🔗 Share this article

Over the weekend, Battlefield Studios introduced a fresh game mode called Casual Breakthrough. To put it simply, this option mirrors the standard Breakthrough setup but includes a few notable adjustments:

• Each team includes only eight human participants, with the remaining filled by 32 bots.
• Actions done by human gamers award full XP, while AI activities offer lower rewards.
• Just a pair of maps are available: Cairo Siege and Empire State map.
• Features like Dogtags, achievements, and stat tracking have been turned off.

So essentially, this mode lives up to its title: it's a laid-back version of Breakthrough. On the surface, you might think it's a good idea, since it provides more options for players looking for different methods to have fun with the title. However, if video games have taught us anything, it's that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, many Battlefield 6 fans are mad.

Community Reactions: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer real players. Avoid making the errors of your competitors," states a response to the official announcement. "Absolutely shocking concept," comments a different user. Meanwhile, on the Battlefield subreddit, a player notes, "I have no idea where we are going with this game," while someone else details everything they consider to be broken in Battlefield 6: "Resolve glitches, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We don't need this bot mode."

On the other hand, amid the criticism, some gamers sharing how much they're liking the new mode. "It's enjoyable to practice, real players prevent it from being a total farmfest but it's quite laid-back," says one Reddit comment. "This subreddit doesn't understand that there are gamers who actually go outside and can't play this game all the time. Let them find a middle ground," adds another. A response on Twitter clarifies that as they're "a parent gamer with busy schedules, this is perfect for me," while someone else applauds the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

Valid Concerns and Community Input

All that said, players have valid points to criticize Casual Breakthrough. Some users have highlighted that it will make queue times even longer for other modes due to the large amount of options in the game already. Similarly, certain regions often face mostly bots in the current modes. Additionally, it appears a little backwards that the mode does not begin without a required amount of human gamers, even though it primarily centers on combat against bots.

Finally, one of the biggest complaints is that a previous feature was promised to offer complete rewards, even against bots, but that got canned when they attempted to remove bot farms from the system. So Casual Breakthrough feels like the player base meeting them in the middle, according to forum feedback. A different user describes this addition as the developers "making a mistake significantly, I experienced great enjoyment in the first couple of days, what prompted them to adjust it?"

Looking Ahead: Adjustments Be Made?

If Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something so far with the latest installment, it is that they're listening and acting on player input. Tasks that were overly hard were adjusted very quickly, just like the required Redsec challenges. Chances are that, should analytics shows this recent mode isn't performing to their standards, they won't be shy to change it again.