Before tweaking gameplay, you must fix the visuals. The vanilla game suffers from a few technical annoyances, namely aggressive LOD (Level of Detail) pop-in and a distracting yellow/orange tint on highlights.
While the game is beautiful, some specific character models and environmental textures did not age well. horizon zero dawn best mods
Why you need it: In the base game, every climbable handhold, lootable corpse, and interactive object is smothered in a glowing yellow/orange shimmer. While this helps visibility, it utterly destroys immersion and screenshots. Before tweaking gameplay, you must fix the visuals
What it does: This mod replaces the shader for the highlight effect, making it invisible. You can still interact with objects (the prompt appears), but the world looks naturally gorgeous. There are optional files to keep the highlight on only for specific items (like medicinal herbs) while removing it from ledges. Why you need it: In the base game,
Verdict: Essential. You haven't seen the Forbidden West’s beauty until you remove the sticky highlighter goo.