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Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a new game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option resembles the standard Breakthrough setup but includes a few key changes:

• Each team has just 8 real players, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
• Actions performed by real players award complete experience points, while AI activities offer lower rewards.
• Just a pair of maps are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
• Elements like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking are disabled.

In short, this mode delivers on its title: it's a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think there's nothing wrong, since it provides more options for gamers looking for alternative methods to enjoy the game. But, gaming history have taught us anything, it's that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, a lot of BF6 fans are upset.

Community Responses: From Fury to Support

"People want human opponents. Avoid making the errors of your rivals," reads a response to the mode reveal. "Truly disappointing concept," says a different user. Meanwhile, in community forums, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are going with this game," while another lists everything they believe to be problematic in the game: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, improve hit detection. We don't need this bot mode."

On the other hand, for every complaint, some gamers explaining how much they're liking the new mode. "It's very fun to warm up, real players keep it from being a total farmfest but it's very relaxed," reads one Reddit comment. "This subreddit doesn't understand that there are gamers who actually go outside and don't play this game 24/7. Let them strike a balance," adds a different comment. A response on Twitter explains that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is perfect for me," while another applauds the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Constructive Criticisms and Community Feedback

All that said, there are constructive reasons to complain about Casual Breakthrough. Some users have highlighted that it will make queue times even longer for different playlists due to the large amount of playlists currently available. Similarly, certain regions often face mostly bots in the current modes. It also seems somewhat counterintuitive that the mode won't start without a required amount of real players, even though it focuses mostly on fighting AI opponents.

Lastly, a major complaints is that Battlefield Portal was promised to offer full XP, even against bots, but that was removed when they attempted to remove XP farming from the mode. So this new playlist seems like the community meeting them in the middle, according to forum feedback. A different user describes this mode as the developers "dropping the ball so hard, I had great enjoyment in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Will Changes Occur?

Should Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with Battlefield 6, it is that they're paying attention and acting on player input. Assignments being too difficult were adjusted rapidly, just like the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, should analytics shows this new playlist is underperforming to their standards, they won't be shy to make further modifications.