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Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios launched a new playlist titled Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the regular Breakthrough setup but features a few notable changes:

• Each team includes only 8 real players, with the remaining filled by 32 bots.
• Actions performed by real players grant full XP, while bot actions provide reduced XP.
• Just a pair of maps are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Features like Player tags, accolades, and stat tracking have been turned off.

In short, the playlist lives up to its name: it's a laid-back take of Breakthrough. On the surface, one could assume there's nothing wrong, as it provides additional choices for players seeking different methods to have fun with the title. However, if video games has shown one thing, it's that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, many Battlefield 6 fans are upset.

Community Responses: Anger to Praise

"People want human opponents. Don't repeat the errors of your rivals," reads one reply to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking concept," says a different user. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, one user notes, "It's unclear where we are going with this title," while someone else details all the issues they believe to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this bot mode."

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 total farmfest but it's very relaxed," reads a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are gamers who have lives and don't play this game all the time. Allow them to find a middle ground," adds another. A response via social media clarifies that as they're "a parent gamer with busy schedules, this is perfect for me," while someone else applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Valid Concerns and Community Input

Despite the support, players have constructive reasons to complain about Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have highlighted that it will make queue times more extended for other modes due to the large amount of options currently available. On a similar note, some areas already encounter mostly bots in the current modes. It also seems a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of real players, even though it primarily centers on combat against bots.

Lastly, a major complaints is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide complete rewards, even against bots, but that was removed when they tried to remove XP farming from the mode. Thus this new playlist seems like the player base meeting them in the middle, according to forum feedback. Another describes this addition as the developers "dropping the ball significantly, I experienced great enjoyment in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

Should Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with Battlefield 6, it is that they're paying attention and responding to feedback. Assignments that were overly hard were adjusted rapidly, just like the specific battle pass objectives. It is likely that, should analytics shows this new playlist is underperforming to their standards, they won't be shy to make further modifications.