Play through the rest of the trilogy vanilla or modded?

I played through SoC vanilla and absolutely loved it, was ready to play through CS and CoP, however I was pretty disappointed to see that the two games have essentially the same gameplay as SoC (I know not exactly but they all feel the same). I was pretty burnt out of SoC's gameplay style as I had something like 80 hours total by the end of it all, and wanted something a bit more updated.
So, I decided instead to play GAMMA. Now, Gamma i believe is a much much much different beast to the gameplay of the original games, but it does scratch the itch I have for a more modern stalker game.
However, I do want to play the rest of the trilogy before hopping into Heart of Chernobyl, as I am still invested in the story of the games.

So, I ask should I play through CS and CoP modded or am I going to miss something I haven't seen yet?
And if it is modded, what recommendations for someone who enjoys GAMMA's style