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Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios launched a new game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option resembles the standard Breakthrough setup but includes several notable adjustments:

• Every squad has just 8 human participants, with the remaining filled by AI-controlled opponents.
• Actions done by human gamers award complete experience points, while bot actions provide lower rewards.
• Only two locations can be played: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Features like Player tags, achievements, and stat tracking have been turned off.

In short, this mode delivers on its name: it's a laid-back version of Breakthrough. On the surface, you might think there's nothing wrong, since it provides additional choices for players looking for alternative methods to have fun with the title. However, if video games have taught us anything, it is that not everyone will be happy. In other words, a lot of BF6 players are upset.

Community Responses: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer human opponents. Avoid making the errors of your rivals," states a response to the official announcement. "Truly disappointing idea," comments another. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player remarks, "I have no idea where we are going with this title," while someone else lists all the issues they believe to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, improve hit detection. We don't need this bot mode."

However, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're liking the recent addition. "It's enjoyable to practice, real players keep it from being a total farmfest but it's very relaxed," says one Reddit comment. "This subreddit doesn't understand that there are players who have lives and can't play this title all the time. Allow them to strike a balance," adds a different comment. A response on Twitter explains that as they're "a parent gamer with busy schedules, this is perfect for me," while another applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Valid Criticisms and Player Input

All that said, players have constructive reasons to complain about Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have pointed out that it will make queue times more extended for other modes due to the sheer number of playlists in the game already. Similarly, certain regions already encounter mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode won't start without a required amount of human gamers, despite it focuses mostly on fighting AI opponents.

Lastly, one of the biggest grievances is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide full XP, including AI matches, but that got canned when they tried to remove XP farming from the mode. So this new playlist seems like the community meeting them halfway, according to a Reddit comment. A different user labels this addition as the devs "making a mistake so hard, I experienced great enjoyment in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Occur?

Should Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with Battlefield 6, it's that they're listening and acting on player input. Tasks that were overly hard got fixed very quickly, as did the specific battle pass objectives. Chances are that, should analytics indicates this recent mode isn't performing to their expectations, they won't be shy to change it again.