🔗 Share this article

Recently, the game developers introduced a new game mode titled Casual Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but includes a few notable adjustments:

• Every squad has just 8 real players, with the remaining filled by AI-controlled opponents.
• Actions done by human gamers grant full XP, while bot actions offer lower rewards.
• Just a pair of maps can be played: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, accolades, and stat tracking have been turned off.

In short, this mode delivers on its name: it's a laid-back take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think there's nothing wrong, as it provides additional choices for gamers seeking alternative methods to enjoy the game. But, if video games has shown one thing, it is that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, a lot of Battlefield 6 players are upset.

Player Reactions: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer real players. Avoid making the errors of your competitors," reads a response to the mode reveal. "Truly disappointing concept," says a different user. Meanwhile, in community forums, one user notes, "It's unclear where we are going with this game," while someone else details everything they consider to be broken in the game: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. 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 very fun to warm up, real players keep it from being a complete grind but it's quite laid-back," says a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are players who have lives and don't play this title all the time. Allow them to find a middle ground," adds another. One reply via social media clarifies that as they're "a parent gamer with limited time, this is perfect for me," and someone else praises the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Criticisms and Player Input

All that said, players have constructive reasons to criticize the new mode. A few folks have pointed out 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 current modes. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode won't start without a minimum number of human gamers, despite it focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Lastly, one of the biggest complaints is that Battlefield Portal was meant to provide complete rewards, even against bots, but that got canned when they attempted to remove bot farms from the mode. Thus this new playlist seems like the community meeting them in the middle, according to forum feedback. Another describes this addition as the devs "making a mistake so hard, I experienced so much fun in the first couple of days, why did they feel the need to adjust it?"

Future Prospects: Will Changes Occur?

If the development team has demonstrated something so far with Battlefield 6, it is that they're listening and acting on feedback. Assignments being too difficult got fixed very quickly, as did the specific battle pass objectives. Chances are that, if their data indicates this recent mode is underperforming to their expectations, they won't be shy to change it again.