🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a new game mode called Casual Breakthrough. In essence, this mode resembles the standard Breakthrough setup but features several notable changes:

• Every squad includes just 8 real players, with the remaining filled by 32 bots.
• Activities performed by human gamers grant complete experience points, while bot actions offer reduced XP.
• Just a pair of locations can be played: Siege of Cairo and Empire State map.
• Elements like Player tags, achievements, and career stat updates have been turned off.

So essentially, this mode delivers on its name: it's a casual take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think it's a good idea, since it provides additional choices for gamers seeking alternative ways to enjoy the title. But, if video games has shown one thing, it is that you can't please everyone. In other words, many BF6 players are upset.

Player Reactions: Anger to Support

"People want human opponents. Avoid making the mistakes of your competitors," reads one reply to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," comments another. At the same time, in community forums, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are going with this game," while another details everything they consider to be problematic in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, correct rocket mechanics, adjust aiming after sprinting, fix awful hit registration. We do not require this bot mode."

However, for every complaint, there are players sharing how much they're liking the new mode. "It's enjoyable to warm up, real players prevent it from being a total farmfest but it's quite laid-back," says a forum post. "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," adds another. One reply on Twitter explains that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is great for me," and another applauds the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Concerns and Player Feedback

All that said, players have valid points to complain about the new mode. A few folks have highlighted that it could increase queue times even longer for different playlists because of the large amount of options 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 does not begin without a required amount of real players, even though it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.

Finally, one of the biggest grievances is that a previous feature was promised to provide complete rewards, even against bots, but that got canned when they attempted to eliminate XP farming from the system. Thus Casual Breakthrough feels like the player base meeting them in the middle, according to a Reddit comment. Another describes this mode as the developers "making a mistake so hard, I had great enjoyment in the first couple of days, what prompted them to change it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Occur?

If the development team has demonstrated something to date with Battlefield 6, it is that they're listening and responding to player input. Tasks that were overly hard were adjusted rapidly, just like the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, if their data indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their standards, they won't be shy to make further modifications.