The original games did this at times, but not in detail, and mods like CoC give you no heads up of what is in a stash and whether it is worth going after in the first place. You can also get a preview of what is in each stash on the map when you hover your mouse over it. Call of Chernobyl's developers tried something similar, using a zombie model (cut from the original game, it was meant to be a basic enemy) to depict a decaying corpse that couldn't be looted. There are features present in OGSE that I haven't witnessed in other mods, such as animals or mutants being able to devour corpses-eventually, there's literally just a skeleton left. It has new weapons that are decently modeled, although the combat has been criticized by some as being a little weak overall. It follows more or less the same story as the original SoC, except there are some additional quests. It makes it a breeze to change things like carrying weight and other variables that would otherwise require you to edit the game's config files-which not everyone, including myself, is comfortable doing. It supposedly has fewer bugs than most other stalker mods, and it is highly customisable from a launcher menu that you can fiddle around with before playing. Old Good Stalker Evolution boasts the most polished stalker experience. This is one of its best features in my opinion, because while having prettier environments and weapons is nice, the old character models really do need some work. CoC also boasts something that most mods can't-you can even install an addon that has HD model replacements for NPC characters, and even the player character too. With the addons, it can be as pretty as you want it to be, and it can also be as difficult as you want it to be with the addition of new mutants, increased damage (even wound scaling depending on body parts damaged which is something most mods/addons don't really take into account), and more. Still, if you're looking for a S.T.A.L.K.E.R mod, this is about as good as it gets for now. My only thought here is that an asset in vanilla CoC, even a patched, up-to-date version, that was causing problems was overwritten and effectively fixed. I can get through a playthrough now without a single CTD. I found that vanilla CoC crashed quite often, but with the installation of mods (although I couldn't tell you which one), I, in fact, had fewer issues. Some of the addons are not only recommended but even necessary in my opinion. It is highly customisable with the addons, but compatibility is an issue. It can take quite a while to get your copy of CoC to be just how you want it.

Then once this is done, you can do whatever you want, even uninstall CoP completely. You can install the game to a separate directory as long as you own a legal copy of Call of Pripyat (retail, Steam, GoG, etc.).

Despite, the title of this list, CoC isn't technically standalone either, at least not by the usual definition.

Best stalker game to start with