🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a new game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough format but features several key changes:

• Every squad has only 8 human participants, with the rest filled by AI-controlled opponents.
• Actions performed by real players grant full XP, while bot actions provide reduced XP.
• Just a pair of locations are available: Cairo Siege and Empire State map.
• Features like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking are disabled.

In short, this mode lives up to its title: it offers a casual take of Breakthrough. On the surface, one could assume there's nothing wrong, as it gives more options for gamers seeking different 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 Battlefield 6 players are mad.

Player Responses: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer real players. Don't repeat the errors of your rivals," reads a response to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking idea," says another. Meanwhile, in community forums, one user notes, "I have no idea where we are headed with this game," and another details all the issues they consider to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Fix bugs, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We do not require this bot mode."

On the other hand, amid the criticism, some gamers sharing how much they're enjoying the recent addition. "It's enjoyable to warm up, human participants keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," says one Reddit comment. "This subreddit doesn't understand that there are players who have lives and can't play this game all the time. Allow them to strike a balance," adds another. One reply on Twitter explains that as they're "a battledad with limited time, this is perfect for me," and another applauds the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Concerns and Community Input

All that said, players have constructive reasons to complain about the new mode. Some users have pointed out that it will make wait times even longer for different playlists due to the large amount of playlists currently available. On a similar note, some areas often face mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode won't start without a required amount of real players, despite it primarily centers on combat against bots.

Lastly, a major grievances is that a previous feature was promised to offer complete rewards, even against bots, but that got canned when they tried to eliminate XP farming from the mode. Thus this new playlist seems like the player base compromising in the middle, as per forum feedback. A different user labels this mode as the developers "making a mistake significantly, I had great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Will Changes Be Made?

Should the development team has proven anything to date with the latest installment, it's that they're listening and acting on feedback. Tasks being too difficult got fixed rapidly, as did the specific battle pass objectives. It is likely that, should analytics shows this new playlist isn't performing to their expectations, they will not hesitate to change it again.