🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a fresh playlist called Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this mode mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but features a few key changes:

• Each team includes just eight real players, with the rest filled by AI-controlled opponents.
• Activities done by human gamers grant complete experience points, while AI activities offer reduced XP.
• Only two maps are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
• Elements like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking have been turned off.

In short, the playlist delivers on its name: it offers a laid-back version of Breakthrough. On the surface, one could assume there's nothing wrong, as it gives more options for players seeking different methods to enjoy the title. But, if video games have taught us anything, it's that you can't please everyone. Which is to say, many BF6 players are upset.

Community Responses: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer real players. Avoid making the errors of your competitors," reads one reply to the mode reveal. "Truly disappointing concept," comments another. At the same time, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player remarks, "It's unclear where we are going with this game," while someone else details all the issues they consider to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, improve hit detection. We do not require this bot mode."

On the other hand, for every complaint, some gamers explaining how much they're enjoying the new mode. "It's enjoyable to practice, real players prevent it from being a complete grind but it's very relaxed," says a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are gamers who actually go outside and can't play this game all the time. Allow them to find a middle ground," states another. A response via social media explains that as they're "a battledad with limited time, this is great for me," while another applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Concerns and Community Feedback

Despite the support, players have valid points to criticize the new mode. A few folks have pointed out that it will make wait times even longer for different playlists due to the sheer number of options in the game already. Similarly, some areas often face mostly bots in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode won't start without a required amount of real players, despite it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Lastly, one of the biggest grievances is that Battlefield Portal was meant to offer complete rewards, even against bots, but that was removed when they tried to remove XP farming from the system. Thus this new playlist seems like the player base compromising halfway, as per a Reddit comment. A different user labels this addition as the devs "making a mistake significantly, I had so much fun in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Future Prospects: Will Changes Be Made?

Should the development team has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it is that they're paying attention and responding to feedback. Assignments being too difficult were adjusted very quickly, just like the required Redsec challenges. It is likely that, should analytics shows this new playlist isn't performing to their standards, they will not hesitate to change it again.