Let me begin by saying after several days of playing, I really love this game. The gameplay is great and I’ve had a lot of fun, and a lot of competitive matches.
That being said, there are some glaring matchmaking issues that need to be addressed and fixed.
Begining games with uneven teams: Currently, there are enough players online that you would assume all games could fill. Yet I have had countless games begin with one side having more players than the other. In many cases this isn’t a huge issue because of JIP; but in games such as objective the team with extra players can control the game and it is too late. This has occurred to be both ways (winning and losing) and quite frankly even winning that way isn’t worth it because it is no challenge at all. I believe no game should begin without an even amount of players.
Even when there are even amounts of players, games do not always split the teams evenly. I was in a TS Pro game with 6 players; My party was 3 people. Instead of going in 3v3; the game began 4v2. This makes no sense. Even teams were possible, yet the system ignored it. Similarly, I had a game begin 3v3, which should be marked as unjoinable; because teams are even, but the opposing team was given an extra player mid-game. We were never given an extra player and were playing 3v4 most of the game.
Do not split up parties: This may be the most irritating; I go in with a party of 4 in TS Pro, and we are split up between the two different teams. I believe this only occurs during JIP, however this still should not happen. I am with my friends who I want to play with, not against, putting us into a new game should be easy, especially when there are 4 of us; but even if there’s only 2 of us, we should still stay together.
Join in progress should be removed: Personally I think it should go from all games; but at the very least there should be a score differential that should stop it from occurring (maybe there is?). I joined a game that my team was down 10 kills with 15 kills to go; in infinity slayer. I had no chance because everyone else had better weapons at this point and my team was bound to lose. There is also something about starting from scratch and going into a game with 4v4 and everything is even that is what Halo has always been about. With JIP, that goes away, even just starting down 3 kills removes that aspect in a small sense.
Again, I love the game so far, but the matchmaking system has me highly irritated. I know I can stay in the same game with the same people over and over, but people leave and it doesn’t fill, so the problem still occurs. It also is not what I enjoy, I want a new competition every game, or else I would play with 8 friends.