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Over the weekend, the game developers launched a new playlist titled Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option resembles the regular Breakthrough format but includes a few notable adjustments:

• Each team includes only 8 human participants, with the remaining filled by AI-controlled opponents.
• Activities done by human gamers award full XP, while AI activities offer lower rewards.
• Just a pair of locations can be played: Cairo Siege and Empire State map.
• Elements like Player tags, accolades, and career stat updates have been turned off.

So essentially, this mode lives up to its name: it's a casual version of Breakthrough. On the surface, one could assume it's a good idea, as it provides more options for players looking for different ways to have fun with the game. However, gaming history has shown one thing, it is that not everyone will be happy. In other words, a lot of Battlefield 6 fans are upset.

Player Responses: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer human opponents. Avoid making the mistakes of your rivals," reads one reply to the official announcement. "Truly disappointing concept," says a different user. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, one user remarks, "It's unclear where we are going with this game," while another lists everything they believe to be problematic in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, improve hit detection. We do not require this AI-heavy playlist."

However, amid the criticism, some gamers sharing how much they're liking the new mode. "It's enjoyable to practice, real players keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," says one Reddit comment. "The community doesn't understand that there are gamers who have lives and don't play this title 24/7. Allow them to strike a balance," states a different comment. One reply on Twitter clarifies that as they're "a battledad with limited time, this is perfect for me," while someone else praises the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Criticisms and Community Feedback

Despite the support, players have valid points to complain about the new mode. Some users have highlighted that it will make wait times more extended for different playlists due to the large amount of playlists in the game already. Similarly, certain regions 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 human gamers, despite it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Lastly, a major complaints is that a previous feature was meant to provide full XP, even against bots, but that got canned when they tried to remove bot farms from the mode. Thus Casual Breakthrough seems like the community meeting them halfway, according to forum feedback. Another labels this mode as the developers "dropping the ball significantly, I experienced great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

If the development team has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it's that they're listening and acting on player input. Assignments that were overly hard were adjusted rapidly, as did the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, should analytics indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their expectations, they won't be shy to change it again.