With all of the patches, SH3 and SH4 are playable in stock/vanilla. As it stands right now, SH5 requires mods. The general opinion is that SH5 still has the capabilities of surpassing 3 and 4. However, there is still much work from the mod community to be done. The biggest issues I have seen are the morale/fatigue model and the ludicrously broken skills. Some mods address these issues, but most require starting a new career to get them to kick in. Ubisoft put out its last official patch almost two years ago and axed official support last year. The only support you will get for SH5 are from the folks here.
If you can find it on the cheap, I say go for it. The stock game should have never been released. It was incomplete and was too "arcade" for the veteran subsim crowd. With the mods SH5 has grown on me. I am beginning to enjoy it.
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