This mod is fantastic; it'll keep you entertained for hours. The only downside is that if you don't add extra difficulty with other mods, there's really no real challenge, but overall it's good. I put it on a server two years ago, and people got way too overpowered.

At just 2% of its intended goal, dungeon now loading has already cemented itself as the pinnacle of Adventure and exploration mods.

Through just two vast and creative takes on existing underexplored dungeons, it possesses enough gameplay to last hours - through exploration, tricky yet engaging puzzles, and a rewarding boss at the end of each dungeon.

This might seem generic to you, because a bunch of other mods also do the same, but this mod has a different feel to it. I don;t; know if it's just me, maybe I glaze it too much, but I feel like it understands the systems the base game has in place, and treats it with respect - naturally progressing aspects of the game in both subtle and prideful manners.

Take the Labyrinth, one of two structures. It is truly labyrinthine, with numerous spawners (as it takes inspiration from a monster room), prison cells, maze like puzzles, loot and geared out mobs. It may feel like an overwhelming slog, but the rooms are all handcrafted, the puzzles related to "durite quellers" (central theme of the labyrinth) are actually pretty nifty, the spawner rewards are competitive for the stage in the game, and the boss with its signature OST is fun, along with the thoughtful multiplayer and respawn mechanics.

Even though the first dungeon received a fantastic new overhaul to match the quality of the second, the second blows it out of the water. I would say that the mod is worth it just to experience and interact with pre-existing systems of the game in a way one might not have thought of.

And the craziest part, for me, is the scope. 2%?? You mean you'll pump out 98 more masterpieces like this?? If it's not the best mod in this category right now, I have no doubt it will be in the future.

Overview

An exceptional waste of time in my opinion. I always struggle with raw kitchen sink packs because what is there to review? The modpack offers nothing special outside of it's mod selection, which is not particularly unique. But, oh wait! The ATM team has got us covered because they bravely added the ATM STAR!

The ATM Star

What is it?

Wowy, surely it's a cool item... yeah about that. The ATM star only exists to craft creative only item, which on the surface isn't particularly bad. I have played packs in the past which do let you obtain way over-powered items, the caveat being you have to earn them. And well, I'm not going to say it's simple to get an ATM star, the tiny mini problem is that you can get to a place where you are essentially invincible and have stacks upon stacks of precious metals and stone. Then you encounter the ATM Star wall. Yay.

How do you get it?

The Star requires some of the most ******** grinding I have seen in any modpack. Oh, but what about GT:NH. Well, my dear Gregtech: New Horizon is a wonderfully engineered pack where the attention to detail is truly incomparable. Your experience is tailored specifically to never, at any point go on a pointless five hour side quest to obtain one item, which is useless except for one single recipe for another pretty useless item! Oh, sorry did I say one item? I MEAN ALL OF THEM! Their all some random *** items that are add by the ATM Team exclusively to craft the ATM Star or is some random *** expensive item from some random mod which normally you would never even want to make!

How does the star connect with the rest of the modpack?

IT DOESN'T! Non of the modpack does anything special, it's just a bundle of 500+ mods! The guide book is useless, there is not cohesion the ATM Star is essentially another disconnected random mod! Nothing is modified, you try Mekanism? It's just Mekanism. Mystical Agriculture? Just Mystical Agriculture. RFTools... oh well no that's actually THE SAME THING. Well what about their mod choices? They spun a wheel, added it in, if the game didn't crash they gave a thumbs up. You know when a modpack's devs gave zero ***** when they add both Refined Storage and AE2. Pointless.

What about the rest of the pack?

Abominable.

Aesthetics

Generic modern Minecraft vanilla plus and that is WHEN the team actually added something of their own. It's so common and generic I am completely desensitized to it. It's like a corporate website.

Other Additions

Oh, sorry my mistake! The ATM Star is but one of the items they added. How about another one. Allthemodium. Allthemodium is a special metal you can obtain in the End... it's has some upgrade like Unobtanium... getting to Unobtainum takes like max 2 hours from Allthemodium... it's op gear in the most Minecraft sense, high defense and high damage. I hate it.

Well, how do you know you haven't even finished the pack!

Finished? What the **** do you mean finished?! Do you mean obtaining the ATM Star cause brother I would prefer to play GT:NH no block than this.

Surely there's some good?

... I mean it didn't goatsee me I guess???

Librewolf wanted me to write this for some reason so here. Rutherfordium. I hope you're happy.

The core gameplay of this modpack is mostly gregtech with many different automation challenges which become increasingly complex but with increasingly better logistical tools to keep it manageable. Not only do progression steps into new technological ages feel significant, as you get way stronger. It actually feels like you actually earn every new advancement with the solutions you thought of and created.

GTNH is probably the most developed modpack ever made, sharing the title of "The hardest modpack in minecraft" with some other modpacks. Yet this description depends completely on how you define hardest. Depending on your experience with modded minecraft this modpack can take some learning. Some people feel they are "bad" at this modpack after playing 10 hours, but I would recommend seeing it not as something you inherently suck at but as a skill which you can train and become better at, it is incredible what you can accomplish after learning the smaller steps in a process and combining them together.
However complex this modpack is there is a questbook explaining everything you could want, many GTNH specific youtube tutorials on more complicated gregtech mechanics and even a discord server where any question gets answered. As such I do not believe this to be hardest modpack as long as you are willing to seek out the information required to beat it.

This modpack takes an enormous amount of time to complete as such your goal shouldn't be to complete it but rather enjoy the journey it takes you on.

Regarding the experience of this modpack I would say it is incredible and would recommend anyone and everyone to try it just to figure out if it is something you would like.

A common complaint from newcomers is that the Minecraft version is 1.7.10, I would however state that this is not an issue when actually playing the modpack, modern features are backported with the et futurum requiem mod. Your framerate is higher then in modern version because of the many modpack specific optimizations made over the last 10 years of development. If the textures bother you download the Modernity texture pack for GTNH(easily found on google).

All in all I would recommend people do not dismiss this modpack because of how this modpack is portayed by some people.

Explanation for my star ratings:

Gameplay: This modpack might not be for you, however if it is for you this modpack is more polished, rewarding, and expansive then any other modpack out there. Just trust me on this and play it.

Performance: probably the best running modpack ever, obviously some skyblock modpacks will have higher framerates due to there being no blocks. This modpack has the fastest chunk loading and highest framerate I have ever seen in a modpack after playing over 50 of them over the course of around 3000 hours. This is mostly because there are multiple developer optimizing this modpack specifically for the last 10 years.

Aesthetics: The easthetics is 4.0 since there isnt a specific theme which would make this a 5.0 and also some of the 1.7.10 shaders can feel outdated compared to some specialized modern ones. The realistic shader options are however pretty descent for this version. There are however multiple modpack specific texture packs which bump this rating up a bit(like modernity, or uu-tex, and a couple others).

Overview

While I admit "Once and Future King" may be a little over kill if we're talking about the catagory of "Vanilla Biome Overhauls" It might be just that, It depends what you're looking for as a player. If you want the most flashy mod out there then this isn't it, Something more along the lines of Biomes o plenty is what you're looking for.

But if you want a simple high quality overhaul to vanilla biomes this mod really does do just that and it does it well. Other than the same issues a lot of biome mods might face compared to vanilla generation like some structure mods being coded with vanilla biomes in might there really isn't much to complain about here. If I asked for more detail that really would be defeating the point of the simplicity of the mod.

While it may be getting into the territory of overused in the same way as mods like farmers delight and create I think with the right implementation it stands as one of the best biome mods out there.

Reviewer's PC Specs:
Windows 11
AMD Ryzen™ 9 7900 @ 3.70GHz - RAM: 32 GB
AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT - VRAM: 16 GB

I LOVE so many features of this mod, and I try to include it in any modpack I play.

The problem is, Dynamic Trees is always the first mod to crash, is slightly too performance-heavy in forests and jungles, and it isn't compatible with many other mods.

I would play this mod in every single modpack if it wasn't performance heavy and cause so many crashes and incompatibility issues, especially with other common mods. Hopefully this has improved in newer updates, but it seems to be a very common occurrence.

I highly recommend, but try at your own risk!

Biome's O' Plenty: One of the most popular mods for a decade+, but hasn't come far since.
II also seems to be pulled in a few directions at once:

Stay the same as it has been for decades.
Turn minecraft into a massive, fantastical, mystical world
Turn minecraft into a realistic, immersive, IRL-esque world.

If they chose just one direction, I think it would be great. The problem is, they are trying to do all three things at once.

Pros:
Some very Realistic Biomes
Grander scale (huge biomes and huge trees)
Strong inspiration for many modern mods.

Cons:
Too many biomes, especially unrealistic
Takes away any "vanilla" minecraft feeling.
Too many new wood types, colors, and foliage. (20 different wood types, all basically the same, completely fill JEI and inventory menus).
Doesn't add other realism or immersion features to biomes (more realistic creatures, crops, or other foliage).

While I love the immersion and realism of Biomes O Plenty, I think that it hasn't grown much in quality, and hasn't changed or improved in years. Still half fake, mystical biomes and the other half are cool, realistic, minecraft-y and IRL-y biomes.

Great for beginner modders and modpacks, but we've all seen it before, and there are better biome mods out there now.

For a mod that seeks to add mobs to the game, alex's mobs is second to none. At a glance, it adds everything from the realistic to the fantastical.

When playing with the mod, it's easy to get lost in the sheer amount of content present. Almost every single of the dozens of new mobs added have detailed behaviors and functions. Populating nearly every nook and cranny of the world, the mobs liven the place up, provide new friends to tame or foes to fight, new gear to acquire and resources to obtain, as well as one boss in the End.

One thing after playing with this mod extensively - it is nigh impossible to play without configs. Whether it be adjusting spawn weights to compensate for regular mobs or other modded mobs, tweaking spawns since those ******* mosquitoes won't stop harassing me, or just causing noticeable lag spikes upon loading new chunks and simply playing around, I can't give this mod anything higher than a 3.5. Additionally, despite being a touch above the Vanilla mobs, the mod has not updated in nearly two years (the creator is probs js busy), and the last few updates have left a bit to be desired.

Good mod, adds a marvelous menagerie, but can be rough around the edges. Worth a download, but I think you can find better alternatives for the real and the fantastical.

Alex's caves prioritizes exploration, creativity and trying to reintroduce a sense of wonder int he player - as if we were playing the game for the first time over again.

The mod is gargantuan, adding six detailed, spectacular and exhilarating cave biomes to the world - gigantic underground pockets of the world. Each one has a distinct theme, with unique aesthetics, osts, inhabitants and resources.

The cave biomes are rare, and require an exploration map and usually a multi thousand block journey to come across. Each biome uses its theme to the fullest, such as magnetic caves including attractive and repulsive tools, armor, pulleys/conveyors and even a gauntlet. The drops are really fun to play around with - and the caves are worth exploring.

From the time I've spent in the mod, its evident a lot of thought, time and effort went into it; effort which isn't wasted since the experience is some of the most fun I've had.

The unique aesthetic is incompatible with most shaders, and I did face some issues with mob spawns and behavior, especially on servers. But when it does work, it is a blast. This is a mod that deserves a place on most, if not all, fantasy/exploration adventurers' modpacks.

I HATE playing MC without dynamic lights, but most mods either have a performance-heavy version of dynamic lights built-in, or you have to get a separate, poorly-built dynamic lights mod.

No longer!
Lamb Dynamic lights is by far the best dynamic lighting mod. Not only is it fully configurable (not complex values or settings, but clear, understandable, important settings), but it is also FAR less-performance heavy as the other mods. Even with a powerful system, dynamic lights usually cause a noticeable FPS decrease, or I have to set my dynamic lights on "fast" or "low quality" mode, and they still affect performance and don't look the best.

Lamb Dynamic lights look great, run perfectly (not sure about slower systems but tested far better than other mods on my system), and don't cause any stutters, lighting issues, or crashes, even with shaders and other mods enabled.

I never thought I would leave such a long review on a dynamic lighting mod of all things, but this deserves it.

Highly recommend!