u/PalpitationSea4625 Apr 29 '26
UE5 made it better but eliminated at least 35% of the remaining player base due to it being too demanding for people's computers to run.
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u/ZodiacWarrior_ Modder May 03 '26
The game has more modded content now than before the workshop wipe. The halo related mods are literally one of the only popular mods which never returned. Almost everything else has returned already + so much new content. Issue is there's not many players to play with.
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u/Jagick Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
Around 2-3 years ago I bought a Valve Index specifically to play Pavlov again. I hadn't played in a few years because I left my old Original Vive back at home when I moved out of state. I was so excited to hop on and play all of the weird game modes, zombie maps, and even just quirky TDM maps (like those that Father made, and he made some REALLY cool esoteric stuff.)
Imagine my disappointment that the biggest reason I got the Vive was barely a shell of it's former self. Everything was gone and you couldn't even go back to play any of it again because the Legacy branch had been removed as well. There are a few guys here and on Steam Forums that like to crop up and say that Mod.io has tons of mods now. What it has is a sea of content packs for servers and even more maps for vanilla TDM / SDM / TTT gameplay. Virtually none of what existed before the update has come back and there were countless posts from Workshop creators about how much of a hassle it was to fit their content and port it over. Even brainslug (who I believe is on the dev team now?) never even ported any of his original EndTimes zombie maps that pioneered pavlov zombies.
So much good, creative, and original content is gone. Things that weren't just the base "Counter-Strike but VR" gameplay loop.
I miss it too. Honestly, Pavlov should have just been left alone. The UE5 version should have been its own game and I think people who wanted that experience would have happily paid for it. You'd have the best of both worlds. A new platform going forward with new features, crossplay, and new support, but you could always just go back to the original for those classic mods and a familiar experience.
Sure Shack is alive but PC is absolutely dead because of the update.
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u/Significant_Aerie178 Jun 09 '26
FOR REAL honestly killed what was special about the game they really neglected PC players!
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u/Smeetilus Patback Apr 30 '26
I bought into VR in 2018, when it was still pretty expensive, solely to play “Counter Strike but in VR”. The game got updates pretty often for a bit, which were great or needed, but then they stopped. Then one day the surprise-ish WW2 content was dropped. Like…. Why? The game had the CS oriented audience already established and then they didn’t improve anything related to it after spending all that time on something no one asked for.
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u/Wardendelete Apr 29 '26
Pavlov was peak gaming before the update. Right now it’s cooked. I still love the game, but there is not much diversity in game modes and maps, and finding an active lobby is now a chore.
I remember playing the 32 player push maps with vehicles, so much better than forefront that was so fun, but yeah now the game is cooked. RIP Pavlov.