With all the Modding we’re doing in IL2 I decided to revisit some of my older games and see what mod delights are out there.
I’ve found upon a Mod for Stalker - Shadow of Chernobyl which is superb.
The mod is called “Oblivion Lost” - nothing to do with Wizards, Elves and spells. Oblivion Lost was the tag title for Stalker prior to it being called Shadow of Chernobyl.
Download here:
You want Oblivion Lost 2.0.
What this mod does in its transformation is make the game a lot harded and atmospheric. e.g it now gets properly dark.
The impact of this is that you can perform some of the missions stealthly, sneak past enemies, decide on whether to attack.
It also makes it far scarier. After taking out the bandit camp at the start of the game, I could hear a mutant creature wandering around. Being unable to kill it, I had to find somehwere to hide and hid in the loft until first light. 
There’s heaps more, below is the readme, but I highly recommend revisiting the game with this mod.
Note: You must patch up to the latest version of Stalker first (1.0005)
What is the purpose of this mod?
The purpose of this mod is to get closer to the old Oblivion Lost, and give the best performance possible, while implementing the best mod features:
Total Freeplay, Modified A-Life, and Reality Enhancement.
It is recommended to play in HELL difficulty!
This mod works properly only with 1.0004 or 1.0005 patch! The default is 1.0005!
The default version working with the 1.0006 patch aswell, but that is just an MP Patch.
If you want to play with the 1.0004 patch, then you must install the OL1.0004 compatible patch.FEATURES:
FREEPLAY
- Although you can follow the storyline, it is not necessary, you can explore all levels without completing them, but you must have the decoder to be able to get to Monolith Control and NPP Stancia2.
- Removed the scripted blowout from Stancia1 and the dead zone from Stancia2, so you can explorate the whole Power Plant.
- The last portal teleports the actor to the court, so the game is open-ended, you can make your way back to the previous levels.
- New level changers (NPP Stancia2 to Control Room, Control Room to Sarcophagus, Sarcophagus to NPP Stancia1, NPP Stancia1 to Pripyat, Cordon’to Dark Valley).
A-LIFE
- Now almost everything can happen, there’s a chance to meet any NPC on any level.
- Sometimes the army raids, sometimes they don’t, this is totally random, too.
- The mutants are making their way through the Zone in big hordes.
- The mutants are entering places where they could not enter before, so there’s an increased chance to meet them in npc populated areas.
- Sometimes you may happen upon unique situations, it can be very hard or even funny.
- You will not have the same situations 2 times on the same level.
- The respawn can be very random, there’s a chance to meet different types of mutants then before.
- The bugs of the older versions and the vanilla bugs have been corrected, now you won’t see any failed quests and Quest NPC’s who die before you can complete their quests, also the vanilla respawn is working properly and balanced.
FACTION WARS
- There’s a chance to meet any faction in any level, also it’s totally random.
- A message will give you notice about the random events.
- The Military attacks the bandits in the carpark.
- The Military attacks the loners and the bandits in the Hangar.
- You can meet Mercenaries in Agroprom.
- The Duty and the Military attacks Borov’s base.
- The Freedom attacks the Duty base.
- The Military sometimes attacks Rostok Wild Territory.
- The Duty attacks the Freedom base.
- All factions try to reach the center of the Zone, and there’s a chance to some of them become zombified by the Psy Emission.
REALISM
- All weapons are stronger and well-balanced.
- Almost to all weapons are able to attach addons.
- Added realistic sounds to the weapons, rounds, ammos, materials and environment.
- NPC’s can bleed, if they are hurt they fall down to the ground and if they don’t receive any medkits within a minute, then they die.
- Bandages and foods don’t heal the actor.
- The average bleeding doesn’t stop by itself, only the minor.
- Added realistic head-bobbing to the actor when he is heavily wounded.
- Well-balanced armor degradation.
- The crosshair is reduced to a dot.
- New sniper weapon scopes.
-There is a huge difference between day and night, you can sneak in the pitch black, but it’s not very easy, I had to make a compromise between a good stealth and bugfree npc behaviour.- If the actor turns on the flashlight at night, then his enemies spot him immediately.
- Reduced the sound volume of the Knife, now it’s a dangerous and invisible weapon during night, presumably the NPC’s won’t notice the actor if he is smart enough.
- The quality of the weapons which are looted from corpses is generally very bad.
NEW WEAPONS
- BM16 Long Rifle
- M-134 Minigun
- AK-47
REWORKED AI
- The npc’s can avoid anomalies.
- The npc’s can throw grenades.
- The npc’s can use medkits, heal themselves and each other.
- The npc’s can upgrade and replace their armor and they will collect suits and weapons found laying about.
- There are no dead npc’s around campfires, but if someone dies near one, the campers will drag the corpse away.
RE-ENABLED CONTROLLER AI
- The controller can take control on the npc’s and lead them against his enemies.
- If an npc is inside the controller’s aura, then he will immediately become zombified.
- When the controller dies, then “controlled” npc’s will return to normal.
WEATHER
- There are 24 hour cycle weathers in all levels.
- The night is dark and scary.
- Restored the Sun and the Moon.
- Atmospheric sky textures.
- In NPP Stancia2 the weather is always rainy and cloudy, it fits in to the atmosphere of the Nuclear Plant.
BLOWOUT
- The blowout is totally random, you never know when it will happen.
- So there are many hideouts in each level, but carrying antirad is very important.
- The npc’s are running to hideouts, while being attacked - they fire back, at the end of blowout - they return to usual places. They protect the hideouts from enemies.
- The strength of the blowout is always stronger and stronger if you are closer to the NPP. In the NPP blowouts are deadly, you must runn down to the Sarcophagus as soon as you can.
- The mutants lie on the ground during the high radiation sequence of blowouts, they feel pain from that.
- More mutants will appear after blowout and give madness to the environment.
- Artifacts will birth from anomalies after blowout.
- The blowout will continue if you save and load the game or move to an other level, you can’t bypass it.
DYNAMIC ANOMALIES
- The anomalies change their positions after blowouts.
- Stronger anomalies can appear and they will be very deadly.
- Be careful of them if you are driving cars, now the routine which you learn in the vanilla game is useless.
DYNAMIC HUD
- Player’s field of view lowers when you wear suits with masks, condensation effect (glass becomes covered with moisture)
ARTIFACT TRANSMUTATION
- It’s a kind of alchemy, as you can see in other rpg games. You can modify artifacts by placing them in the proper anomaly, but be careful, you can ruin them too. There are “recipts” hidden in the zone, and you need to find them, or get them with completing quests. These papers contain the solution for creating unique items, so you should carefully read them. There are different levels for artifacts, each with new features. If you are lucky, you will be able to create a new artifact with unique properties.
SLEEPING
- Now Marked One gets tired after 30 hours of action: it begins to double your vision, etc. If you continue to play and will not sleep, Marked One will fall asleep approximately after 6 hours.
- You can’t sleep for a while if you had an energy drink.
- You can’t sleep during blowout.
- To sleep, use the sleeping bag in your inventory…
MUTANTS
- Added all cutout mutants (Dwarf, Chimera, Cat, Zombie, Izlom)
- Theyhave many different types of skins.
- Added the Psy Dog as a new mutant (with attack effector).
- Two boss enemy characters (Burer and Koshei) - they are tougher and have stronger attacks then the usual mutants.
VEHICLES
- Added all drivable vehicles (Niva, Zaz, Kamaz, Tractor, UAZ, BTR, Moskvich).
- The vehicles don’t float.
- Well-balanced driving properties.
- Added realistic engine and gear sounds to the UAZ.
MISCELLANEOUS
- Replaced main menu music.
- Main menu from the 2215 beta.
- Added the “Turn on the engine” to the options/controls.
- Added the AMK Options menu, you can disable the Suit HUD visors.
- NPC’s can buy anything from the actor but in very low prices.
- All traders can repair.
- New stalker and weapon textures.
- Additional skins for stalkers and bandits.
- Traders sell their supplies at very high prices, but they pay very low prices for everything, now they are well-balanced.
- Finding a medkit is not so easy, also it’s very expensive to purchase them.
- Shootable crows.
- You can place markers on the pda map with GPS.
- Reworked the helicopter AI. Now they use rockets and will sometimes use evasive maneuvers. If the pilot loses the player from it’s FOV (Field of Vision), then it will halt it’s attack and fly away.
- Antigas armors enabled.
- The npc’s can play the harmonica.
- Alcolholism, don’t drink too much vodka.
- Replaced some dialog sounds to russian.
- Added some songs to the camping stalkers.
- Sidequests and autoquests have no time limit.
- You can obtain the quests again after 1 day.
- In standard task of the “Kill stalker” type, now, there are several ways to end task - victim can pay for its life.
- A lot of vanilla bugfixes.