How does the Complete 2009 Mod affect STALKER Shadows of Chernobyl

Question

I recently purchased and installed STALKER - Shadows of Chernobyl. A little research demonstrated that community does not recommend to run this game without at least a basic, bug-fixing mod, but many also recommend use of Complete 2009. This fixes the same issues, but provides a graphical overhaul while aiming to keep the core play experience intact.

After playing the game for a bit, I decided to use this mod just for the added resolution. But I'm also aware a lot of fans claim the mod makes the game significantly easier. This seems to be a subjective opinion based on minor changes the mod makes to enemy awareness of the player which, in turn, was introduced to make stealth play a more viable option.

For all the arguments out there on this subject, it seems very hard to find out what, exactly the mod changes apart from the bugs, graphics and the added teleport system. Does anyone have a more detailed breakdown of what's been altered in terms of gameplay, why, and what the impact on the game is?

Answer 1

Did you look at their official website? http://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-complete-2009

It pretty much tells you what they change, including the gameplay stuff that makes the game easier.

In general the greatest change by far that I felt made the game much easier is the distance at which enemies spot you, which has been greatly reduced. This is not just good for stealth—you can now take out enemies at a distance even with fairly average weaponry like the AK-74 (with attached scope), before they even notice you. In the vanilla game this was impossible unless you were incredibly lucky, because of the game's ballistics system.