🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, the game developers launched a new game mode called Casual Breakthrough. In essence, this option mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but features a few key adjustments:

• Every squad includes just 8 human participants, with the rest filled by AI-controlled opponents.
• Actions done by human gamers grant full XP, while AI activities offer reduced XP.
• Only two maps can be played: Cairo Siege and Empire State.
• Elements like Dogtags, achievements, and stat tracking are disabled.

In short, this mode lives up to its title: it's a laid-back take of Breakthrough. At face value, you might think it's a good idea, as it provides more options for gamers looking for different ways to enjoy the game. But, gaming history has shown one thing, it's that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, many Battlefield 6 players are mad.

Community Responses: From Fury to Praise

"People want human opponents. Avoid making the mistakes of your competitors," reads one reply to the mode reveal. "Absolutely shocking concept," says another. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, one user notes, "It's unclear where we are going with this game," and another details all the issues they consider to be problematic in the game: "Fix bugs, address drone issues, correct rocket mechanics, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this AI-heavy playlist."

On the other hand, amid the criticism, some gamers explaining how much they're liking the recent addition. "It's very fun to warm up, real players prevent it from being a total farmfest but it's quite laid-back," reads a forum post. "This subreddit fails to see that there are players who have lives and can't play this title all the time. Allow them to find a middle ground," adds another. One reply via social media explains that as they're "a battledad with limited time, this is perfect for me," and another praises the mode for "not being overcompetitive."

Constructive Criticisms and Community Feedback

All that said, there are constructive reasons to criticize Casual Breakthrough. Some users have pointed out that it could increase wait times even longer for different playlists because of the sheer number of playlists in the game already. On a similar note, certain regions already encounter AI-filled matches in the current modes. It also seems somewhat counterintuitive that the mode does not begin without a minimum number of human gamers, despite it primarily centers on fighting AI opponents.

Lastly, a major grievances is that a previous feature was promised to provide full XP, even against bots, but that was removed when they tried to remove XP farming from the system. So this new playlist feels like the community compromising halfway, according to a Reddit comment. A different user labels this mode as the developers "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?

If the development team has demonstrated something so far with the latest installment, it is that they're listening and acting on feedback. Assignments that were overly hard got fixed very quickly, as did the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, if their data shows this recent mode is underperforming to their standards, they will not hesitate to change it again.