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Over the weekend, the game developers launched a new game mode titled Relaxed Breakthrough. To put it simply, this mode mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but features a few notable adjustments:

• Every squad has only eight real players, with the rest made up of 32 bots.
• Activities done by human gamers grant full XP, while bot actions offer reduced XP.
• Just a pair of maps can be played: Cairo Siege and Empire State map.
• Features like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking are disabled.

So essentially, the playlist lives up to its title: it's a casual take of Breakthrough. On the surface, you might think it's a good idea, as it provides more options for players looking for alternative methods to enjoy the game. But, if video games has shown one thing, it's that you can't please everyone. In other words, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are upset.

Player Responses: Anger to Support

"People want human opponents. Avoid making the mistakes of your competitors," reads a response to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking concept," comments a different user. Meanwhile, in community forums, one user notes, "I have no idea where we are going with this game," and someone else details all the issues they believe to be broken in the game: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this bot mode."

However, amid the criticism, there are players explaining 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 find a middle ground," adds another. A response on Twitter explains that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is great for me," while someone else applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Valid Concerns and Player Feedback

All that said, there are valid points to criticize the new mode. A few folks have pointed out that it will make queue times even longer for other modes because of the large amount of playlists in the game already. Similarly, some areas already encounter AI-filled matches in the existing playlists. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a required amount of human gamers, despite it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Lastly, one of the biggest complaints is that Battlefield Portal was promised to offer full XP, including AI matches, but that was removed when they tried to eliminate bot farms from the system. So this new playlist seems like the player base meeting them in the middle, as per a Reddit comment. Another labels this addition as the developers "dropping the ball significantly, I experienced so much fun in the initial release, why did they feel the need to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

If the development team has demonstrated something to date with the latest installment, it's that they're listening and responding to feedback. Assignments that were overly hard were adjusted rapidly, as did the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, if their data indicates this new playlist is underperforming to their standards, they won't be shy to change it again.