🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a new game mode called Casual Breakthrough. In essence, this option resembles the regular Breakthrough setup but includes several key adjustments:

• Each team has just eight real players, with the remaining made up of 32 bots.
• Activities done by human gamers grant complete experience points, while AI activities offer reduced XP.
• Just a pair of locations are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, achievements, and stat tracking are disabled.

In short, the playlist delivers on its title: it offers a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, one could assume it's a good idea, since it provides additional choices for gamers seeking alternative methods to enjoy the title. But, gaming history have taught us anything, it's that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, a lot of BF6 fans are mad.

Player Responses: From Fury to Praise

"People want human opponents. Don't repeat the mistakes of your competitors," states one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking idea," comments another. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player remarks, "It's unclear where we are headed with this game," and another details all the issues they consider to be problematic in Battlefield 6: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, fix IVF rockets, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this AI-heavy playlist."

On the other hand, for every complaint, some gamers sharing how much they're liking the recent addition. "It's very fun to warm up, real players keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," reads one Reddit comment. "The community fails to see that there are players who actually go outside and don't play this game 24/7. Allow them to strike a balance," states another. A response on Twitter explains that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is great for me," while someone else praises the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Criticisms and Community Feedback

Despite the support, players have constructive reasons to complain about Casual Breakthrough. A few folks have pointed out that it will make wait times more extended for other modes because of the sheer number of playlists currently available. Similarly, some areas often face AI-filled matches in the current modes. Additionally, it appears somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of human gamers, despite it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.

Lastly, one of the biggest complaints is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide full XP, including AI matches, but that got canned when they attempted to eliminate XP farming from the system. Thus this new playlist feels like the community meeting them in the middle, according to forum feedback. A different user describes this addition as the developers "making a mistake so hard, I had great enjoyment in the initial release, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Will Changes Be Made?

Should Battlefield Studios has proven anything to date with the latest installment, it is that they're listening and responding to player input. Tasks being too difficult got fixed very quickly, just like the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, should analytics shows this new playlist isn't performing to their expectations, they won't be shy to change it again.