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Over the weekend, the game developers launched a fresh game mode titled Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough format but includes several key changes:

• Every squad includes just 8 human participants, with the remaining filled by 32 bots.
• Activities done by real players award full XP, while AI activities offer reduced XP.
• Only two locations are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, achievements, and career stat updates are disabled.

So essentially, the playlist lives up to its title: it offers a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, one could assume there's nothing wrong, as it provides additional choices for gamers looking for alternative ways to enjoy the game. However, gaming history have taught us anything, it is that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are mad.

Player Responses: From Fury to Support

"People want human opponents. Avoid making the errors of your rivals," states one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking idea," says another. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are headed with this game," while someone else lists everything they believe to be problematic in the game: "Resolve glitches, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We do not require this AI-heavy playlist."

On the other hand, for every complaint, some gamers explaining how much they're liking the new mode. "It's very fun to practice, human participants keep it from being a total farmfest but it's quite laid-back," says one Reddit comment. "The community doesn't understand that there are gamers who actually go outside and don't play this title 24/7. Let them find a middle ground," states another. A response via social media explains that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is perfect for me," while someone else praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Concerns and Player Feedback

All that said, players have constructive reasons to criticize Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have pointed out that it could increase queue times even longer for different playlists because of the large amount of playlists in the game already. On a similar note, certain regions already encounter mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode won't start without a minimum number of real players, even though it focuses mostly on fighting AI opponents.

Lastly, a major grievances is that a previous feature was promised to provide full XP, even against bots, but that got canned when they attempted to remove XP farming from the mode. Thus Casual Breakthrough feels like the community meeting them halfway, according to a Reddit comment. Another describes this mode as the devs "dropping the ball significantly, I had great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

Should Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with the latest installment, it's that they're paying attention and responding to feedback. Assignments being too difficult got fixed rapidly, just like the specific battle pass objectives. Chances are that, if their data shows this recent mode isn't performing to their expectations, they won't be shy to change it again.