🔗 Share this article

Recently, Battlefield Studios launched a new playlist titled Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but features several notable changes:

• Each team includes only 8 real players, with the remaining filled by 32 bots.
• Activities performed by human gamers award complete experience points, while AI activities provide reduced XP.
• Just a pair of locations are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
• Features like Dogtags, achievements, and career stat updates are disabled.

So essentially, this mode lives up to its title: it offers a laid-back version of Breakthrough. On the surface, one could assume it's a good idea, since it gives more options for players seeking alternative methods to have fun with the game. But, if video games has shown one thing, it's that you can't please everyone. In other words, many Battlefield 6 players are upset.

Player Reactions: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer real players. Avoid making the mistakes of your rivals," states one reply to the mode reveal. "Truly disappointing idea," says another. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player remarks, "I have no idea where we are headed with this title," and someone else lists all the issues they believe to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Fix bugs, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We do not require this bot mode."

However, for every complaint, there are players sharing how much they're enjoying the recent addition. "It's enjoyable to warm up, human participants prevent it from being a total farmfest but it's quite laid-back," says one Reddit comment. "This subreddit fails to see that there are players who have lives and don't play this title 24/7. Let them find a middle ground," adds a different comment. A response on Twitter explains that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is great for me," while another applauds the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Criticisms and Player Feedback

All that said, there are constructive reasons to complain about Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have pointed out that it could increase queue times even longer for different playlists because of the sheer number of playlists in the game already. On a similar note, some areas often face AI-filled matches in the existing playlists. It also seems a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a required amount of real players, even though it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.

Finally, a major grievances is that Battlefield Portal was promised to offer full XP, including AI matches, but that was removed when they attempted to remove XP farming from the system. Thus this new playlist seems like the player base meeting them halfway, according to forum feedback. A different user describes this addition as the developers "dropping the ball significantly, I experienced great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

If the development team has demonstrated something so far with the latest installment, it's that they're listening and responding to player input. Assignments being too difficult got fixed rapidly, just like the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, should analytics indicates this new playlist is underperforming to their standards, they will not hesitate to change it again.