🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios launched a new playlist called Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option resembles the regular Breakthrough setup but features several notable changes:

• Each team includes just 8 real players, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
• Activities done by real players award full XP, while bot actions provide lower rewards.
• Only two locations can be played: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
• Features like Player tags, accolades, and career stat updates have been turned off.

In short, the playlist delivers on its title: it offers a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, one could assume there's nothing wrong, since it provides more options for players seeking alternative methods to enjoy the game. However, if video games have taught us anything, it is that not everyone will be happy. In other words, a lot of BF6 fans are upset.

Player Responses: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer human opponents. Don't repeat the errors of your competitors," reads a response to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," comments a different user. Meanwhile, in community forums, one user remarks, "I have no idea where we are going with this game," while another details all the issues they consider to be problematic in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, improve hit detection. We do not require this AI-heavy playlist."

However, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're liking the new mode. "It's very fun to practice, human participants prevent it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," says a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are players who actually go outside and can't play this title all the time. Allow them to find a middle ground," adds another. One reply on Twitter clarifies that as they're "a battledad with limited time, this is great for me," while another praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Valid Concerns and Player Input

Despite the support, players have constructive reasons to criticize Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have pointed out that it will make queue times even longer for different playlists due to the large amount of playlists in the game already. Similarly, some areas often face AI-filled matches in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of real players, despite it primarily centers on combat against bots.

Lastly, a major grievances is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide full XP, including AI matches, but that was removed when they tried to eliminate XP farming from the mode. Thus Casual Breakthrough seems like the player base compromising in the middle, as per forum feedback. Another labels this mode as the devs "dropping the ball significantly, I had so much fun in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to change it?"

Future Prospects: Adjustments Be Made?

If the development team has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it is that they're paying attention and responding to player input. Tasks that were overly hard got fixed very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, if their data shows this recent mode is underperforming to their standards, they will not hesitate to make further modifications.