I've been playing for about a week now, which I admit is not a lot, but the matchmaking in this game seems almost broken. I've played about 50 matches, mostly in the Arena, but a few in Warzone, and I've had about three close matches. Every other game has been a complete landslide for one side or the other. Like, 50-12 in Slayer, or 5-0 in CTF, or 100-7 in the capture point mode. It's not fun to be on either side of those games. Losing because you're completely outmatched is frustrating, and beating up on a group who can barely move and shoot is boring.

I've also had games where it seems like the opposing team is all in one fireteam, and my team is four solo players. That seems like something that shouldn't happen since the group used to playing as a team will have a huge advantage.

Finally, people seem to quit as soon as things start going bad. I've had several Slayer matches where it's been 2 vs 4 by about two minutes into the match. I've had even more where someone drops about a minute into the match or before the match even starts. With such small teams, losing even one person makes it difficult to compete. Are there not penalties for quitting? If there are, they should be a lot harsher. Also, why doesn't it replace players who drop with someone else or rebalance the teams?

Sorry if this is a bit ranty, but this is the first time I've tried to get into Halo multiplayer and it's been a terrible experience. It's super frustrating because the underlying game is very fun, but the matchmaking just doesn't seem to do a very good job of creating balanced matches.

Lolwat. That's how ALL multiplayer games work, especially Halo. You should get "rekt" if that's the case. Also, it's the holidays. A bunch of people, including yourself it seems, just got Halo so they're jumping in for the first time. Of course those type of players are going to lose against those that have been playing for two months.

Not to sound like a dick, but basically... get better kid.

I don't think new players should be getting matched against those who have been playing for two months. There is a huge player base for this game, it shouldn't be that hard to match people of similar skill levels and experience so that the games are fun.

As for the fireteam thing, groups of four people in a fireteam should be matched up with another group of four in a fireteam. Four guys who play together all the time are just going to beat the hell out of a team who don't, that's not fun. Maybe it's just because the teams are so small in Halo that it seems way worse than other shooters.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not great at console shooters, but I had a lot of fun playing Titanfall last year and to a lesser extent Battlefront this year. You shouldn't have to be great at a game to have fun close matches, that's what matchmaking is supposed to solve. You also shouldn't have to slog through hours of awful matches before the game gets fun.

@cameron: Arena matches have a ranking system once you place. You have to play ten matches until you get a skill level rank. AFAIK it's fair game who you play against until you place. Warzone is unranked. Therefore casual. That's kinda the point of it.

Segregating the player base to groups and no groups is ridiculous. That means a group of four will just sit there for hours waiting to get matched against another group of four. That's not how games work, something something deal with it. Or get some friends that play Halo? Idk what to tell you bro. Don't play competitive Halo if you suck? You're just asking for a bad time. That, or it just sounds like Halo isn't for you.

@cameron: I don't actually thing there is as huge of a player base for Halo as you think, it seems a lot of people played it for a week then moved away from it, even faster then Halo 4's multiplayer took a dive, so you are going to largely be playing against people who have stuck with the game since it launched.

Also I'm not sure what you were expecting if you play solo multiplayer. When I played I only played solo multiplayer but I never got salty if a fire team beat my team, that is the difference communication makes. You could always try talking to your team...but being Xbox Live I would never want that. Splitting up groups based on Fireteams vs solo would just hurt matchmaking and I don't think any shooter has really ever done that, not one successful anyway.

The difference between Halo and Titanfall/Battlefront is the style of shooter. Halo is far more competitive even at it's base level, while Battlefront style games are just big versus battles that are more for the encounters then the game win.

@falconer: It's not about me being bad at the game. Maybe I am, but I've also been on the winning team that stomps the losing team a bunch of times. That's not fun either. Good matchmaking should be producing games of Slayer that go 50-45 or 50-40 most of the time. I have a rank in the Arena playlist (Gold 5), but that doesn't seem to make it any better. If so few people are playing this game that it would take hours to match up two groups of four, then this game has some serious population problems. You're probably right that Halo just isn't for me. I tried playing Halo 2 multiplayer back in the day and hated that too, but I thought this much time might have improved things.

@takayamasama: I didn't realize the player base had shrunk a lot, that would explain some of these problems. As for your other points, I was expecting solo play to be fun and balanced. Talking to people was a horrible experience as well. Mostly people yelling random crap, speaking (really yelling) Spanish, or talking to someone else in the room. I think you're right about the style of game being different. I'm used to playing games with much larger teams like Battlefield 1942, Titanfall, Battlefront, etc. If a few guys are coordinating in those games they will probably be at the top of their team, but they aren't usually going to make it almost impossible for the other team to win. You're very unlikely to run into a game of Titanfall where the entire opposing team is working together and chatting. I'm sure it happens, but I've never seen it. If Halo 5 is expecting me to be running with a group of friends to be competitive, then it's just not for me. I like to just jump into a match for 15 minutes as a break from other things, which isn't great for coordinating with three other people.

For me matchmaking was spotty as you suggest throughout my placement games. Once I was through the first 10 and in my tier, the matches evened out significantly. I'm now in competitive matches I'd say 90% of the time unless someone's AFK, which happens.