🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, the game developers introduced a fresh game mode called Casual Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option resembles the standard Breakthrough format but includes several notable adjustments:

• Every squad includes only 8 human participants, with the remaining filled by AI-controlled opponents.
• Actions performed by human gamers award full XP, while AI activities provide lower rewards.
• Just a pair of maps are available: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
• Elements like Player tags, achievements, and career stat updates have been turned off.

So essentially, the playlist delivers on its name: it's a laid-back version of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think it's a good idea, since it gives additional choices for gamers looking for different ways to enjoy the game. However, if video games have taught us anything, it's that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are mad.

Player Responses: From Fury to Praise

"Gamers prefer human opponents. Avoid making the errors of your competitors," reads one reply to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking concept," says another. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player remarks, "It's unclear where we are headed with this game," and another lists everything they consider to be problematic in the game: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, improve hit detection. We don't need this bot mode."

However, amid the criticism, there are players sharing how much they're enjoying the recent addition. "It's enjoyable to practice, human participants prevent it from being a complete grind but it's very relaxed," says one Reddit comment. "This subreddit doesn't understand that there are gamers who have lives and can't play this game 24/7. Let them find a middle ground," adds a different comment. One reply via social media explains that as they're "a parent gamer with busy schedules, this is perfect for me," and another applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Criticisms and Player Input

All that said, players have valid points to criticize the new mode. A few folks have pointed out that it will make wait times even longer for other modes due to the sheer number of playlists currently available. On a similar note, some areas often face mostly bots in the existing playlists. It also seems a little backwards that the mode won't start without a minimum number of human gamers, even though it focuses mostly on fighting AI opponents.

Finally, one of the biggest 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. So Casual Breakthrough seems like the player base compromising halfway, as per forum feedback. Another labels this mode as the devs "dropping the ball so hard, I had great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"

Future Prospects: Will Changes Be Made?

Should the development team has proven anything so far with Battlefield 6, it's that they're listening and responding to feedback. Tasks being too difficult were adjusted very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, should analytics indicates this recent mode isn't performing to their standards, they will not hesitate to make further modifications.