This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s fall editorial intern Alayna Thomas. Find her on Instagram at @ratatoolie. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
The Sims 4 is my favorite video game to play. It’s fun playing God and making my little sims’ lives as messy as possible. I have almost every expansion pack. I poured hundreds of hours and dollars into this game. Unfortunately, this is not an exaggeration.
Even with the multiple add ons you can purchase online, there were still some features that I wanted to have that weren’t available. This is where I turned to in-game modifications, called mods for short, to enhance my game.
Mods are scripts that alter game play by adding or changing features. For the most part, mods are free. Some creators may have an early access Patreon but eventually release it to the public.
So, let me show you the best Sims 4 mods. I like to add some realistic elements to my game, as well as just improve some general features. I must warn you to use these at your own risk, sometimes my computer sounds like a rocketship taking off.
MC Command Center
This mod adds even more control to the game. If I don’t like a sim, I can delete it. I can flag a certain accessory to make sure that no sims in my world ever wear it. I can even start spontaneous pregnancies.
I am someone who likes to create stories in my game, so I mostly use MC Command Center to help progress stories. This mod allows me to turn auto-pay for household bills on, make a father sim pay child support to his baby mama, and allow a child sim to care for a baby sim. I have even edited the timescale in my game because I thought that the game was moving too fast.
It’s impossible to list everything that MC Command Center does. It genuinely makes my game run better because I can change just about anything with the snap of my fingers. This Reddit thread is full of user testimony— this mod can do a lot.
Language Barriers
In The Sims 4, there are multiple fictional worlds based on real countries. For example, you have Windenburg, which is based on Germany and Selvadora, based on El Salvador. However, in all of these worlds, the sims all speak the fictional language Simlish, which is their version of English. Although I know that this is supposed to be a game, I like to see some realism. Why are all the sims in the German world speaking only English?
The Language Barriers mod adds seven additional languages to the game, based on the different worlds in the game. Each sim is assigned a native language. They have the ability to learn other languages by studying textbooks, talking with other sims who speak their target language, or playing Simlingo. If two sims do not speak the same language, they cannot communicate.
I think this mod is so fun because watching my Sims studying Selvadorian (Spanish) inspires me to practice my Spanish. If you have two sims who have different native languages, like Toki Sulani (Hawaiian) and Tartesiano (Italian), their baby can have two native languages. Also, funny interactions can arise from a sim not being fluent in a language. They can accidentally insult or confuse other sims with different language levels.
Srsly’s Complete Cooking Overhaul
This is another mod that adds realism to the game. The Sims 4 does not have a strong cooking component, but this cooking overhaul mod makes it more integral to my game. You have the ability to go grocery shopping at an actual grocery store, read cookbooks, create custom recipes, and purchase ingredients. For some reason, none of this is available in the original game.
This mod also makes it harder for my sims to survive, which I like. I have to stay on top of grocery shopping or else they may not eat. Without this mod, sims just generate whatever ingredients from their fridge and call it a day. With this mod, your sims still have this ability but the dish will be expensive. It is significantly cheaper for them to go grocery shopping.
This mod also has add-ons; your sims can subscribe to grocery delivery services, use piggy banks, and more!
Have Some Personality Please!
As mentioned earlier, I enjoy the social aspect of The Sims 4. Many consider this game to have one of the best ‘build modes’ in the franchise and love to build houses, but that’s not what I’m here for. I want to see my sims fall in love, cheat, fight, make friends and enemies.
Have Some Personality Please adds much more dynamic interactions and changes the likelihood of certain interactions happening. For example, mean sims are more likely to tease people and start arguments. Or, a sim who currently has an annoyed moodlet is more likely to kick over a garbage can to release some tension. Additionally, this mod makes it harder to level up in romance, so my sim can’t get engaged to someone she met five hours ago.
I truly did not know how I played this game without this mod. I’ve been using it for so long that I forget that there are some interactions that only come with this mod, such as ‘Try for Baby’ or ‘Throw Drink’. My personal favorite is making a couple fight and having one criticize the other’s woohoo (sexual) technique.
WickedWhims
This mod is quite infamous in the community— it’s known as the sex mod. In the base game, sims go into a rabbit hole to have sex, but with WickedWhims they get naked and do it right on the screen. Graphically.
Along with that, there are the added features of contraception and birth control, the ability to be a nudist, menstrual cycles, and public lice. I wish I was joking.
However, there are many other features that it adds. For one, my sims now have attractiveness preferences that I can choose or have them develop naturally. This includes gender, hair color and texture, even tattoos and voice pitch. My sims also have personality archetypes. Whenever I create a new sim, I will get a notification that they are an ENTP or something like that. Oh, and my sims can sweat while exercising. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.
If those features excite you but you do not want to worry about sex and nudity, there’s a safe for work version called WonderfulWhims.
Basemental Drugs
Basemental Drugs is pretty straight forward. My sims can now drink alcohol and do drugs! Instead of playing juice pong and drinking nectar, they can finally play beer pong and drink wine.
There’s also other drugs (legal and illegal) available for sims to use at their own risk. You can have sims have a nasty smoking habit or have a philosophical sim trip out on mushrooms. I myself have a few stoner sims and a couple that runs a beautiful cannabis dispensary in a region where I legalized it.
Your sims also have the opportunity to join the black market drug trade and sell. With this addition also comes the police, SWAT raids, and jail. You have the option to bribe the police and launder money. This also adds a new way to ‘lose’ the game. In the base game, the only way to ‘lose’ The Sims is to have every character in your household die. Now, you can lose the game by having a prison life sentence. Yes, this has happened to me. I was pissed.
So, if you are ready to jump into using mods for your Sims 4 game, start off with these! They will add many fun elements to your game play!
Do you enjoy playing with mods? What do you think are the best Sims 4 mods? Let us know in the comments!
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