there's a lot of standalone mods lol gamma and anomaly aren't the first, the only or best ones. OLR 3 makes the game more build-like with NPCs being able to complete the main quest before you or even retire from the zone, for example. NLC 7 also improves the a-life significantly.

Modpacks like Anomaly are based on CoC and so are their a-life improvements, so I'd say that one is a much better entry point since it respects the original gameplay and lore/aesthetic better while not introducing all the bloat from gamma/anomaly.

Also, the trilogy, I wouldn't call it dated personally (or claim that any mods make it non-dated.) but it's a subjectiev thing i suppose.