The Sims is one of the most interesting and loved games among gamers all over the world but at times things tend to get boring. No wonder, most players tend to look for more realistic gameplay options in The Sims 4 that could make the life of sims more life-like rather than animated. This is exactly where realistic gameplay mods come in since they can add so much realism to the game and make it exciting as well.
These mods could range from simple things such as eating faster to highly complex life situations and even tragedies. If you are someone who loves this game then Simes 4 gameplay mods can add so much more to the game for you.
But before I spill the beans, you can check out more on Sims 4 challenges, the top 37 Sims 4 Legacy challenges, the best Sims 4 Reshades for awesome graphics, and Sims 4 gameplay ideas to make this game even more interesting.
List of Sims 4 Gameplay Mods to Have
1. After-School Activities
One area where Sims 4 seem to be lacking is in the after-school activities. I must say that sim kids and teens need so much more when it comes to such activities to make their life and your game more interesting.
The best part is that Kawaii Stacie is known for making exemplary after school activities mods which are quite simple and can add so much more thrill to the game. This mod lists more than 30 after school activities in which your children or teens can take part in.
When sim kids take part in these activities they not only make new friends but are also able to hone their activity-based skills. They can also join clubs such as a video gaming club, wrestling club, anime, kpop, etc.
One of the most interesting things is that your teens and kids may even come home with various moodlets or emotions that could make them look sad, happy, or focused!
2. Automatic Beards
I am sure you must have noticed that one thing most sims lack is hair growth, especially the masculine sims. They don’t seem to have facial hair. Thus, if you want your male sims to have beards then you can try the automatically adds beards mod. This has been created by a modder called flerb and as the name suggests, it automatically adds beards to sims as they age and get older.
What makes things even more interesting is that you can actually click in the sink and choose to trim your beard or stubble. You can also keep a medium or a large beard, whatever you prefer.
It makes sims feel so much more real. After all, you do not want your sims to look like same every day and seeing hair growth on their faces can make them look so much more different.
3. Better Romance
Those that love creating romance in Sims 4 must look at the better romance mod created by simler90. I am sure you must have noticed that it is really easy to get two sims to fall in love and engaged within a few sim hours.
This mod, however, makes it somewhat harder for sims to get into a romantic relationship. They are required to meet certain things in order to get romantically involved and this is what makes things interesting.
4. Custom Traits
Traits are what make a character or sim interesting and this is what Sims 4 actually lacks. There are just not enough traits in Sims 4 and what is even worse is that not many get added with new packs. This makes it really hard to make new and unique sims.
Thankfully, there are many modders who create unique custom traits so that your sims are able to feel and react in different ways to a particular situation. This adds a lot of uniqueness to their characters.
5. Explore Mod
Even though rabbit holes are not the most realistic way to play this game, they can sure add realism because of your sims taking part in various activities.
For this matter, you must check out the explore mod by Kawaii Stacie. It can help add a lot of new rabbit holes for your sims to explore. In other words, it could include things such as going out for shopping or getting takeout food, gambling, etc.
I must also mention here that as you choose one of these things, your sims get a moodlet or a fill up on their needs. They may also come back with an item that they bought while on their shopping trip.
6. Extreme Violence
Now, this one is not for everyone. Not many players would want to have violence in their game. However, I must mention here that there is violence out there in the world and adding some of it to the game makes it more realistic. So, if you want to go for more realistic gameplay, you may try adding some violence to it with extreme violence mod by Sacrificial Mods.
What it actually does is that it lets your sims get involved in fights with other sims. Not just this, it can also make them steal money from other sims. It comes with some deadly interactions of sims.
Instead of playing with a perfectly happy family in this game, you can make it more realistic through such a mod that can make sims fight with each other.
7. Faster Eating and Drinking
One of the things that I really don’t like about sims is that they take really long to eat. As a matter of fact, they may take hours to finish eating. When they take so long to eat they have less time to do other things. Thus, faster eating and drinking mod, is one of those mods that you need for sure.
This mod will make your sims finish eating faster so that the have more time for homework, gaining skills and of course, family time that they spend with each other.
8. Funerals Mod
Death is an important event and there is no way to say goodbye to your sims other than just morning at a tombstone.
Yep! There are no funerals in this game. I think this is a big deletion that needs to be mended.
You co actually do so with the help of the funeral mod that can help you plan a funeral for the sim that has passed away.
9. Have Some Personality Please
As of now, in the game, sims lack any personality. I must say that they can be quite boring too. In order to get over this, you can use have some personality mod that will make each of the sims unique from the others. It will not only make things more interesting but will also make the game more realistic.
This mod is likely to do yet another thing in the game. It can help remove idle chatting from the game so that the sims are able to do actual interactions in place of ideal chatting. In other words, they are more in control of their interactions. Yep! They can even kiss and fight among themselves.
10. Height Sliders
One of the things that you must have noticed is that all the sims are the same height. What is even more ridiculous is that even teens are the same height as adult sims. In real life, not everyone is the same height. I guess the programmers do so in order to save money so that they do not have to make another set of animations.
However, with the help of the height slider mod, you can change the height of your sims and also change the height of their necks. This certainly makes your sims look more realistic. This variation in height makes them look different from each other.
11. Invisible Fence
If you are a builder you would know that it takes a lot of effort for you to build a lovely home with a niche winding pathway leading to the front door.
Now, what could be worse than your sims completely ignoring the pathway and reaching the door all the while cutting through the grass to go a direct route?
The invisible fence mod, as the name suggests, helps you build an invisible mod around the pathway so that the sims have no other option other than going through the pathway to reach the door. In other words, they cannot cut through the grass to reach the door.
I think it is a really useful mod that you should be using.
12. Life’s Tragedies
One of the most unrealistic things about The Sims 4 is that they do not ever have a tragedy unfolding in the game. The sims are almost always happy and positive and do not experience sorrow or tragedy ever.
For this purpose, a mod called life’s tragedies by Sacrifical Mods can actually help play a tragedy in the sims’ lives. It could be an accident, sickness where a sim falls so sick that he comes close to losing his life, etc.
When playing with this mod, you are likely to get more attached to your sims since you are aware of the fact that anything can happen at any time and you could lose a sim even at a young age before it gets old.
13. Lower Salaries
Now, here is a mod that at first instance you would feel is not really necessary. After all, why would you want your sims to earn less?
However, 50% lower career salaries is a mod that can make your sims struggle so much harder in their careers to raise a family that it will appear more realistic.
14. MC Command Center
MC Command Center is a must-have mod in The Sims 4. It is a highly powerful mod that you must use in this game. With the help of this mod, you can disable the monster under the bed and also get rid of crazy townie outfits. Not just this, you can also use a lot of cheats with the help of this mod in Sims 4.
Yet another interesting thing this mod can do is it can help empty houses filled with sims and their families and make them go on with their lives. In other words, these sims will go about life as usual. They will get married, bear kids, raise them and live their lives automatically without you trying to control them.
15. Meaningful Stories
Now, we have a mod that is simply great to overhaul the mood or emotions of the sims in the game. This is called the meaningful stories mod and it can help make minor changes to various moodlets as well as the way that they affect your sims. By doing this, it can make your sims feel more realistic.
This mod is important because it can help your sims experience a particular mood for a longer period of time. For instance, sometimes in The SIMS 4, your sim may go through a bad experience and a couple of minutes later, he could be in a happy mood just because he ate a vegetable or goes into a well-decorated house. This is highly unrealistic.
This is awesome because it will add long-lasting buffs that will last way longer and be stronger. Sometimes in The Sims 4 you can have a sim who gets cheated on and then two minutes later they are in a happy mood because they eat a vegetable and go into a nicely decorated home, and that’s just not realistic.
16. Miscarriage Chance
This one is not for everyone and not everyone would be eager to see his sims go through the pain of losing a child. In real life, miscarriages can be really heartbreaking not just for the mother but for the while family and it is something that can be really hard to deal with. I totally understand if you do not want to add this mod to your gameplay.
Having said that, miscarriages are a reality of life and they are very common. As such, some players do want to see the gameplay in Sims 4.
I know that this mod won’t be for everyone, and losing a baby is a hard and very real thing that happens to thousands of women around the world each day and is so devastating. So, I totally understand if this mod isn’t for your gameplay. With this mod, your sims will lose a child before it is born and it will give your sims a long and sad moodlet.
17. More Best Friends
One of the most peculiar things in Sims 4 is that you can have just one best friend at a time. What it means is that you cannot have your partner as well as friend as your best friends at the same time. This is because becoming friends with someone new actually strikes down your old best friend.
With the help of more best friends mod you can have multiple or more than one best friend in the game at any given time.
18. Passionate Romance
Romance is one area that is always lacking in The Sims 4. Even though it was possible to snug in bed in Sims 2, there’s no such romance going on in Sims 4. However, you can use the passionate romance mod by Sacrificial for adding new romantic interactions to the game.
Not just this, with the help of this mod, your sims will also be able to take new romantic selfies and you could add them to their inventory and put them on the wall to cherish forever.
19. Pregnancy Overhaul
I must say that pregnancy in The Sims 4 really needs an overhaul. The best part is that you can use the pregnancy overhaul mod LittleMsScam to change so many things related to pregnancy in the game. First of all, you can change the look so that your sim does not have a ridiculously big belly. You will also have the ability to choose from a couple of looks.
Secondly, it will also help you remove the pregnancy walk style in the game. Moreover, you will be able to make your pregnant sims do a lot of things including bowling, swimming, having a mud bath, etc.
Last, but not the least, this mod also allows a pregnant sim to lose her life while childbirth. Even though it could be really sad, it will add a dash of realism to the game.
20. Realistic Reactions
One area that could need a lot of improvisation is how sims react to crazy events in their lives. For instance, if a sim is caught cheating on his spouse, the spouse does get angry but tends to lose this anger very quickly to be taken over by some other emotion. Not just this, the cheating spouse does not even react when being caught. This is extremely unrealistic.
The realistic reactions mod can help your sims react as if they are more life-like rather than animater characters in the game. It can help them react as if members of a family react when they fight or have disagreements or arguments among themselves. Not just this, even children and teens will react as if they are sad to know of cheating taking place in their family.
21. Risky Woohoo
In real life and relationships, a lot of pregnancies occur without being planned. The problem with Sims 4 is that one can get pregnant only when planning for a baby. This is so unrealistic.
The risky woohoo mod makes it possible for your sims to get pregnant even when not planning to have a kid. In other words, it can make unplanned pregnancies a reality. Over and above, it can also add fertility issues possible in sims so that they may have difficulty having babies to make them game more realistic.
22. Sim National Bank
You can’t but notice that the family funds system in The Sims 4 is quite simple but it also happens to be complete out of touch with reality. In other words, it is far from realism in the game.
The sim national bank mod can completely change this scenario giving your sims the flexibility to control their personal bank accounts, take loans from an actual sims bank, etc.
23. Simda Dating App
Yet another thing that was there in the previous version of the game was the online dating system. The Sims 4 does not have this online dating system but you can use the LittleMsSam Simada Dating App to help your sims find the love of their lives.
This mod actually lets your sim go on a blind date or go out with complete strangers or even go for a one night stand bringing the game so much closer to reality. Apart from adding realism to the game, it can also boost the fun quotient of the game.
24. Slice of Life
This is yet another must have mod that can add a lot of fun element to the game. The slice of life mod can help add a lot of small changes to the game. For instance, you can change the appearance of your sims according to their emotions like when they are overwhelmed with emotions, being extremely happy or sad or teary eyed, etc.
Another interesting thing about this mod is that it can add Myers Briggs personality system to the game which adds a new dash of personality to the sims. Because of certain actions they can make them feel silly, giving their characters more depth.
Slice of Life mod can also add the option of Menstrual Cycle for your female sims making it possible for them to experience cramps or carvings.
25. Slumber Party Mod
It is hard to believe that The Sims 4 does not have a slumber party or sleepover type of event for sims!
It is quite normal for kids and teens to have their friends stay over. It was definitely a part of my childhood too and I hate to see that it is nowhere to be found in Sims 4.
However, the good thing is that sleepover mod can just about take of this. This mod can help 1 or more of your sim’s friends stay over and have a great fun time.
26. Stretch Marks
Stretch marks are so common among people and are likely to occur because of sudden weight gain. It is also common among pregnant women. That sims in The Sims 4 almost always have perfect skin is so much far away from reality.
The stretch marks mods may help your sims have stretch marks under the tattoo category and make them look and feel so much more real.
27. True Happiness
The true happiness mod is yet another mod to add a dash of reality to the game.
What it essentially does is that it changes your sim’s default mood to no longer happy so that they actually feel happy only when something positive or something worth making them happy occurs in their lives.
28. Ultrasound Scan Mod
The ultrasound scan mod can help make pregnancy feel so much closer to real life. What it actually does is that it may help pregnant sims get an ultrasound done so as to see the image of their baby and even find out its gender.
What makes things even more interesting is that you may get a photo of the ultrasound which you can put up on the wall and keep it there for a long long time.
29. Unlisted Phone Number
This mod could be yet another great addition to The Sims 4. Normally, sims in this game can get calls from any random number which is so much out of tune with reality.
With the help of the unlisted phone number mod you can have sims exchange their phone numbers in order for them to call each other, which is how things happen in the real world. Not just this, this mod also helps you block a certain number so that you do not get calls from it in the future.
30. Wonderful Whims
The creator of NSFW mods created the wonderful whims mod to add a lot of interesting aspects to the game. The best part is that it allows you to be attracted to a sim according to your liking rather than you being attracted to every other sim in the game.
Furthermore, this mod also helps add various other things such as menstrual cycle, birth control, etc. to the game to make it in synch with real life.
Final Thoughts
Going through this list, I am sure you would be tempted to download all these mods and play The Sims 4 with a completely new degree of realism making it more interesting than ever. So, go ahead, add these mods to your game and enjoy it to the hilt!
Abdullah Tariq, the founder of this site, is a passionate gamer and loves sharing his knowledge about gaming hardware and accessories. He is also a software engineer whose ultimate goal is to develop gripping titles.