Is there any essential mods / patches for a first playthrough?

[Captain Kirk]

About to play this for the first time. Should I consider any mods / patches or just go in vanilla?

[PNB]

Everyone has a different opinion.
Do you want to see and play the game as it was originally intended,
or do you want modifications that change things?

The game comes patched with everything it needs to run.

My opinion for a first play-through:
Play the game without any patches or mods of any sort.
Then you're in a better position to judge for yourself what you want for
the next play through.

If it won't run on your device out of the box, then look at patches and mods.
(See the link below).
At least that way you're not introducing a problem that wouldn't exist otherwise.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=144316078

[Vzzdak]

Vanilla

[Thward]

Don't even bother with GDMX; just use the basic update mods that allow the game to run in 2021. After you've played it through once, then you can decide what to add.