🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a new game mode titled Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but features several notable changes:

• Each team has only 8 real players, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
• Actions done by real players grant full XP, while AI activities provide reduced XP.
• Only two maps are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
• Features like Dogtags, achievements, and career stat updates are disabled.

So essentially, this mode delivers on its name: 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 different methods to have fun with the game. However, gaming history has shown one thing, it's that not everyone will be happy. In other words, many BF6 fans are mad.

Player Responses: From Fury to Support

"Gamers prefer real players. Don't repeat the errors of your competitors," states one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," comments a different user. Meanwhile, in community forums, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are going with this title," and someone else details all the issues they consider to be broken in the game: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this AI-heavy playlist."

On the other hand, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're enjoying the new mode. "It's enjoyable to warm up, human participants prevent it from being a complete grind but it's very relaxed," reads one Reddit comment. "This subreddit fails to see that there are players who have lives and don't play this game all the time. Let them find a middle ground," adds a different comment. A response via social media explains that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is great for me," and someone else praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Criticisms and Player Input

All that said, there are valid points to complain about Casual Breakthrough. Some users have highlighted that it could increase wait times even longer for different playlists because of the sheer number of options currently available. Similarly, some areas already encounter 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 focuses mostly on fighting AI opponents.

Finally, a major grievances is that a previous feature was promised to provide full XP, even against bots, but that was removed when they attempted to eliminate bot farms from the mode. So this new playlist seems like the community compromising in the middle, as per a Reddit comment. A different user describes this mode as the developers "making a mistake significantly, I experienced great enjoyment in the initial release, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Future Prospects: Will Changes Be Made?

If Battlefield Studios has proven anything to date with the latest installment, it is that they're paying attention and acting on player input. Tasks that were overly hard were adjusted very quickly, as did the specific battle pass objectives. It is likely that, should analytics shows this recent mode isn't performing to their expectations, they won't be shy to make further modifications.