Battlefield 6's Relaxed Playlist Ignites Heated Discussions Over Bots, Experience Points, and Queue Times

Over the weekend, the game developers introduced a new game mode called Relaxed Breakthrough. In essence, this option resembles the regular Breakthrough format but features a few notable adjustments:

  • Every squad includes just 8 human participants, with the remaining made up of AI-controlled opponents.
  • Activities done by real players grant complete experience points, while AI activities offer lower rewards.
  • Just a pair of locations are available: Siege of Cairo and Empire State.
  • Elements like Player tags, achievements, and career stat updates are disabled.

In short, the playlist delivers on its name: it offers a laid-back take of Breakthrough. On the surface, you might think there's nothing wrong, as it provides additional choices for players seeking alternative ways to have fun with the game. But, if video games has shown one thing, it is that not everyone will be happy. Which is to say, many Battlefield 6 fans are mad.

Community Responses: Anger to Praise

"Gamers prefer human opponents. Avoid making the mistakes of your rivals," reads one reply to the mode reveal. "Truly disappointing concept," comments another. Meanwhile, in community forums, one user notes, "It's unclear where we are headed with this title," while someone else details all the issues they believe to be broken in the game: "Fix bugs, fix drone glitch, fix IVF rockets, fix [the] bloom after sprinting bug, fix awful hit registration. We do not require this AI-heavy playlist."

On the other hand, amid the criticism, some gamers explaining how much they're liking the new mode. "It's very fun to warm up, human participants prevent it from being a total farmfest but it's quite laid-back," reads one Reddit comment. "The community doesn't understand that there are players who have lives and don't play this game all the time. Let them find a middle ground," states another. One reply on Twitter clarifies that as they're "a battledad with busy schedules, this is great for me," while another praises the mode for "avoiding intense competition."

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 queue times more extended for other modes because of the large amount of playlists currently available. On a similar note, some areas already encounter AI-filled matches 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 focuses mostly on combat against bots.

Finally, one of the biggest complaints is that a previous feature was meant to offer complete rewards, including AI matches, but that got canned when they tried to remove XP farming from the system. So Casual Breakthrough seems like the player base meeting them in the middle, as per a Reddit comment. A different user labels this addition as the devs "making a mistake so hard, I experienced great enjoyment in the initial release, what prompted them to change it?"

Future Prospects: Adjustments Be Made?

If Battlefield Studios has demonstrated something to date with the latest installment, it is that they're paying attention and responding to feedback. Tasks that were overly hard got fixed rapidly, as did the specific battle pass objectives. It is likely that, should analytics shows this new playlist is underperforming to their expectations, they will not hesitate to change it again.

Michelle Cantrell
Michelle Cantrell

A passionate gamer and tech writer with over a decade of experience covering industry trends and game development.